Culture and employee engagement surveys can be an accurate way to diagnose core issues within your company. Offering an insight into how employees perceive your organisation, they can be used to ensure you are providing a comfortable and pleasant workplace for all members of staff.
But what questions can you ask to get the best results - and how exactly do you conduct a culture survey for employees?
Here at HR Headquarters, we are dedicated to helping companies throughout Australia improve on their core values and offer employees the perfect place to work. Take a look below to see how you can achieve this, and what hidden methods you can implement to get the best feedback from your next employee survey.
What Is A Culture Survey For Employees?
A work culture survey is an extremely helpful way to get an insight into how your employees perceive their workplace. The survey questions will focus on the organisational culture of the business, and can help management teams make adjustments based on constructive feedback.
These surveys are usually distributed to a specific department, or, in some cases, to all employees, and are a great way to ensure that your employees share the same beliefs as you do and are happy with their place of work.
There are different types of surveys that can be used to find out how your employees feel about your company. An alternative to a culture-oriented survey is an employee engagement survey which covers topics such as the motivation of your staff and their general well-being.
Why Conduct A Company Culture Survey?
Culture surveys have been used by employers for years as a way to gauge the general satisfaction of their employees. The satisfaction of your employees is incredibly important and is something that should regularly be checked on.
A company culture survey can help you diagnose issues regarding your organisation's culture, and improve your employee engagement. This in turn can have a positive effect on the general efficiency of your workplace, and ensure that your employees are happy working for you.
Shared company values can also be a deciding factor on whether or not potential employees apply to work for you. By making an adjustment to your work culture, you will be far more likely to attract potential employees as well as offer improvements to your current staff. There really is no reason not to conduct a survey!
Advantages Of Employee Engagement Surveys
The main reason for conducting this type of survey is to ultimately improve your business, and there is a range of benefits you can expect from a well-written culture survey - especially if you ask the right questions.
Improve employee engagement
Trying to determine how employees feel can be difficult without asking each person individually. This is especially true if you are trying to measure employee engagement. Knowing how to improve and develop on this engagement is key to developing a friendly work culture.
An employee engagement survey can help you quickly diagnose the driving force behind your employees, and what could be hindering their performance. This can be caused by a range of factors such as personal life outside of work, or undue stress, so it can be hard to spot the right reasons without a survey.
By highlighting potential issues caused by your organisation, you can potentially boost employee engagement by a large percentage with a well-designed work culture survey.
Be sure to plan the employee engagement survey questions well so that you can cover as much as you can in a short survey.
Minimise employee stress
Finding the perfect work-life balance is incredibly important when it comes to minimising stress. Employers can help support their employee's work and life balance, however, they will need to talk to their employees first to figure out exactly how this can be achieved.
Luckily, a work culture survey is one of the best ways of doing this. By reading your employee feedback, you can quickly determine ways to help minimise your employees' stress and improve their wellbeing.
Work culture has a large role to play in how stressed out an employee can be, so diagnosing culture issues is one of the best ways to lower stress.
Establish a positive work culture
One of the best benefits you can get from conducting an employee engagement survey, is the ability to establish a strong company culture. A culture survey can be used to check employee satisfaction and find ways to make improvements to the general work culture within your company.
After you have received your survey results, you may also quickly realise your ideals or practices are outdated and don't lend themselves well to positivity. Companies are constantly and rapidly changing, so it's important to consistently update your work culture to adapt to this.
An extremely important aspect of creating a positive culture is transparency, and the feeling that your employees can openly communicate with you. No employee wants to be hesitant or nervous as to whether or not they can bring up an issue they may have.
By ensuring you are fostering a generally well-received work culture, your team members will be far more efficient at what they do too. This can lead to a better performing business and help ensure employees are happy to be at work.
How Do You Conduct An Employee Engagement Survey?
If you lack experience when it comes to employee engagement surveys, then you may be wondering how exactly you can go about conducting one. As the main focus of a culture survey is to receive employee feedback, then you will want to conduct a business-wide survey.
Ideally, the survey should consist of a range of questions regarding the culture of your organisation. Here at HR Headquarters, we can help guide your own HR department to ensure that any culture survey you take will garner the best results.
Before you consider conducting a culture survey, there are a few steps you will want to take. Ideally, you will want to get as much input as possible from your senior management team to check the current level of engagement within your workplace.
As senior management will spend a large amount of time with each employee, they should be able to help you increase employee survey engagement. This will lead to better employee feedback and produce concise answers regarding the survey questions.
It also goes without saying that you will need a solid plan of how to conduct the survey and where it will be held. Surveys are naturally fairly quick and easy to distribute, so whether that's via email or in-person at work, you should be able to get a high number of responses from your survey.
A really helpful tip to keep in mind when designing your work culture survey is to make a list of potential questions you want to include. You can then run these questions by senior managers or other trusted employees to see if they are suitable.
But just what questions should you include to make sure that you are getting the best results from your employee survey?
What type of questions should you ask?
Ideally, to get the most out of a company culture survey you will want to make sure you are asking the right questions. It can be hard to know what questions will produce the best results, which is why we have included a few example questions below.
Be sure to check them out to get an idea of what you should ask in your next employee engagement survey:
Are you currently happy with our organisations work culture? Please explain your answer.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our organisation to your friends or family based on its culture?
What aspects of our organisation's culture could be improved on in the future?
Are you happy with the overall job security that we provide?
Do you believe that our organisation is a safe working environment for all employees?
Do you feel like management makes changes based on your and other employees feedback?
What changes could be implemented to make this a more positive place to work?
These are just a few examples of employee engagement survey questions you can use to help craft your own. When it comes to working culture surveys, the right questions can make all the difference.
The main idea behind an employee survey is to check on the well-being of your employees and ensure the culture of your organisation is something to be proud of!
How Do You Get The Best Results?
Nobody want's to keep investing in multiple surveys, which is why you want to get the best results from your first. The higher the response rate and the more detailed the feedback, the more information you can work with.
There are a few smart methods you can implement in order to receive the best results from a work culture survey.
Focus on shorter surveys
Although you may be tempted to send out lengthy surveys to try and get the most feedback you can from a single survey, it may not be the right option. One of the easiest and most efficient ways to ensure you get high-quality responses from your employees is to use shorter surveys.
The longer the survey and the more questions you include, the higher the chance your employees will get bored completing it. This will not only lower the chances of them wanting to engage in future surveys, but it can also result in lacklustre responses.
When sending out work culture surveys, avoid lengthy questionnaires that will tire your employees out.
Ensure responses are anonymous
When answering surveys, you tend to be far more honest if you know that your responses are anonymous. The same applies to employee surveys as members of staff will feel far more comfortable responding if their identity remains unknown.
The big advantage for employees in terms of anonymity is that they won't feel like negative comments will have an impact on their reputation or standing within the company. Honest responses are one of the best ways you can build your organisational culture and ensure your employees are comfortable at work.
Try to exclude questions that can identify individual employees as you will want your employees to feel like they can say what is on their minds.
Plan your survey efficiently
Planning is an extremely important part of almost any process, which is why you will want to plan carefully when conducting an organisation-wide survey. It may not seem like an important stage, but it can be the difference between mediocre responses and great responses.
An extremely important part of the planning process is of course the survey questions you choose to include in your survey. You will want to ask questions that employees feel they can answer but that also highlight ways you can improve your company and management style.
How you distribute the survey should also be considered when trying to plan. Do you want to send it virtually via email or would you prefer a physical copy of each survey?
Efficient planning is one of the surest ways you can get the best responses and thus make the best improvements, so don't overlook this stage.
Remind your employees
Ok, so no one wants to be constantly hounded by their employers to finish a task, especially when their inboxes are already overflowing. But when it comes to surveys, they can easily be forgotten or pushed to the side.
Once you have sent your survey to employees, you will want to follow up with a reminder to complete it as soon as possible. As the feedback from employee surveys is pivotal to a company's success, the faster you get it back, the faster you can make the appropriate.
This is also beneficial to your staff, as any improvements you make based on the feedback you receive will improve their workplace and personal growth. Be sure to let your employees know that all responses are anonymous and that you plan on implementing changes that they will benefit from.
Why Choose A Fusion Culture Survey
Opting for a Fusion Culture Survey can be a great way to get a range of useful feedback from your employees. As it will offer a mixture of both culture and engagement questions, you will be able to cover all bases and include a more diverse range of questions.
There are a few differences between the two types of survey, such as the scope of the employee survey questions and the general content. This is why a Fusion Culture Survey has the potential to offer you the most thorough responses and give you the greatest insights into the employee experience.
A fusion workplace survey will require slightly more work than focusing on a single metric, especially when it comes to drafting the right survey questions. But as long as you are willing to put in the effort, this type of survey can garner the best results.
Final Thoughts
Gaining insight into the company culture and how your staff perceives your business is a pivotal aspect of a company's success. To get the best out of your employees you will want your organisational culture to align with your employee's beliefs.
Luckily, surveys are a great way to help you achieve this. Not only can the feedback generated by a survey help your management create a positive work environment, but it can also keep your work ethic in line.
If you are wanting to construct a successful business and check what your employees think of their workplace, then consider conducting a survey!
FAQs
What is an employee culture survey?
An employee culture survey, or work culture survey, is a useful tool used to see how your employees feel about their workplace. It can be used to assess your business general efficiency and to get insight into leadership and organisation regarding your employees.
The main focus of an employee culture survey is to ensure that your businesses general values match up to your behaviour!
How do you ask about culture in a survey?
The best way to ask your employees about work culture is by using employee survey questions such as 'Are you satisfied with your company culture? ' and 'What improvements could be made by this company so that it is a better place to work?'
The right survey questions can make a pivotal difference no matter what type of survey you plan on conducting.
Are employee engagement surveys and culture surveys different?
Yes, there are a few differences between both surveys as they focus on different aspects of your organisation. An engagement survey is usually used to measure how motivated your employees are and whether or not they feel passionate about their job.
On the other hand, a culture-oriented survey is used to get insights into the beliefs and general attitudes of your employees. If you want the best responses, consider combining both types of employee surveys into a detailed Fusion survey!
About the author
Sean Murray is Partner at HR Headquarters, specialising in Outsourced HR and Business Improvement for the SME sector. He is a leader in the areas of Human Resources strategy, DiSC personality profiling, Emotional Intelligence and Business Benchmarking to improve organisational capability.