30 Oct EXAMINING YOUR WORKPLACE: THE STAFF SURVEY
To establish an effective plan for health and wellbeing in your workplace, it is important to find out what the health priorities of your workforce are; do you have a lot of smokers? Is there a high level of stress? You might already have an idea as to what you should prioritise, and the survey might confirm this, or surprise you! It is also useful to find out what awareness there is about what is already provided, we’ve seen time and time again little awareness of cycle to work schemes or wellbeing events!
COMPLETING THE SURVEY
We use a digital platform to host our survey, it can be completed on any tablet, computer or smartphone. Although there are over 50 questions it takes just 8-10 minutes to complete. The link to your survey is sent out to all staff on a date of your choosing, and depending on your environment and size of workforce we can keep it open anywhere from 1 week to 2 months. You are provided with weekly updates on how many people have completed the survey so that you can send out reminders if need be!
CONTENT
The questions investigate the current health behaviours of your workforce, ranging from physical activity and diet to mental health. The survey also considers personal circumstances that might influence these behaviours; your health often takes a back seat when you have financial stress or if you have obligations such as being a carer or parent. Additionally, the perceived culture of the workplace provides important insight. Would your employees feel comfortable speaking to their line manager about a mental health issue? If the survey shows that most wouldn’t, we can offer Mental Health First Aid training to improve this.
CONFIDENTIALITY
A survey on health and wellbeing must ask some very personal, and for some people sensitive, questions to be effective. Each employee is asked to provide an email address, but this is only used to send out the individual report which is automatically generated; individual results are not available to anyone. The organisational report shows trends, with key areas highlighted, but we ensure that no identifying information is included.
FEEDBACK FOR THE INDIVIDUAL
We provide survey results on two levels; the individual feedback provides an incentive to complete the survey, and the organisation as a whole is given insight into which areas to focus health initiatives, how the workforce feels about health at work and what awareness there is about what has already been done.
The personalised report is broken down into subject areas giving each employee a clear guide of their current health behaviours and how this might affect them in the future. As well as highlighting areas where improvements could be made, and giving suggestions on how to do this, healthy behaviours are recognised and celebrated. The feedback is designed to encourage and motivate an overall healthy lifestyle by making small changes. We are proud to promote local resources where possible such as Active Norfolk and Smokefree Norfolk, allowing people to find support close to them. We also include link to NHS Choices, where a more in-depth information is available should the individual want it.
FEEDBACK FOR YOUR ORGANISATION
Our model uses the survey gives indication of which areas of the charter will be the most beneficial to focus on. Used in conjunction with the Norfolk Workplace Wellbeing Charter and the EACH tool, we can form a menu of support that is focused towards your organisation’s needs and goals and that is also achievable. This can include FREE training, creation or review of policy and help in organising health promotion events.
If you want help with planning your next steps towards a healthier and happier workplace, then get in touch to become one of our partner organisations.