Sears/Wills, the international travel aggregator, achieved a 1598 percent increase in its employee satisfaction score this year by making one simple change to its annual anonymous attitude survey: Employees are now required to sign the surveys.
“Everything is still anonymous,” says Myrna Pillings, the company’s VP of Human Resources. “All we ask is that employees provide their signatures.”
In 2022 the survey indicated that only 8 percent of employees were satisfied with their jobs. In 2023, the number dropped to 6 percent. “Obviously we had a problem and we needed to do something,” says Pillings.
With signatures required on the 2024 surveys, administered in June, satisfaction skyrocketed to a rate of 99.7 percent. Just one employee rated the company less than “outstanding.”
“A committee of vice presidents met with this individual and determined after intense questioning that he was probably not suited for his position and that his best option was to seek employment elsewhere,” says Pillings.
Before coming up with the survey change, Pillings says the company was considering several other options to improve satisfaction – including complimentary mints every Thursday, opening blinds for an hour a day to let in the sun, and a temporary moratorium on publicly berating under-performers.
“Signing the surveys was the simplest to implement,” says Pillings, “and also the most cost-effective.”
That, she says, is a “win win” for everyone.
