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Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz.

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5 Things To Ask In A Pulse Survey

 

Getting to know your employees should be a part of every manager’s job. Asking employees about their work is an integral part of being an effective leader. Merely telling them what to do with no guidance, oversight, or communication isn’t going to get the job done. Employees should feel like they make valuable contributions to an organization. Moreover, management should try to foster a pleasant and productive working environment. But without quality communication, progress is not possible. Using an annual questionnaire like a pulse survey can provide actionable, meaningful insights into employee perception of your business. With that information, the organization can improve the employee experience, ultimately leading to better client relationships and future success. So, what should you ask in a pulse survey? Don’t fret, because in this article we’ll give you five suggestions and tell you why they’re useful for gleaning insights. Check it out below. 

 

How Happy Are You At Work?

The first and foremost question to ask in a pulse survey is how happy employees are at work. Happiness (or sadness) can be a domino effect.  Happier employees are more engaged in place. If employees are engaged, they're more likely to perform better and stick around. It also creates a better, non-toxic work environment. Nobody wants to wake up every morning dreading going to work. Asking employees if they're happy and to kind of gauge their happiness levels on a likert scale can certainly help you understand a few things. These include what's contributing to that happiness/satisfaction, how things can be improved, and meaningful insights into how employees are interacting with each other at a large scale throughout the company.

 

Do You Receive Meaningful Recognition At Work?

This is a great question to ask employees because it gives you an opportunity to find out if employees are interacting meaningfully with each other and with management. There are plenty of ways to provide positive recognition within the company. These can be as simple as a gesture, thank you card or appropriate compliments. They can go further with rewards—both monetary and otherwise—that help provide a little bit of incentive to employees. Everything from gift cards to extended breaks and vacations can all show employees that you think they're doing a good job. By posing this question on your pulse survey, you're giving employees the opportunity to give you real time and meaningful feedback about whether or not recognition efforts are working at your organization. Understanding if these initiatives are working well or need some polishing is critical to ensuring employee happiness and retention across the board.

 

Are You Comfortable Providing Feedback?

It might seem silly on the surface, but it's important to ask employees if they're comfortable providing feedback in your survey. Surveys can often seem daunting and intimidating to employees. If it's not an anonymous survey, they might be worried about the security of their job or about providing any feedback whatsoever. Obviously, a leader who treats employees differently based on feedback isn't a good leader. So, reassure your employees that their feedback will be treated in a neutral manner and only used to make things better at the organization. That's why a simple pulse survey that's short, sweet, obsessed with artificial intelligence, and kept completely confidential is such a positive thing for an organization. Always make sure you're upfront about the questions, honest, and ask if your employees are comfortable with providing feedback. If they are not, accept it and don't try to force the issue. A survey will not yield high quality results if it is not administered properly.

 

How Would You Rate Work/Life Balance?

Work-life balance is one of the most essential parts of employees' lives. No one wants to spend all their time working, constantly mired in the machinations of their company and trying to hit deadlines/goals. There needs to be some balance with employees so they can enjoy both their work and their lives. Work-life balance is one of those concepts that some companies don't seem to care about. Your company should, however, because poor work-life balance leads to employee attrition like you wouldn't believe. Burnt out and angry employees are not going to be productive or do a good job. So, posing this question on your post survey can give you keen insight into whether or not your staff finds value in their work, have the opportunity to recuperate, and feel like they can balance both their work and their lives without an issue.

 

Do You Recieve Opportunities To Learn and Grow?

The part of running a healthy and robust business is giving employees the opportunity to learn, develop skills, pick up new responsibilities, and grow with your organization. According to Indeed.com, giving the opportunity to grow within your company is an essential stepping stone to improving employee well-being, satisfaction, and performance. It makes sense. Receiving opportunities to learn and develop shows not only a level of trust on the part of management but also a level of confidence in the employee themselves. Employees who seek these for themselves and are constantly robust or rejected aren't going to perform. Employees who are given the opportunity to develop and own their skills tend to be happier and more productive. That's why this question is a good one for upholstery. It helps you put your finger on the pulse of whether your organization is doing what it needs to do to ensure employee skills are up-to-date and that they're able to scale up with your company as it grows.

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