How’s Your Team?

Key Takeaways:

• As the pandemic continues, employee engagement and trust is beginning to break down
• Leaders can take action to support their employees
• Creating a micro-level pulse survey is a strong and immediate strategy to gain insights needed to better support your employees

In these strange times in the history of work in organizations, going back to business-as-usual just doesn’t seem like a viable hope any longer. Over the past few months, tech giants like Facebook, Shopify, Upwork, and Twitter have all made public statements that remote work will become permanent fixtures of their people operations — and some are even considering themselves “permanently embracing a ‘remote-first’ model” (Hayden Brown of UpWork).

On this site, we’ve covered strategies to lead remote teams, create a better balance for work and life particularly in the COVID-19 era, how to build resilience in the face of challenges and more. Yet these massive and sustained changes to our workplaces are beginning to wreak havoc on employee morale and well-being.

According to a survey conducted by Gallup in mid-June 2020, employees are reporting a 10 percent decline on average regarding their preparedness to perform their jobs, understanding of what is going on in their organization, belief that their organization cares about their wellbeing and total confidence that their organization has an overall plan to respond to the pandemic. (This comparison was made from March to June 2020.)

What can leaders and managers in organizations do to support their people now and for the long haul?

Pulse surveys with real action.

Before you roll your eyes at this suggestion, I’m not talking about the company-wide survey that you complete annually that is managed by your HR team or an outside organization. Instead, I’m taking about a micro-level survey — one for your team and close colleagues or partners.

The intent of creating a team-level survey is to allow leaders and managers to quickly implement real changes based on feedback or ideas generated from the data collected.

During these challenging times, employees want to be heard, they want to feel prepared to do their work and they want to have certainty that someone is working on a strategy. Constructing a quick survey can help you understand attitudes, concerns and needs of your team that you can address to better lead your team.

Here are some questions that can help you get started in creating a pulse survey:

*I have access to the materials and equipment I need to work remotely.
*I have a remote work environment that enables me to be productive.
*I have access to the resources I need to be successful while working remotely.
*I feel supported in my remote work environment.
*My remote work environment is free from distractions.
*I am able to create boundaries to manage my personal and professional demands while working remotely.
*My team respects the boundaries I have created to manage my personal and professional demands while working remotely.

What additional resources would support your success in working remotely?
Do you have other feedback that would improve your remote work environment?

*I know my work priorities and job expectations.
*I have the personal ability to be successful in meeting my job priorities and expectations.
*I have the resources to be successful in meeting my job priorities and expectations.
*I understand how my work priorities and job expectations fits into our team goals.
*I understand how my work priorities and job expectations fit into our organizational goals.
*I receive timely communication on team work and priorities.
*I receive timely feedback on my work product.

How do you evaluate this team’s overall communication in the remote work setting? What recommendations do you have to improve communication?
Do you have other feedback that would improve your ability to perform your work?

Note: Questions marked with an * should be asked with the following five-point scale:

1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neither agree nor disagree
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree