How are you doing?
How can I support you?
When was the last time you asked your team those questions?
They are two very important questions organisations are now realising they need to ask their employees regularly. They are questions that enable you to connect to and communicate that you value, understand, and care about them. And a great starting for point for your employee wellbeing survey.
Why consider running an employee wellbeing survey?
Let’s start at the beginning, why consider a wellbeing survey for your employees? The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development says “Fostering employee wellbeing is good for people and the organisation. Promoting wellbeing can help prevent stress and create positive working environments where individuals and organisations can thrive. Good health and wellbeing can be a core enabler of employee engagement and organisational performance.”
Without knowing how your employees are now, how will you know what to change; and when improvements are made?
There are three key steps for fostering a good employee wellbeing strategy
1 Be present,
2 Be curious, and
3 Seize small daily opportunities to connect.
Why is an Employee Wellness Strategy important?
Individual well-being initiatives have the potential to make a significant impact on employees, however, when these initiatives are merged to form a strategy, the longer-term benefits to the employee – and the employer – are magnified.
A study by Willis Towers Watson found 86% of UK employers believe wellbeing is a key component of a positive employee experience. In 2020, a Health and wellbeing at work survey by CIPD and Simplyhealth identified the top three benefits of employers increasing their focus on employee wellbeing:
• Better employee morale and engagement.
• A healthier and more inclusive culture.
• Lower sickness absence.
“Employers have a fundamental duty of care for the physical and mental health and wellbeing of their workers. However, research shows that despite more organisations stepping up their efforts, half still don’t have a standalone wellbeing strategy.” CIPD.
Take the guesswork out of what initiatives to focus on to make effective employee-directed change.
Instant feedback makes it easier to keep up in dynamic environments where change happens quickly.
Read More
What does an employee wellness strategy look like?
Employee wellness strategies are as individual as the people within your organisation – this is not an off-the-shelf solution. It is important to truly understand your own people in your own spaces (physical or virtual). That way you can craft a solution to suit you and your teams’ needs.
Once you have this insight you can create a framework to promote good mental wellbeing, in which employees feel confident talking about mental health and reaching out for support when needed.
Carrying out your own employee wellness audit
Ready to start your own audit? In our experience, there are 4 key components to a stellar employee wellbeing survey. And by ‘stellar’ we mean one that will give you the insights you need to make informed decisions about your team. Take a look –
1) How are you feeling? How are you doing?
The first step is to ask your employee how they are feeling and start the conversation.
This gives your team the space to express how they’re feeling and what they’re going through, which will enable you to understand the landscape much better. A 5-point scale – Very good to Very poor – will enable you to obtain general wellbeing or happiness rating from your people. Smiley faces are engaging and emotion-based, so perfect for this style of question.
2) Why?
It is one thing to understand how people are feeling, but another to take that further and try to understand why. ViewPoint works with customers who tackle this in different ways depending on what is suitable for their workforce. One approach is to ask if it is related to work or personal issues. Another is to ask for reasons behind a bad day. Others only progress if an “unhappy” first response is logged. The approach will depend on your unique circumstances – and what insights you need to get from your survey.
3) Would you like to tell us more?
Open-ended questions allow users to tell you what is on their minds in their own words. This yields greater insights as it doesn’t require your teams’ issue to fit within a box. It gives the ability to offer an accurate response rather than trying to fit their thoughts into a predetermined set of answers.
4) Are you ready to talk about it? How can I support you?
Sometimes your staff just want you to know things are not going well, they voice their concern and move on. At other times they want the extra support a follow-up chat would offer. Whether that is from trained professionals such as the Samaritans, or internal wellbeing champions, offering staff the option to take the next step to improve their wellbeing is one of the most impactful outcomes of a wellbeing survey (and something feedback kiosks are perfect for). It is vitally important that this is at the users’ discretion. One day they might say no, later in the week they might say yes. Knowing they can visit the pod and request that support at any time is what really matters. They know they can reach out.
In the background live alerts can be sent to the person responsible for reaching out – that can be determined based on how the questions were answered. Do you need a trained external referral through your employee assistance initiative or an internal chat with HR to remove some barriers within the workplace? Either is achievable depending on the questions and answers given.
Press start on more well-being support
Read about how Network Rail and South Western Railway are actively seeking ways to support their colleagues’ well-being.
