Working from home surveys can be a great way of supporting employees who are working remotely.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced a huge change in the way many of us work – with 51% of Americans and 46% of Britons working from home. The UK government estimates 80% of these remote workers have only done so because of the coronavirus.
Following such a dramatic shift to the way businesses operate, employee welfare and productivity naturally becomes a serious concern.
Here’s why working from home surveys are a great way to ensure remote working is a success for your business.
Simply asking people “how are you doing?” is not always enough, as employees may feel the informal questioning merits a vague, informal response.
Surveys control the conversation and ensure your employees give their opinions on the areas you’re interested in.
You need clear-cut answers and this is achieved through asking the right questions in an official capacity.
What insights should working from home surveys uncover?
A working from home survey should help you understand employees’ happiness, productivity levels, equipment needs, ability to connect to the business, and feelings on working from home long-term.
Some example questions include:
- Do you enjoy working from home?
- Do you have suitable equipment to work from home effectively?
- Is your work-life balance the same, better, or worse when working from home?
- Is your productivity the same, better, or worse when working from home?
- Are you in regular contact with your manager?
- Do you still feel part of a team?
- Would you like to keep working from home long-term?
It’s easy to underestimate the effect that isolation can have, so it’s important to make sure your employees still feel connected to the team. Similarly, there will be those who simply prefer working at the office – whether that’s due to being around a hectic household all day or simply missing their work friends.
Whether positive or negative, you need to find out how employees feel.
TIP: Remote workers in the UK may be eligible for tax relief. Check out the government’s website for more information.
Driving change – data from surveys can pinpoint areas for improvement
Whether you have 50, 500, or 5,000 employees, a survey with the right questions will provide you with enough data to help you drive meaningful change in your organisation.
If your survey has built-in analysis it will generate reports and tell you in black and white what is working and what isn’t.
For example:
- 86% of respondents want to continue working from home long-term
- 24% of respondents feel isolated from their team
- 13% of respondents don’t have suitable equipment to work from home
- 78% of respondents feel more productive working from home
With these insights, you can put action plans in place to mitigate the negative points and improve on the positives.
For example, to help reduce feelings of isolation, you may instigate a morning WhatsApp or Zoom call with the entire team.
Surveys really help you put the pieces of the puzzle together to drive change and improve performance and happiness.
You’ll probably find retention rates improve too.
Get our Covid Working From Home Survey
If you’re planning to survey your employees on remote working, we can help you with that.
We’ve created a ready-to-run survey that does all the hard work for you.
The Covid Working From Home Survey includes carefully crafted questions and one-click dynamic reporting to help you better understand your data.
And it’s available now.
