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Last year, all of us rose to meet the challenges presented by the pandemic. Businesses responded to global restrictions, remote work models, and physical distancing efforts with dramatic changes to how we operate. Human resources teams had to understand and adapt to constantly shifting employee attitudes all while minimizing business risks. This crisis is ongoing, and it can be particularly fraught with worry for resource-constrained small and medium-sized businesses.
Human resources teams had to understand and adapt to constantly shifting employee attitudes all while minimizing business risks.
gettySurveyMonkey recently launched a new Return-to-Work solution, including templates for Remote Worker Engagement, Return-to-Work Assessments, Onsite Worker Check-ins, and COVID-19 Symptom Tracking, to help organizations collect the critical feedback needed to navigate this evolving transition. The new solution runs through SurveyMonkey’s Enterprise platform, which provides quick answers to important business questions through advanced features like multi-channel distribution and powerful analytics. SurveyMonkey Enterprise enables companies to take immediate action on findings through workflow automation, rule-based notifications, and more than 100 pre-built integrations.
Small teams can also leverage the best practices baked into our Return-to-Work solution to monitor employee needs and ensure operational safety. Here’s what I encourage HR leaders to keep in mind:
You can't chart the course without feedback
Start by putting people first―and that requires listening and taking action on a steady stream of employee feedback. Ground your programs in empathy and a true desire to understand individual employee experiences, and then think about how to scale those programs across your workforce. At SurveyMonkey, we’ve used our Remote Worker Engagement survey to check in with employees throughout the pandemic. The insights collected from the team have steered decisions ranging from how often we check in at virtual Town Halls (every other week) to new benefits programs we’ve rolled out (like Headspace for Work to support employees’ well-being).
Optimize for speed
Whether teams are working remotely, onsite, or both, changes in employee sentiment could have massive implications on your business contingency plans. For example, more than half of Americans want their employer to require all employees to get the coronavirus vaccine before returning to the workplace, according to a recent SurveyMonkey and CNBC poll. It’s important to know what your team thinks about pressing issues like this, and you can’t assume those opinions are static. Make sure your feedback systems provide access to employee sentiment data in days, not months, so you can stay on top of changing trends.
Let automation help you achieve empathy at scale
Our Return-to-Work solution features advanced machine learning to take a little leg work off your plate. For instance, users who have yet to complete the surveys are prompted via an automated email collector so you don’t have to remember to nudge them along. It’s helpful to be able to see the data with geographic breakdowns, trends over time, and (ideally) a comparison to benchmarks. The ability to visualize and analyze data in this way will help you better anticipate and respond to change as things come up. For instance, you might uncover that your employees on the West coast are concerned about child care, whereas the biggest concern for East coast employees might be social isolation. With these automated insights, you can roll out programs to address their needs and strengthen your ability to respond with agility to new challenges.
In 2021, as the world continues to rapidly evolve, People leaders will be forced to continually adapt. By investing in processes to help you stay agile, informed, and inclusive, you can architect an exciting new future of work for your organization.
