In any endeavor, you’re more likely to succeed when you consult with those who are most impacted by your decisions. In your business, when you involve employee feedback in your decision-making, you make your team feel included and more engaged, leading to higher profits and a happier workplace.
This is especially true when it comes to returning to the office as the pandemic ends. To ask your employees what they’d like to see in your post-pandemic workplace, you can design a return to office survey that covers safety measures, seeks out new strategies, and alerts employees to new directives.
Here’s what you should consider while writing your return to office survey questions so you can be prepared to return to your workplace safely and successfully.
Keeping employees safe
Over the past year, going anywhere carried with it a certain amount of apprehension. We wore masks in public spaces to avoid spreading COVID-19. But with vaccinations on the rise, it’s becoming safer to be around others again.
However, some of your employees might have a higher comfort level than ones who are still being especially cautious. Poll your employees about any safety measures they’d like implemented in the workplace.
The bottom line — if your employees don’t trust that the office is safe, they’ll probably feel uneasy about returning to work. Make sure you cover all the bases in your return to office survey questions to gather as much feedback about employee concerns as possible.
Reimagining your physical space
Coming back to the office is a process with a lot of different considerations, including a new office layout that allows for social distancing. Asking wide-ranging questions about employee preferences for your office layout will help you identify patterns and rearrange your office according to the most common answers.
Each of your employees has quirks and preferences about the way they work, as well as different comfort levels working with others. You can cater to individual needs by taking everyone’s responses into account, perhaps allowing some workers or teams to work remotely a few days a week.
Keep in mind that you won’t be able to simulate a pre-pandemic office environment. But you should do everything you can to settle into a new normal. That means listening to your employees when it comes to how they like to work — and doing as much as you can to adapt the office to these preferences.
Creating open communication channels
Your return to office survey questions aren’t the be-all and end-all in designing new strategies. That’s why it’s important to ask employees how else you can make yourself available throughout this process. Maintaining ongoing communication will help you fine-tune your protocols as you return to the office.
In addition, recognize that coming back to the office after a year away is going to be an adjustment, so it’s important that you look out for your employees’ well-being by asking them how you can be of service. A healthy employee is a productive one, and in your return to work, you’re going to need all hands on deck. Regularly asking employees what they need is a smart business practice and a great way to show you have their best interests in mind.
Monitoring employee health
Even if you do everything you can to protect your office against the virus, your employees still need to follow your policies for your return to the office to go smoothly. While a majority of your return to office survey questions will cover employee safety in the office, you should also ask them how they’re keeping others safe. That means checking whether or not they’re vaccinated and if they’re following masking and CDC guidelines.
If you receive pushback or disconcerting information from employees in these areas, you’ll know where to focus your education efforts. If employees are unsure about getting vaccinated, you can create or search for educational materials to reassure them. Overall, narrowing your employee pain points can help you become more efficient in your return to work.
Creating a comprehensive survey
If your return to office survey questions are going to lead to actionable results, they’ll need to cover a lot of ground. That means you’ll need a platform to host your surveys and record responses all in one place. Look no further than JotForm.
You can choose a form that works best for you and your organization from the library of coronavirus response form templates. You can also use the COVID-19 team survey template to measure employees’ knowledge level about health guidelines and gather data about employee concerns.
What’s more, Jotform’s templates are customizable and easy to edit, so you won’t have any issues in the design phase. And employees can even submit the survey from their phones with the Jotform Mobile Forms app.
Tapping into a great resource
Asking your employees what they think is the only way you can institute return to work measures that satisfy their needs, keep them safe, and keep production going. Just like customer data can help you improve your products, employee feedback can help you create a happier and better workplace. That’s especially true in returning to work amidst the pandemic.
Employee safety should be a top priority, but you can’t create this security if you don’t know what makes your workers feel safe in the first place. Designing thorough return to office survey questions is the best way to do that. Once you’re several months into your new office routine, you’ll be thankful for the time you took to lay the groundwork for a fruitful and successful return to work.
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