Employee happiness and engagement has always been important. Now, with the disruptions 2020 has brought, it’s even more critical to keep in touch with your humans. Finding out how happy they are in their work can make all the difference – including to productivity. Employee Happiness Surveys are just one way of getting the low-down on how happy your humans are.
Asking the right questions
Keeping the lines of communication open is vitally important, especially during these times. In a previous blog, we talk about how to ensure your employees feel heard. Generally, the first step is to ask the right questions. However, figuring out what these questions should be can be complicated. Let’s down the most important subjects you should cover.
1 – Growth and development
Very few people are completely satisfied doing exactly the same job their entire career. Most of your employees want to grow and progress in some way. This can include learning opportunities, the chance to manage a team, or various other ways. Do your employees feel like your company offers enough opportunities for growth and development? This section of your survey should cover these and other related questions.
2 – Culture
Company culture can be a complex minefield, as this is very perception-based. Some employees may find the culture welcoming, while others find it oppressive. It’s important not only to find out how they feel, but what aspects of the company culture specifically they find positive and negative. Your Employee Happiness Survey should include several questions about the company culture.
3 – Compensation and benefits
Let’s not pretend otherwise – none of your employees are doing their job purely for enjoyment of the work. Fair, equitable and adequate compensation, as well as associated benefits, are extremely important to most people. If your employees feel they aren’t fairly compensated, they won’t be happy, no matter how great the culture or anything else. Make sure to include a section in your Employee Happiness Survey that covers all aspects of salary, benefits and so on.
4 – Relationships
When last did you encounter a manager or co-worker you just couldn’t get along with? How unpleasant did it make your work environment? It’s critical to make sure none of your management team members are treating employees poorly. It’s also important to discover if there are unresolved conflicts between co-workers. Your employees’ relationships with each other, team leaders and management need to be considered in any employee survey. Uncovering toxic or negative relationships, and working to solve these issues, can boost employee happiness significantly.
5 – Work environment
Yes, we know, many people are working from home these days, but that doesn’t make this section any less important. In fact, it’s even more important as a result. Work environment doesn’t just cover the physical spaces your people work in. It also covers the perception of the company as a whole. The physical environment your employees work in is only a small part of their work environment. It can also include things like the company’s environmental policies, the products it produces, its ethics on certain matters, and many other factors.
How to compile an employee happiness survey
There are hundreds of articles online that will take you through lists of specific questions to ask. However, we believe in taking advantage of what’s already out there. Thankfully, there are several templates and platforms available that you can use as is, or customise to suit you.
Where to find templates:
Omnicor is a South African company that provides a range of surveys to measure employee engagement, among others. Try their locally developed Talent Engagement Survey.
SoGoSurvey is a US-based company that offers a variety of work-related surveys. This includes their Employee Experience Management surveys.
SurveyMonkey is one of the best-known survey template platforms, covering a wide range of topics. They offer a well-planned Employee Engagement Survey template.
At Tenaka, we believe that business should be centred around humans. That’s why we created the data-free platform to help you and your employees stay in touch, even when they don’t have data. It’s a platform suitable for everything from employee surveys to group messaging and one-on-one comms. Contact us for more information. We’re empowering engagement, to make work a great place to be.