Workplace Wellbeing

How regular employee surveys can improve business performance

by Tanya Gray | Jan 9, 2023 | ConsultingHQ Blog, Employee Surveys, Workplace Wellbeing

Is it a good idea to do frequent employee surveys?

Contents

What is a pulse survey?
Regular Employee Surveys – what is involved?
Regular employee surveys can improve employee performance
Employee short surveys give employers better HR information
However frequent employee surveys do have some disadvantages
Inclusions for a good employee survey:
Benefits of high employee engagement
Are there any tools that can help with employee surveys and pulse checks?
Introducing the People Management Toolkit in EMS Hub

Short, regular employee surveys are called Pulse Checks, and are one of the different types of employee surveys an organisation can undertake.

What is a pulse survey?

An employee pulse check or survey is a fast and frequent survey system, that does away with complex questions and is intentionally designed to be undertaken more frequently than the commonly used employee engagement survey.

Pulse surveys can be held monthly or quarterly (even weekly) and provide employers with a quick insight into the health of a company, hence the name ‘pulse’.

Regular Employee Surveys – what is involved?

Pulse surveys are typically made up of only 5-15 targeted questions, and are very quick easy for people to respond to. They are useful because the feedback your employees give can help you decide which areas need improvement and form the basis of a regular measure of changes in employee engagement and satisfaction levels within your business.

Regular employee surveys can improve employee performance

Employee engagement increases – by asking your team regularly for their feedback, you are encouraging positive engagement which also provides benefits such as:
- Employee satisfaction. as employees become more engaged with their organisation, their job satisfaction levels rise, and they become more invested in the success of their organisation;
- Employee Productivity: employees that are more engaged are found to be the top performers in an organisation. With higher motivation, they are driven to succeed;
- Employee Retention: employees are far more likely to stay with an organisation when they are engaged and satisfied with their current job; and

Profitability: when employees are more engaged, they tend to have higher profitability rates as they are more productive and motivated to be successful.

Employee short surveys give employers better HR information

More relevant feedback – as pulse surveys are sent out regularly, you are getting a better look at how things are going ‘right now’ in the business rather than waiting each year to gain insights.
Culture – a happier, more positive culture is created in an organisation that is focused on listening to their people and actively working on initiatives to improve engagement.
Motivation – based on the responses you get from ongoing, regular pulse surveys you will have a better understanding of what motivates your people throughout the year.
Quick and easy to complete – because they are short and sweet, these surveys are not time consuming and allow for employees to give their honest input in a timely matter. This means that participation rates are higher on pulse surveys than the less frequent alternatives.

Supports open communication – the ability to express your thoughts, concerns, and motivations is important in an organisation. By showing your people that you care to listen, they will feel more comfortable giving their honest feedback.

However frequent employee surveys do have some disadvantages

Employee surveys with high frequency can become less effective, as people begin to get ‘survey fatigue’.
Surveys should not be more frequent than fortnightly at most.
Poor communication and no follow-up – by running Pulse surveys employers are setting up expectations that ‘things will be done’. Therefore, because employees are putting in the effort to give their honest feedback, proper action must be taken after evaluating the feedback. If you do not do anything in response to what they say, they will be discouraged to providing their feedback in the future. Hence you need to ensure you have appropriate resources available to communicate with employees and act on their feedback (which is the expectation you are setting).

Inclusions for a good employee survey:

Select topics and questions you want to get feedback on e.g. choose 5-15 questions that you would like your employees to answer that will add value and insight to your business. These questions can cover a variety of topics, such as motivations, happiness, feelings about management, recognition, workload, job role, etc.
Develop a solid employee communication plan to run before, during and after the survey and ensure you stick to the plan.
Analyse the responses upon completion – look at areas that feedback has shown need to be improved, as well as reflecting on the positive areas.
Analyse trend data, showing how results in each key area is changing over time.
In accordance with your communication plan, share the results with employees in a timely manner.
Take action – this is the most important step! Develop an action plan that includes key dates and who the person is who is responsible for delivering each item.
Review and repeat – repeat pulse surveys regularly. Continue to review responses and see if progress is being made with the changes you implemented.

Benefits of high employee engagement

Fully engaged teams perform significantly better than less engaged teams.
Statistics show that 87% of employees worldwide are not engaged at work. Businesses with highly engaged employees have been proven to outperform those who do not significantly in earnings per share.
Teams that are highly engaged have cultures that are safe and empowering, which is reflected in increased wellness and wellbeing.
Given everything that our people have been through with Covid-19 over the last year or so, now is definitely a good time to do a pulse check with your team to see how they are currently feeling about their roles, communication, relationships, the work environment, and their general satisfaction.

Are there any tools that can help with employee surveys and pulse checks?

Although free tools such as Google Forms and SurveyMonkey are popular, they lend themselves to an ad-hoc approach to surveys rather than an integrated system that’s aligned with your organisational goals and needs. What’s more, with these generic tools you’re starting with a blank page and you need to devise the survey questions yourself.

Introducing the People Management Toolkit in EMS Hub

The tool we’ve developed and use for all types of employee surveys is the People Management Toolkit within EMS Hub, which is a powerful suite of HR software.

To help you get started with surveys, there are over 20 survey types to choose from in the People Management Toolkit, including:

Employee pulse checks
Longer employee surveys
Employee engagement surveys
Employee satisfaction surveys
Change management reviews
Exit interview surveys
HR audits
Annual performance reviews
Employee self reviews
Manager reviews.

Best of all, there are best-practice HR templates you can use and adapt. These will help you hit the ground running and save valuable time.

Plus there are reporting tools in the software, so you can check on the completion rate of surveys, and also run departmental and organisational rating reports. The results from your surveys will give you clear information for your decision making.

Find out more about the People Management Toolkit – or book a demo of the software to see what it could do for you.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

Staff surveys as a business tool

by Tanya Gray | Sep 29, 2021 | ConsultingHQ Blog, Employee Surveys, Workplace Wellbeing

Survey Questions For Employees

Contents

What questions should you ask in staff surveys?
Engagement or Satisfaction Surveys
Pulse Surveys
Health and Wellbeing Surveys
Employee Onboarding Survey
Diversity and Inclusion Strategy Survey
360 Review and Employee Peer Evaluation Survey
Exit Survey
A Word of Warning on Employee Surveys
Tips for Creating Effective Staff Surveys

What questions should you ask in staff surveys?

When you think about employee surveys, what generally springs to mind are the employee satisfaction and engagement surveys which many organisations administer on a regular basis, the aim of which is to measure and understand how employees are feeling about the company and the work environment.

While the engagement survey is valuable because of its potential to make a significant impact on employee satisfaction and employee engagement if done correctly, there are many other types of employee surveys that employers can also use to gather vital feedback on important employment related topics.

Surveys can be tailored to address nearly any issue the organisation wants input on and, if handled well, the information can have a significant impact on the retention and productivity of your most important resource – your employees.

Outlined here are brief details of several different types of employee surveys covering most aspects of the employee lifecycle

Engagement or Satisfaction Surveys

The engagement survey is the most common type of employee survey. They are often kept anonymous so employees can be frank and honest with their answers. Handled well, employee engagement/satisfaction surveys can be great tools for improving morale within an organisation. In fact, it’s generally seen that companies that encourage or engage their employees to provide ideas and suggestions have higher employee retention rates and job satisfaction.

Pulse Surveys

Regular, short surveys are called pulse checks. They are a fast and more frequent survey system, that does away with complex questions and is intentionally designed to be undertaken more often than the commonly used employee engagement survey. Pulse check surveys can be held monthly or quarterly (even weekly) and provide employers with a quick insight into the health of a company, hence the name ‘pulse’.

Health and Wellbeing Surveys

In these challenging times many people are working from home, or due to their work type they are not able to work at all. Therefore, checking on the health and wellbeing of your employees is essential. We recommend using the short pulse survey for this, so that you can gather feedback on their current state of mental and physical wellbeing. Example questions could be: how would you rate your wellbeing after X weeks of remote working so far; to what extent are you planning and engaging in activities to support your mental and physical wellbeing; what is helping you to successfully work from home; what additional support can we provide to help you successfully work from home; and how else can we help you at this time.

Employee Onboarding Survey

Creating a good onboarding experience for new hires is not a ‘nice-to-have’ process, it is crucial. A good onboarding survey asks new employees for their feedback on what went well, and what could have been improved. Don’t underestimate the importance of new employees feeling happy that their decision to join your company was the right one. We recommend that you take a 2-step approach to the onboarding survey with the new employee being asked to participate in short pulse type surveys in weeks one and five. Questions in the first survey are focused on the recruitment experience, their decision to choose your organisation and their initial onboarding experience. By week five when they get their second survey, they have had time to settle in and the ‘honeymoon period’ is pretty much over. They are asked to provide their thoughts about their overall induction programme, training, systems and support.

Diversity and Inclusion Strategy Survey

Building a workplace culture that prioritises belonging and inclusion is the best way to attract diverse and talented people, create a sustainable workforce, and—most importantly—make employees feel supported. Surveying employees on how they view the topics of inclusion, fairness, equity, respect, and diversity within your organisation can provide the crucial information you need to ensure you are engaging all employees. You can do this through specific pulse surveys or by incorporating pointed relevant questions in your general engagement survey. Example questions could be: All people have an opportunity to succeed in this organisation; I feel like I belong here; Senior leadership is prepared to effectively manage a culturally diverse workforce; and the people I work with treat each other with respect

360 Review and Employee Peer Evaluation Survey

A 360-degree survey is a process that solicits feedback on employee performance from several different sources: from managers, from peers, from reports, and from a self-assessment.

Exit Survey

In today’s knowledge economy, skilled employees are the asset that drives organisational success. Therefore, companies must learn from them—why they stay, why they leave, and how the organisation needs to adapt and change. A well thought out exit interview survey process can provide valuable information from departing employees, who usually feel comfortable providing frank and honest insights, which will help to improve the overall employee experience in future.

A Word of Warning on Employee Surveys

Employee surveys with high frequency can become less effective, as people begin to get ‘survey fatigue’.
Surveys should not be more frequent than fortnightly at most.
Poor communication and no follow-up – by running frequent surveys e.g., Pulse surveys, employers are setting up expectations that ‘things will be done’. Therefore, because employees are putting in the effort to give their honest feedback, proper action must be taken after evaluating the feedback. If you do not do anything in response to what they say, they will be discouraged to providing their feedback in the future. Hence you need to ensure you have appropriate resources available to communicate with employees and act on their feedback (which is the expectation you are setting).

Tips for Creating Effective Staff Surveys

Select topics and questions you want to get feedback on e.g., areas that will add value and insight to your business. These questions can cover a variety of topics, such as motivations, happiness, feelings about management, recognition, workload, job role, etc.
Develop a solid employee communication plan to run before, during and after the survey and ensure you stick to the plan.
Analyse the responses upon completion – look at areas that feedback has shown need to be improved, as well as reflecting on the positive areas.
Analyse trend data, showing how results in each key area is changing over time.
In accordance with your communication plan, share the results with employees in a timely manner.
Act – this is the most important step! Develop an action plan that includes key dates and who the person is who is responsible for delivering each item.
Review and repeat – pulse surveys need to be repeated regularly whereas the more comprehensive engagement surveys should be run annually.

ConsultingHQ has the expertise and experience needed to assist you with your employee surveys. If you would like to explore the possibilities of how employee surveys could benefit your business, please get in touch with Tanya Gray, Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

Managing employee engagement and productivity post COVID-19

by Tanya Gray | May 21, 2020 | ConsultingHQ Blog, Employee Engagement, Workplace Wellbeing

Managing Employee Engagement and Productivity Post COVID-19

Contents

Here are our recommended actions for employers in the early stages to reassure and refocus employees.
Speak to your team as a group and as individuals
Consider training & development opportunities
Enable input to innovation or pivot ideas
Be available

Managing Employee Engagement and Productivity Post COVID-19 – As many employees return to offices, employers should expect to notice some subtle changes in employee behaviour that may warrant focus for the early weeks back at work – particularly in light of potential restructures.

While the closedown has been stressful for employers, so also has the sudden separation from peers and adjustment to working remotely, in some cases under revised employment conditions & pay rates for your employees.

Employees are well aware of the challenges that employers face in the current uncertain environment – and they are aware of what that may mean for their future employment – creating a potentially stressful return to work environment for many.
Anxious employees are generally more distracted, make more errors and have less energy overall. This is a normal human response to increased levels of anxiety.

Here are our recommended actions for employers in the early stages to reassure and refocus employees.

Speak to your team as a group and as individuals

While this may be a drain on your time, employees are reliant on you for their income and they need to know where they stand.
Commence restructure conversations as soon as possible, and be decisive about your actions and communications in this area.
People would rather know and make plans than not know and worry. The processes for restructure and redundancy is clear – the consultation & communication process takes a number of weeks, so it really is better to get your plan sorted, then executed. Be sure you remain compliant with all processes – the regulations around employment remain in place as pre COVID. Employers are obliged to follow a process with consultation & consideration.

Consider training & development opportunities

In considering your succession plan and skill gap map as part of your overall restructure planning, a period of reduced productivity for your business may be an excellent time to consider skill training for some employees to close skill gaps and test aptitude in new areas.

Enable input to innovation or pivot ideas

While this process needs to be carefully managed for expectations, high performing employees will relish the opportunity to contribute to pivot concepts for your business – these employees have most likely spend some time considering areas of opportunity during the close down. It will be fantastic for them to brainstorm ideas under supervision – and who knows, some of the ideas might be fabulous suggestions that you had not yet considered.
Enforce your operational and behavioural standards
All your employees have been absent for a lengthy period. Make sure your standards of behaviour including dress code & working hours are back in place immediately – this will give employees a sense of ‘normal’ that will help them click back into gear.
This will be reasonably easy to slide into the conversation as you reinforce new distancing & tracking protocols in place for the return to work safely guidelines.

Be available

Unless you have a reason to be absent from the workplace – and of course distancing protocols will be required, but make sure you are available for your team. While employers have had a hugely stressful time – don’t forget your entire team has also been stressed – and many of them will have been worried about you, your business and their employment. Allow people to chat and reconnect with you in their own time.

Managing Employee Engagement and Productivity Post COVID-19

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HR advice on understanding work-life balance

by Tanya Gray | May 1, 2018 | ConsultingHQ Blog, HR Advice, Workplace Wellbeing

What does work-life balance mean to your team members?

Contents

What should you do when employees become overwhelmed by work?
What about when you feel taken advantage of?
How about work-life balance for business owners?

The term ‘work-life balance’ can mean different things when it comes to individual employees. The challenge for the business owner is in comprehending how the employee views this balance and in monitoring individual team members.

This is the very core of successful HR practices – allowing a customized definition of balance while not compromising your business objectives

For some, the balance may mean being allowed to start their day while others are still sleeping so as to be available for children getting off to school. For others, the balance may mean having a defined and definite finishing time for their day.

The key here is to consider the whole person you have employed and to allow them to work to their best ability & working style. Some people simply cannot sit at a desk for 8 hours and be productive – and some need to know that they can have their weekends & evenings free.

The one standard and universal metric for work-life balance are that both parties – employer and employee are comfortable with the arrangement and that the mutual goals are being met.

What should you do when employees become overwhelmed by work?

Sometimes an employer just needs to step in and reassign work. While there are many employees who will give their all and who are perfectly happy working at a high level 95% of the time, it is critical that the lines of communication remain open – so that the 5% where high-level output becomes stressful for the drivers, that they may step away. For these high output employees, you need to build a support structure and at the same time build a succession plan for their potential absence.

What about when you feel taken advantage of?

Similarly, at the other end of the scale, there are those employees who are constantly having home life dramas and requiring more flexibility than others. The only way to manage this is to have systems in place that track productivity and absenteeism. Being absent does not necessarily mean lack of productivity.

Again, lines of communication must be open and be transparent. Often the dividend of trusting employees to complete their work is respect and loyalty for the longer term.

How about work-life balance for business owners?

It can feel at times that the employees take all the balance, leaving the owner with all of the headaches. Always remember, as a self-employed person, you must have the discipline to also allow balance for your own life and family. Include in your employee work-life balance audit your own situation – you are in it for the long haul, so you absolutely must make it work for you! Appoint someone to monitor your own schedule and workload – it’s the best way to keep yourself in check.

Always remember the definition of balance is in the eye of the beholder – the true key to success in this arena is to find out how your employee views this aspect.

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Financial advantage to employee wellness schemes

by Tanya Gray | May 4, 2017 | ConsultingHQ Blog, Workplace Wellbeing

financia-advantage-to-employee-wellness-schemes-image

Financial Advantage to Employee Wellness Schemes

Contents

Employee Wellness Programmes that are successful generally include a number of aspects as follows:

Is there a financial gain to having a wellness programme in your business or is it just more cost? It’s a valid question.

Employee Assistance Programmes & Health & Wellness Programmes were not even around in the 1990s, but now even relatively small companies are considering them. Why … because they work!

Workplace Wellness is the buzz. The physical aspect of adding health and fitness related benefits to an employee’s package is obvious, but what about the return on the investment for the employer?

Evidence-based studies have been conducted and are showing that the financial gain to the employer is definitely apparent. Fewer sick days are observed, focus and productivity are both significantly improved with nutrition and fitness improvements – in turn increasing employee engagement and attitude.

Also apparent is that employees are beginning to consider non pay-related benefits as having increasing value, and are likely to stay longer where a wellness programme improves their working life. Diabetes sufferers, smokers and over-stressed people benefit hugely from the interest and investment in their health and wellness – and become more productive, more committed and longer term employees as a result.

Employee Wellness Programmes that are successful generally include a number of aspects as follows:

Physical fitness programmes, such as subsidised gym memberships, yoga classes or other fitness related pursuit.
Smoking cessation programmes – when in a company subsidised or funded programme, smokers are more likely to be successful in cessation, especially if there is more than one employee in the programme (note – you cannot make this a condition of employment, selection of the programme must be voluntary).
Enrolment in a nutrition or weight loss programme – those not actively working in the nutrition field will not appreciate how much diet and movement contributes to productivity, quality of sleep and general state of mind. Positive changes in nutrition is key to focus and work output.
Stress management programmes such as meditation, hypnosis or massage therapy – reducing stress levels to increase focus and quality of work output.

Some programmes include the use of, or contribution to, the cost of fitness measurement devices like Fitbits, and team challenges are commonly used to engage employees and boost overall team morale.

It’s a good idea to take measurements of key lifestyle factors at the outset of a programme to monitor progress, such as blood pressure, blood glucose levels, resting heart rate etc in order to measure physical gains – while also monitoring work outputs to monitor and measure work output changes.

There is no doubt that employees who feel valued will stay longer and remain increasingly engaged. Adding fitness and taking a genuine interest in their progress (and in your own), will only make this stronger.

Join the Wellness Trend, and look after your team (and yourself).

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