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In the era of distributed work, keeping a pulse on your team may seem difficult or even tedious. In-person chats are less frequent, and part of your team is likely scattered around the country (or even the world). The ever-changing landscape of work can take a toll on engagement, motivation, alignment, camaraderie, and more if not assessed and addressed early on.

Traditionally, bulky annual surveys were used to evaluate employee engagement. But in this fast-paced environment, the modern employee is now looking for a much more responsive system. Enter employee engagement pulse survey questions: the quick and easy way to gather regular insights on your team's standings.

In this article, we outline the basics of pulse survey questions and provide you with 25 examples to test out in your next employee engagement survey.

Types of pulse survey questions to ask employees

Your survey questions can be structured differently depending on the kind of information you're looking to gather. Start by asking yourself the right questions: do you want to quantify how employees are feeling with easy data analyses, or do you need more detailed information to follow up?

Quantitative pulse survey questions

For the former, you'll want to include quantitative questions with a predetermined set of responses. These can be true or false, multiple choice answers, or opinion scales (ex: strongly agree-strongly disagree). Quantitative questions are quick to answer and will help you measure employee engagement with the click of a button.

Qualitative pulse survey questions

With qualitative pulse survey questions, open-ended prompts will give your team the liberty to answer as they wish. Keeping these questions anonymous is a good idea, as you'll likely get more candid responses. This will encourage them to expand on their previous answers and possibly uncover successes or issues you weren't fully aware of.

{emphasize}💡Great employee pulse surveys should feature a mix of both quantitative and qualitative questions. Complementing easy-to-measure answers with more in-depth responses will help you keep a better pulse on your team while tracking important trends.{emphasize}

Top 20 employee pulse survey questions by category

At Officevibe, we've uncovered 10 metrics that every manager should measure to assess employee engagement. The following pulse survey questions are broken down by each category:

Questions about ambassadorship

Ambassadorship is a huge employee engagement identifier. It's simple: when an employee feels proud of their job, they're more likely to be motivated, productive, and loyal. A loyal employee is not only more likely to stay at the organization in the long run, but they also act as brand ambassadors, which helps attract and retain stellar talent.

By measuring ambassadorship with pulse surveys, you can also figure out what your employees love about your company culture, and what needs care and attention.

Here are a few questions you can ask to measure your employee’s ambassadorship:

  • I am proud of the value we create at work.
  • How likely are you to recommend your organization to a friend or peer looking for work?

Questions about alignment

Alignment is all about being on the same page, whether it comes to objectives, culture, or vision. An organization's success is greater than the sum of its parts when every team works together towards common goals and missions.

And while this may seem like common sense, Officevibe data shows that a shocking 73% of employees think that their manager could define more precise goals. Identifying this lack of clarity and sense of direction using pulse surveys can help decrease stress, confusion, and disengagement before they become a real problem.

Here are a few questions you can ask to measure how aligned your team feels with the organization's mission, vision, and values:

  • Do you feel that your personal goals align with your company’s overall strategy?
  • Do your personal beliefs align with the company values?

Questions about feedback

Employees can only truly thrive in their roles if they receive the right feedback at the right time. But how can you tell if the feedback you are giving is being well-received? Adding a few questions about feedback in your employee pulse survey can give you anonymous insights your team may not feel comfortable giving otherwise.

Here are a few questions you can ask to measure how your employees feel about the quality and frequency of feedback they receive:

  • Do you feel you receive enough feedback?
  • Are you happy with the type of feedback you receive from your manager?

Questions about employee happiness

Happy employees make for successful teams and companies. And while you don't have control over your team's happiness as a manager, there are definitely ways you can help foster it.

Considering people spend a third of their day at work, making sure the environment is a positive one can have a big impact on a person's happiness levels. Pinpointing any problem areas that may cause unpleasant feelings towards work is also just as important when boosting this metric.

Here are a few questions you can ask to measure your employee’s happiness levels:

  • On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy do you feel at work?
  • Do you feel a sense of fulfillment from your work?

Questions about personal growth

Personal growth, measured by autonomy, mastery, and purpose, is often a huge gap in the employee experience. But prioritizing it in your EX plan can make all the difference in your employee retention.

The key is identifying how your employees want to grow and what you can do as their manager to support them in their growth.

Here are a few questions you can ask to measure your team’s satisfaction with their personal growth:

  • Do you have the resources you need to grow in your role?
  • Do you see yourself reaching your career goals in your current organization?

Questions about recognition

Having a culture of recognition in the workplace can make all the difference in overall job satisfaction. Feeling valued and recognized for what you bring to the table is simply human nature. But giving meaningful recognition gets swept under the rug far too often in today's day and age.

Including recognition questions in your employee pulse surveys is a great way to uncover how your team feels about recognition, what kind of recognition works well for each person, and how often you should be giving it.

Here are a few questions you can ask to measure how content your team is with the recognition they receive:

  • Are you currently happy with the frequency of recognition you receive?
  • Is the recognition you receive meaningful to you?

Questions about employee-manager relationships

An employee's relationship with their manager can make or break their employee experience. In fact, according to Officevibe data, 75% of employees who display low engagement levels or leave their jobs say that it’s due to their manager or leadership.

The good news is that, as a manager, you're in the driver's seat when it comes to this metric. Using pulse surveys, you can continuously identify ways to improve your relationship with employees and reassess your management style as needed.

Here are a few questions you can ask to measure your employee’s relationship with yourself or their manager:

  • On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with the number of touchpoints you have with your manager?
  • Do you feel that your manager sets you up for success in your role?

Questions about relationships with peers

Just like employee-manager relationships, relationships with peers should be in good standing for teams to work at their best. This includes having great lines of communication, fostering peer-to-peer trust, and building team collaboration.

Here are a few questions you can ask to measure your team’s peer-to-peer relationships:

  • Do you enjoy working and collaborating with your peers?
  • Do you feel you have an open line of communication with your peers?

Questions about employee satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is all about how a person feels about their role in their company, and everything encompassing it. This can include factors like compensation, tools and resources, and responsibilities. Even understanding if they feel they are part of the right team can be important to determining an employee's satisfaction levels.

Here are a few questions you can ask to measure to measure employee satisfaction:

  • Do you feel you are fairly compensated in your current role?
  • On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with your daily responsibilities?

Questions about wellness

If there is one thing the last few years taught us, it's that wellness at work cannot be ignored. With remote work blurring the lines between home and work, managers have a responsibility to ensure the well-being of their team members.

This can include checking in on people's mental and physical health, or ensuring they have a good work-life balance. Pulse surveys give employees a great outlet to express themselves on how they're feeling at work.

47% of people say they regularly feel overwhelmed at work.

Officevibe Pulse Survey Data

Here are a few questions you can ask to measure your team’s wellness:

  • I feel that I can maintain a healthy balance between work and my personal life.
  • I believe my company takes diversity and inclusion seriously.

How to interpret employee pulse survey responses

We've covered some of the most useful employee pulse survey questions, but knowing which questions to ask is half the battle; to make the most of your employee surveys and gain insight, you need to know how to interpret your team's responses.

We put together a few examples with different response scales to show you how diverse your employee pulse survey questions can be.

Example 1: Would you recommend your organization as a great place to work?

What this question tells you: Asking your employees if they'd recommend your company to their friends or people in their network can help you measure their levels of ambassadorship. This question can also help you identify which employees feel proud and engaged at work and those that are considered detractors.

Response scale: This question can be answered on a scale of 1 to 10, allowing you to easily measure your employee Net Promoter Score, a metric for determining ambassadorship, employee engagement, and satisfaction.

Example 2: I feel that my work contributes to my organization’s broader goals.

What this question tells you: Measuring the alignment metric, this question will help you identify if employees understand the "why" behind their daily work. It'll help you make sure everyone is rowing in the same direction.

Response scale:

  • Strongly disagree
  • Disagree
  • Neutral
  • Agree
  • Strongly agree

Example 3: How would you rate the frequency at which you receive recognition?

What this question tells you: Asking questions about recognition will tell you if employees feel seen and valued for their hard work. Scoring poorly on these questions is a sign that your culture of recognition needs attention.

Response scale: Rating from 1 to 5 stars.

Example 4: Which of the following best describes the amount of feedback you typically get regarding your work?

What this question tells you: Asking your manager or peers for feedback can be tough and sometimes intimidating. So, including a question like this one in your pulse survey can give employees an easy way to flag whether or not they are satisfied with the feedback they receive.

Response scale:

  • Completely inadequate
  • Inadequate
  • Adequate
  • Completely adequate

Example 5: On a scale from 1-10, how reasonable is your workload?

What this question tells you: This question will help you measure your wellness metric by evaluating whether your team members feel at ease, overwhelmed, or anywhere in between with their workload.

Response scale: Slider from 1 to 10, 1 being very unreasonable and 10 being very reasonable.

How often should you run employee pulse surveys?

Pulse surveys do exactly what their name suggests: they help you get a pulse on how your team is doing and how your employees feel on a regular basis. Great employee pulse surveys should be concise and should only take a couple of minutes to fill out. Making them an easy and virtually effortless task will help you up the frequency and give you a real-time feel on how your team is doing.

At Officevibe, we suggest sending employee engagement surveys on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. With this frequency, managers can gather quick and instant feedback, allowing them to be nimble in their management.

{emphasize}Pro-tip: If your pulse survey results highlight an area of concern, consider increasing the frequency to once a week until you see a noticeable improvement in your trends.{emphasize}

How long should a pulse survey be?

The rule of thumb when deciding on your survey length is that the more questions people have to fill out, the less likely they are to complete the survey or answer it together. Aside from affecting response rates, long surveys can also fall victim to low-quality answers. Those who do fill out the entire survey are likely to speed through the questions to save time.

If you're sending them out on a weekly basis, we've found that the sweet spot for a good employee pulse survey is 5 questions. For a bi-weekly employee engagement survey, you can increase this to 5-10 questions.

You've sent out your pulse survey; what now?

Curating your employee survey questions and sending them out are the first steps to kickstarting your journey towards bettering your employee engagement. From there, all you have to do is analyze your employee survey results and take action.

Learn to interpret the results and track the data

Your employee pulse survey results will be filled with a ton of golden nuggets of information. First, your overall engagement score will give you the big picture of how your team is doing. From there, you can pinpoint exactly which areas your team is thriving in, and those that need improvement by tracking your metrics and submetrics scores.

As you start making pulse surveys a part of your regular activities, you'll get a chance to track trends and changes in the data to help you better direct your attention.

{emphasize}Pro-tip: Your engagement scores are impacted by multiple factors, many of which are out of your control as a manager. These can include seasonality, company context, and industry trends.{emphasize}

Create an action plan based on your pulse survey results

Building your employee feedback game plan doesn't have to be daunting. These easy pointers will get you on the right track and ensure your feedback surveys are as effective as possible:

  • Share pulse survey results and discuss them with your team
  • Brainstorm ideas as a team to address any points
  • Create employee experience goals to hold yourself accountable
  • Keep track of employee engagement levels and take note of any noticeable changes
  • Maintain a constant communication loop with your team members
  • Send follow-up pulse survey questions as needed

{emphasize}Unsure what to send as your next pulse survey? Dig deeper into specific topics by choosing a survey template from our bank of customizable polls.{emphasize}

Take the guesswork out of creating pulse surveys with Officevibe

If they aren't already, pulse survey questions should be a part of your employee experience arsenal as a manager. And with the right tools, kickstarting your pulse survey journey can be easy and breezy.

Officevibe's Pulse Surveys offer a safe space for employees to give meaningful feedback about their work, team, and organization. With automated weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly sends, as well as easy-to-read reports, these pulse surveys are a manager's ultimate sidekick.

Designed with a mix of a slider, rating, multiple choice, and open-ended questions, you'll be regularly generating fresh insights while keeping your team as engaged as possible.

Ready to get your pulse on? Sign up and try Officevibe for free today!

Recruiting the right people can be expensive.

But the even more expensive part is seeing the new hires leave after only a few months… and having to start all over again.

A recent Aberdeen Group study found that almost two-thirds of companies are not entirely satisfied with their current recruitment campaigns.

Fortunately, there are several strategies to maximize the return on investment of your hiring process!

This article shows you how to calculate the ROI of your recruitment efforts and features 7 ways to optimize it.

What is a recruitment campaign?

A recruitment campaign includes all the activities and processes that are carried out to find new employees and promote your employer brand. The hiring process often takes place in several stages, starting with the job opening posting and ending with the new employee’s trial period.

In general, a recruitment campaign includes the following steps:

  1. Job posting
  2. Advertising or broadcasting campaigns
  3. Receipt and analysis of applications
  4. Pre-interview calls
  5. Interviews
  6. Legal checks and other required procedures
  7. Employment contract signing
  8. Employment start date (trial period)
  9. Employment confirmation (end of trial period)

Now, how do you calculate the real cost and return on investment of this entire process?

How to calculate new employee ROI?

Here is the formula to calculate the return on investment (ROI) of a recruitment campaign: 

(Benefits of hiring - Cost of recruitment) / Cost of recruitment

For example :

  • If your hire profits are 50 000$ 
  • And the recruitment costs are 10 000$ 

(50 000 - 10 000) / 10 000 = ROI of 4 

When calculating the ROI, the higher the figure, the better the return on investment. A negative ROI means that the costs are higher than the benefits.

But for a proper new employee ROI calculation, we must first have the right numbers!

Calculating the profits of hiring

The benefits of hiring are equivalent to the total financial value of each result the recruitment campaign will yield.

This data is often the hardest part to estimate, but it is essential to understand how each new hire affects the results. 

Here are some examples you should consider :

Benefits of hiringRelated data
Increased efficiency for the team or department Variations in:
  • Quantity of products delivered monthly

  • Speed of implements projects

  • Client satisfaction rates
Increased employee productivity Read the article: What are the relevant indicators to measure employee productivity?

New hire retention

  • Company retention rate

  • Duration of employment contract

Calculating the cost of recruitment

The cost of recruitment can also be difficult to estimate, especially when there are several positions that need to be filled at the same time. In this case, some expenses can affect more than one campaign and therefore must be divided when calculating the ROI. 

The cost of recruitment can also be divided into two main categories: work to be done before hiring (steps 1 to 7) and work to be done during the first days of work (steps 8 and 9).

Here is a table that includes examples of things to consider:

Recruitment categoriesRelated costs
Recruitment campaign costs
  • Creating the job opening posting

  • Creating the HR marketing content (images, videos, texts, etc.)

  • Advertising campaign and displays

  • Application analysis time

  • Pre-interview and interview time
Employee onboarding costs
  • Administrative costs of adding a new employee to internal systems

  • Salary of employees in charge of reception and integration

  • Loss of revenue or productivity due to time spent on integration

  • Salary of new employees during onboarding and training

How to optimize new employee ROI?

Now that you know how to calculate the ROI of your new hire, you must be wondering how to optimize it. 

Remember that the goal is to have a high ROI!

There are two ways to do this:

  1. Reduce the cost of your recruitment, so reduce your expenses;
  2. Increase the benefits of your hires, so maximize the positive impact of each new employee.

Here’s how to go about it.

4 strategies to reduce new hire costs

Recruitment costs have increased dramatically recently, due to labor shortages and high turnover rates in several fields.

But that does not mean that it is impossible to cut back on expenses!

You just need to be strategic and anticipate the new hire mobility to prevent future hires and implement more affordable solutions.

1. Develop your employer branding strategy

Just as a company’s brand image is important for its success, developing your employer brand will greatly facilitate your recruitment process.

By positioning yourself as an employer of choice, potential candidates will want to join your team, even when you are not actively recruiting!

Showcase your mission and values throughout your content, show the work environment and your employees at work. There’s no need to wait until you have a position to fill: you should create this kind of content constantly to prepare ahead of time.

Above all, stay true and consistent in your message. 

The content you show must be reflected by the internal reality because there is nothing worse than being sold a first impression that is not real.

2. Recruit several employees at the same time

Advertising, job fairs and corporate video expenses can quickly add up.

If you know that some of your employees will be leaving, taking extended time off, or if one of your teams needs to expand, you would be wise to group these in your HR marketing initiatives. Whether you are recruiting for 1 or 5 positions, the advertising costs will not be higher, so take the opportunity to group your hiring!

As an employer, you must make all the content pertaining to your offers consistent, so you may as well spread the cost over several positions rather than just one.

3. Automate your recruitment process

Companies that automate their recruitment process using tools available online, at low cost or free, will save a lot of time and money.

This does not mean that you have to eliminate human contact during the hiring process! 

The biggest gain from automation is mostly felt in the time-consuming HR marketing and the application analysis steps. For example, you could sort through your applications via Facebook Messenger advertising campaigns and write automated answers to questions candidates might have, before the first contact.

Imagine all the time you will be saving by not having to make calls to prequalify your candidates.

You can also use a chatbox on your career page and include answers to questions candidates might have about the position. You can also use a software to read through resumes and extract relevant information, or use Eversign for signing electronic documents. 

In short, several tools can help you optimize your hiring process and save you both time and money.

4. Outsource your recruitment campaigns

If your HR team is small or already overstretched, adding recruitment tasks can increase the total bill. For example:

  • When recruitment is not your responsibility, you have a lot to learn, so it will take time to complete each one of the steps.
  • If you do not specialize in marketing, it will be difficult for you to create job postings and advertising campaigns that will yield results.
  • If you have too many files to manage, you may end up forgetting to follow up on certain tasks, which can greatly affect the candidate experience of your potential employees.

In short, all this negatively impacts your new employee ROI.

To avoid hassle and potential mistakes, you could outsource your recruitment campaigns to specialized agencies!

Recruto is a division of recruitment firm Ancia, which takes care of all aspects of your recruitment process: attracting candidates, talent acquisition and new hire onboarding.

Their marketing team takes care of everything.

So free yourself from recruitment tasks, so your HR team can focus on the well-being of your employees!

3 strategies to increase the benefits of your new hires 

To increase the yield of your recruitment efforts, you need to think about ideas that promote employee retention and productivity. Essentially, the longer your employee stays and brings value to the company, the more costs are absorbed and spread over time.

Here are some best practices that can help you improve your new hire retention. 

1. Integrate your employees into your corporate culture

The experience you have ‘sold’ through your recruitment campaign must be validated as soon as your new employees arrive.

Make sure you have an onboarding program that is well-structured, so that the new employee feels well supervised and not left to fend for themselves. If possible, organize social activities to give your recruit the chance to interact with employees from other departments!

Many companies adopt the concept of mentoring ‘buddies’ where the new employee is paired with an experienced employee who can coach them, give them feedback and answer their questions. 

This concept is also useful for improving new hire retention because the mentor benefits from having their expertise be valued. This new responsibility provides a sense of pride and being helpful.

Finally, communicate your company culture and values before and during your new employee’s onboarding to make sure they fully embrace it.

2. Invest in the development of your recruits

In a competitive job market, every argument that can enhance your job offer can make a big difference.

For many, having development and continuing education opportunities is criteria in selecting their employer.

And we’re not just talking about the onboarding or short training programs!

Offer your candidates and new employees a tailor-made career management plan, including skill development activities. The more they can grow within your company, the longer they will stay.

In addition, continuous training is a way to increase the productivity of your employees and ensure a better quality of products and services. It’s a win-win!

3. Digitize your onboarding process

We have talked earlier about automating some of your recruitment tasks. What if you also used technology to speed up the onboarding of new employees?

You could reduce your onboarding expenses by 50% by digitizing your onboarding with Workleap LMS!

Think about it :

  • By documenting best practices and typical customer cases, you can ensure consistency in the services offered by your employees. Therefore, you can reduce the risk of customer dissatisfaction and increase the chance of making sales.
  • Since they have all the information and procedures at their fingertips, it will be easier for your new employees to perform their tasks independently. Your senior team can intervene only when needed, to manage more complex cases and ensure a good understanding of the working methods!
  • Automating what you often repeat also saves you time and reduces the risk of oversights or errors. By spending less time onboarding new employees, your projects move faster.

It’s your turn!

Now that you know how to calculate the return on investment of your new hire, all you have to do is implement the 7 strategies mentioned above.

Of course, ROI is a financial unit of measure, but its benefits go beyond financial return. In itself, increasing the quality of the candidate and employee experience pays back very well. 

Remember that in a context of labor-shortage, it is preferable to focus your efforts on increasing employee retention than to have to recruit new ones.

And that starts with pleasant working conditions, growth opportunities and a healthy relationship with your entire team!

Whether you're managing a two-person operation or a department of 100, it's nearly impossible for your organization to grow and move on to the next chapter of success if your whole team isn't on the same page.

Teams are at their best when they work cohesively and rally around shared goals. To help you reach better team alignment, we've broken down what team alignment means, why it's important – especially in a remote context – and actionable tips to help you move forward together.

What is team alignment? 

Alignment in the workplace occurs when all team members have a better understanding of company goals and have a clear vision for collective (and individual) long-term success. It isn't enough to know the end destination; you need to all be rowing in the same direction.

But team alignment extends beyond bottom line objectives; employees must all be on the same wavelength when it comes to achieving and building sustainable business practices. It's one thing for everybody to understand what you hope to achieve as a company, but ensuring your team is aligned with company values plays a crucial role in an organization's success. This requires people to believe in the approach and understand the role they and their colleagues collectively play.

5 Ways to foster strong team alignment

Let's dive into some helpful ways you can foster strong team alignment within your business.

1. Make communication and transparency core organizational values

How well you communicate information at every level of your organization will play a major role in fostering team alignment. It's so easy to fall into information silos, especially in a remote context where many team members are working in their own physical spaces.

If you have major organizational news or project updates to communicate, don't leave your team members in the dark; make sure to carve out some time where you can answer employee questions and clear up any confusing tidbits of information. The more transparent you are, the more aligned your team will be. 

2. Set crystal clear goals for your team

The goals you set for your team will be your North Star in helping your organization achieve success. Without clear objectives, the big picture can get lost in the shuffle of daily operations.

But you might be asking yourself: what is the most surefire way to document your goals? Team alignment looks different for every company, so there's no one-size-fits-all solution. If you're looking for a tried and true approach, the OKR goal-setting framework might be for you.

OKR stands for ‘Objectives and Key Results.’ The whole approach centers on establishing a clear goal (objective) and the metrics (key results) that will measure that goal’s success. Company OKRs empower managers to set goals together with their teams, and from there, set individual goals for every team member. This creates an aligned workforce that is better equipped to achieve broader business goals by tackling them one at a time.

One final (and super important) tip about goal-setting: involve your team. When everyone is involved in setting team goals, they're more likely to support them, understand them, and remember them.

💡Sign up for Officevibe's OKR email course where you'll learn the ins and outs of setting (and achieving!) stand-out company goals.

3. Check in with your team regularly

Communication around your company's values, strategy, and major objectives should not be one-sided. While it's important to keep your team in the loop from the top down, it's just as fruitful to uncover how these things are being understood and come to life on the front line.

So, once you've shared company objectives with your team and helped them set their own OKRs, how can you maintain a communication loop around alignment?

  • Book quarterly strategy meetings to clearly map out the connection between organizational, team, and individual goals. This can also be a good setting to discuss shifts in priorities or any possible tweaks to existing objectives.
  • Encourage anonymous feedback and messaging where employees can pose questions or raise any thoughts or concerns they may have. Having an anonymous touchpoint can help some employees feel more comfortable giving their candid feedback around alignment.
  • Carve out one-on-one time to discuss alignment with individual team members. Give them the time and space to ask anything that may be unclear about their specific objectives or how their role contributions to the broader picture.
  • Send weekly surveys with both quantitative and qualitative questions to measure your team alignment metric and keep track of trends over time.

4. Find the right team alignment tools

A recent study found that the average enterprise now uses an astounding 288 different SaaS apps. These tools are great for keeping us organized and on track and they're especially helpful for distributed teams. But with so many tools comes the potential for information silos and hidden work – both of which can wreak havoc on your team alignment. 

The solution isn't to try to force people onto a single tool. It's to identify the key tools that will help you build and achieve team alignment while allowing employees to work how they're most comfortable. 

Thankfully, there's no shortage of options.

  • An employee engagement platform like Officevibe empowers business leaders to spearhead alignment strategies. From goal-setting and one-on-one meetings to Pulse Surveys that keep track of how teams are feeling in their day-to-day, Officevibe covers all the bases to boost the employee experience, improve employee satisfaction, and keep teams aligned.
  • Chat tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams help keep your team aligned by opening up easy communication channels between employees, regardless of their physical location.
  • Project management tools like Trello and Asana can help nip misalignment issues in the bud by ensuring that everybody knows exactly what they need to be working on, and what their team members are working on.

5. Highlight team accomplishments

Whether you're congratulating your team for a job well done on a new campaign or giving kudos to an employee who reached their one-year workaversary, shining a light on employee contributions and milestones goes a long way in improving team alignment.

But not everyone is comfortable with a public shoutout; some team members may relish the spotlight, while others might prefer a private message from their managers or peers. With Officevibe's recognition platform, you can make sure no good deed goes unnoticed and send your colleagues a Good Vibe to let them know that you appreciate them.

1 in 4 employees say their organization doesn’t celebrate accomplishments or learnings.

Officevibe data

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The importance of team alignment in the workplace

Team alignment has a significant impact on the overall performance of your business. Without clear communication on your organization's goals and shared company values, your team members might find it challenging to present a united front and stay engaged.

On the flip side, there are countless benefits to strong team alignment.

  • Aligned teams perform better. Misaligned teams may spend more time going back and forth on specific initiatives and may not be able to perform to the best of their abilities.

    When teams are aligned, they're set up to succeed. Everyone has the information they need to make the right decisions, work swiftly, and prioritize projects that contribute to broader company goals.
  • Aligned teams are more engaged. When your team is aligned, each individual member understands the importance of their role and the roles of their colleagues and believes in the team vision. This creates a sense of camaraderie and belonging. People feel as though they're part of a collective in which everybody is working towards the same thing.
  • Aligned teams are more collaborative. It's a lot easier to collaborate when you're coming at a problem with a shared outcome in mind. People are more willing to compromise and support one another if they're all aligned on the desired outcome and what it takes to get there.

Signs of aligned vs. misaligned teams

According to Officevibe data, 75% of employees wish that their manager could define more precise goals. A team lacking in alignment is like a shopping cart with one bad wheel: it's frustrating and it's a lot harder to move in the right direction.

Here are a few telling signs that can help you find out where your team is on the alignment spectrum.

Aligned teamsMisaligned teamsProjects delivered on time and on the scopeFrequent missed deadlines and scope creepTeam and company achieve goalsTeam and company repeatedly come up short on goalsEfficient execution of workRepeated or overlapping workClear tasks and clear communicationMiscommunication and confusion are common issuesDefined channels for project management and communicationEndless meetings and email chainsHigh team engagement and high employee retentionLow team engagement and high employee turnover

Beyond these signs, one of the best ways for you to determine whether or not your team is aligned is to ask them. Don't overthink it! Use one of Officevibe's free downloadable one-on-one meeting templates to ask more specific questions and dive into potential reasons for the lack of team alignment.

sample one-on-one meeting templates available in Officevibe software
Check out Officevibe's one-on-one templates!

How remote work affects team alignment

Building and maintaining team alignment is no small feat and the reality of a distributed workforce throws a whole new set of challenges into the mix.

  1. Many companies and managers are still adjusting to this new work environment, and their teams have fallen out of alignment during the shift. This readjustment period is normal, but it's important to track where schisms may have arisen.

    Tip: Log where you feel your team has been compromised by change, so you can implement intentional solutions.
  2. Remote work makes it more challenging to have impromptu conversations and other interactions that help with team alignment.

    Tip: Check in on your team and keep your channels of communication open and honest.
  3. Managers of distributed teams often feel they've lost visibility on their teams and are unsure if their employees are focused on the right thing. They may struggle to maintain team alignment as a result. 

    Tip: Losing visibility can result in the tendency to micromanage. Instead, ask to join in on your team's dailies to keep up to date or hold weekly update meetings for the team to fill you in on progress and setbacks in an open discussion.

    Not sure if you're a micromanager? Use this free template to see if you need to reassess your management style.
  4. Finally, in a remote context, the negative impacts of misalignment – both performance-related and emotional – are amplified since issues cannot be resolved face-to-face and have become bucketed with other sentiments of isolation, disconnection, and loneliness.

    Tip: Create a safe space in virtual one-on-one meetings dedicated to discussing personal and professional difficulties. Reassure your peers that their feelings of uncertainty or frustration are valid by sharing and searching for solutions together. 

How Officevibe can help improve team alignment

Team alignment isn't something that you build and then stop working on. You need to be constantly communicating and engaging with your team to make sure goals and expectations are clear to improve employee satisfaction. This is especially true during times of change.

Officevibe puts people first and empowers managers to plan for growth and success on an individual and company-wide level with intuitive one-on-one meeting tools and templates, a built-in peer recognition platform, and an anonymous feedback channel where employees can speak freely. Officevibe helps you improve team alignment and work toward collective goals while elevating your overall employee experience.

The benefits of having an aligned team are immense: more efficiency, more team collaboration, and higher performance. You can crush your goals while keeping your team happy and engaged. That's something worth investing in.

Good candidates or employees don’t only need technical skills. 

Of course, they are essential in order to follow industry standards, improve themselves and become more efficient. But being ‘good at doing a job’ is not enough!

Think about it… You could have the best programmer in the world, but: 

  • He’s unable to organize his tasks and wastes time getting his head together;
  • He can’t communicate with his project manager, which makes it difficult to follow up on projects;
  • He doesn’t document or share his knowledge with the rest of the team;
  • He refuses to collaborate with other departments.

Would you really hire someone like that?

No! 

You wouldn’t, because your team must have an optimal mix of technical skills (hard skills) and soft skills. So, when you interview potential candidates, you always look for a balance between the two.

That is the key to building a more complete team that is able to meet all challenges that come their way, in addition to improving your employees’ performance.

Does this sound interesting? You’re at the right place, we’re about to demystify it all!

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What's in this article

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What is the difference between hard skills and soft skills?

When it comes to work skills, both types of skills are essential to achieving success: hard skills vs soft skills.

What are the fundamental differences between the two types of skills?

Hard skills are job and task-specific abilities or knowledge that a person has acquired through training or experience. They can be quantified and measured and are directly related to an employee’s role. They are often referred to as ‘know-how, because they are related to task execution.

On the other hand, soft skills are the interpersonal and behavioral skills that allow a person to interact with others in an efficient manner. They are more difficult to quantify and more complex to develop in your employees, but they have a positive impact on the entire team. They are often referred to as ‘knowing how to be’, or the ability to collaborate and coexist.

Hard skills vs soft skills examples

Hard skills (technical skills) Soft skills
CarpentryLeadership
Graphic designCreativity
Bookkeeping Patience
Translation Organization
Baking Communication

As you see, hard skills relate to real tasks that a person has to perform. On the other hand, soft skills relate to the way a person interacts with others.

Hard skills: a considerable technical asset

Hard skills refer to all the technical or academic, specialized skills that are acquired through training or professional experience. 

Unlike soft skills, hard skills can be learned relatively easily. For example, anyone (or almost) can learn to use a specific software.

Here are some concrete hard skills examples in business:

  • A developer who uses his programming know-how to create new software;
  • A secretary who uses her typing speed to perform work requested by her employer;
  • An accountant who uses her accounting skills for her company’s bookkeeping;
  • A marketing strategist who uses his SEO skills to attract new customers to a website. 

While both types of skills are important, technical skills tend to weigh more at the beginning of one’s career. This is because they are usually necessary for job execution. 

Hard skills are essential and generally have a high added value in the labor market. They represent limited know-how because they do not take into account the way people interact with each other. 

Soft skills: a small nuance that makes a big difference

Soft skills, behavioral skills...

Whatever the name, these skills are human-centric. They include aspects like communication, collaboration and problem-solving.  

They are not only useful in specific positions, they rather apply to all positions and even to other aspects of life.

And that is why they are so crucial!

In order to be successful in their career, employees need to have not only technical skills, but also, and above all, the ability to interact with others, adapt and solve problems… 

In short, one needs all these small things that we often forget when talking about professional skills. 

However, even if they are essential, soft skills should not be mistaken for social skills. The latter is more related to how we interact with others in a personal or social context.

Here are some concrete soft skills examples in business:

  • A sales representative who uses his capability to communicate to convince a client to sign a contract;
  • A manager who uses her interpersonal skills to motivate her team and improve collaboration within the group;
  • A developer who uses his flexibility to adapt to a new programming language;
  • An assistant who uses her sense of organization to effectively manage her schedule and that of her boss.

Why is it important to develop the two types of skills in your employees?

We all agree that it is important to develop these two types of skills in your employees, in order to  increase productivity. After all, technical skills are not very useful if one does not have the interpersonal skills to apply them. 

For example, a person can be very gifted with technical work. However, if they are not able to communicate well with the other team members, they will not be very efficient. 

Similarly, a person with good interpersonal skills can not be very comfortable with tools and software. They are useful but do not help to be more creative or work better with others.

This is where behavioral skills come in. 

They are essential for good communication, collaboration and innovation. In other words, they help your employees work better together and be more creative in their problem-solving.

It is therefore important to develop these two types of skills in your employees.

How can you do it?

In order to develop your employees’ behavioral skills, you could:

  • Encourage them to take risks;
  • Motivate them to learn from their mistakes;
  • Help them develop a common vision;
  • Stimulate creativity and innovation

In order to improve your employees’ technical skills, you could:

  • Provide them with a stimulating work environment;
  • Encourage them to learn new things;
  • Motivate them to be curious;
  • Help them develop professionally

How to develop hard skills vs soft skills within your company?

Employee training is one way to provide them with the tools they need to accomplish their daily tasks. 

This includes anything related to learning, such as awareness of company rules and procedures or courses on how to use specific tools. That is exactly what you need to develop hard skills!

On the other hand, soft skill development aims to improve your employees’ performance by providing them with the tools and opportunities they need. 

It can be done through training, but also through mentoring or professional development programs. 

It is important to understand that skills development is a continuous learning process. It never ends.

In other words, investing in your employees is a long-term investment.

As a manager, it is important to give your team members the opportunity to combine training and development.

So, are you ready to get started?

Workleap LMS offers many features to help you develop your employees’ skills.

Our team can even help set up a custom action plan for your business! Contact us for a free demo.

Creating and changing processes sounds big, doesn’t it?

Rest assured, it can be elementary, with a small-step approach.

Process management can be defined as a way to review and improve the steps of your business processes. By understanding how these processes work or don’t work, you can begin to see where there is room for improvement.

Please know that business process management is not about making thighs perfect, but rather about improving them. Even small improvements can make a big difference in your business.

You’re in the right place if you don’t know where to start! 

We’ll explain how you can get started in process management, and do it simply.

What is business process management?

Business process management (BPM) is the process of creating, implementing, monitoring and improving business processes. This approach considers the entire process, from start to finish, and looks for ways to make it more efficient, yielding better results.

All the departments in your company have processes that can be documented and centralized!

Here are a few examples :

  • Production : Machine operation
  • Customer service : Customer appointment calls
  • Marketing : Marketing a new product
  • Human resources : Onboarding new employees
  • Executive management : Creating an annual budget

The importance of BPM

Why is business process management important?

Because it makes your business more efficient. 

And that is important!

A well-planned process can contribute to continuous improvement, reduced costs and delivery times. Inversely, poorly conducted processes potentially cause delays, errors and many other inconveniences that you would gladly do without.

Reduce time waste

When processes are well managed, they tend to run more smoothly. This inevitably saves your business time and money by reducing time and effort loss. 

For example, if you have a process set up for handling inquiries, each request is processed efficiently and in a timely manner. This reduces the time you spend on each request and can also reduce customer frustration by ensuring that requests are quickly processed. 

Minimize error risk

Another benefit of business process management is that it helps minimize error risks. 

For example, an expense approval process ensures that all necessary information is collected and reviewed before the report approval. This reduces the risk of approving incorrect or incomplete reports, which could lead to costly errors.

The end of blame culture

When everyone knows what their roles and responsibilities are, there is usually less blame when things go wrong.

For example, a complaint process allows everyone involved to know exactly what to do and whom to contact when complaints are received.

This minimizes accusations and blame, which sometimes (often) occur during problematic situations.

No more lack of data

Another problem that can be solved through BPM is the lack of data. It can be difficult to assess and track progress when processes are not properly managed. 

This usually leads to situations where data is not available for making informed decisions.

What happens when a manager has to authorize or refuse an employee’s leave, but does not have data on their vacation or sickness days bank?

The manager can make decisions that are not in the best interest of the company. On the other hand, if this process is optimized, the data is available and easily accessible.

A pleasant working atmosphere

A company that implements clear processes usually benefits from a more pleasant working environment.

When things work well, there is less stress and therefore fewer problems.

To get your employees involved in documenting their work, you can value their expertise and delegate the responsibility of creating processes. They will be more inclined to follow the processes if they have actively participated in their development!

Which types of processes need to be managed?

Most business processes can be conducted in more than one way. However, there are certain types of processes that it is particularly important to manage well.

Here are some of these essential process types:

  • Customer service processes
  • Sales processes
  • Marketing processes
  • Human Resources processes
  • Financial and accounting processes
  • Manufacturing and production processes

These processes can be grouped into three broad categories:

  1. Integration/system processes
  2. Human-centric processes
  3. Document-centric processes

Integration/system processes

These are the processes that involve interaction between systems. For example, a process that involves the transfer of data from a system is an integration, or system process.

By connecting systems, you can create a single source of information for all your data.

For example, you could connect your accounting system to your customer relations management system (CRM). This will allow you to see each customer’s financial data, as well as sales, marketing and support data.

To integrate multiple systems, you need to use process integration tools. These tools automate the data transfer process between systems.

Human-centric processes

These are processes that involve people. For example, a process that involves customer service is a human process. 

The key is to help employees better understand processes, and guide them through them.

Human processes are the most difficult to manage because they involve people and, unlike systems, people are unpredictable. However, human processes are also the most important part of a company, since they have a direct impact on all these aspects:

Document-centric processes

These processes involve… well, documents.

For example, a process that involves creating or approving a document is a document-centric process. This can be a product or service listing, a policy, a form, etc. 

The lifecycle of a process

All processes have a lifecycle. The lifecycle of a process is the series of steps between its creation and its completion. 

The lifecycle of a process typically includes the following steps:

  • Planning and design
  • Implementation
  • Execution
  • Monitoring and control
  • Optimization

Planning and creation: design

The first step in the process lifecycle is planning and design. At this point, the process is being designed and created. This generally involves: 

  1. Defining the goals of the process;
  2. Designing the process;
  3. Creating any documentation needed.

This documentation must then be shared with everyone involved and centralized in an easily accessible location.

Implementation

After designing a process, it must be implemented within the company and the relevant team. This process is applied during this phase and sometimes requires a change management strategy.

In the list of best practices, this step often requires: 

  • Training all employees involved in the process;
  • Implementing all required systems;
  • Testing the process to make sure it works as planned.

Execution

Once the process has been implemented, it must be executed. This is the stage where the process is actually being followed by a member of your team, who can give feedback. 

This is the crucial moment, since it is during the process execution phase that it yields its final results. 

Monitoring and control

Once the process has been executed, it is monitored and controlled. This involves following the process to make sure it is working properly and making the necessary changes, if needed.

All processes must be updated at one point or another.

How do you monitor and control a process?

There are many process management tools that you can use to do it. These tools help track process performance, identify problems, and make necessary changes.

Some of the most popular BPM tools include:

  • Process mapping tools
  • Process improvement tools
  • Process follow-up tools

Optimization

The last step of the process lifecycle is optimization. At this point, the goal is to improve the process and make it more efficient. 

This could include :

  1. Changes to the process itself
  2. Changes to specific systems of the process
  3. Changes to people involved in the process

Best practices in business process management

There are many things you can do to make sure your BPM is efficient.

Here are some of the most important process management practices:

  • Set clear goals
  • Create a process that aims to achieve these goals
  • Efficiently document each step
  • Train all employees involved
  • Centralize documentation for quick access
  • Test and track the process to make sure it works as planned
  • Make any changes needed, regularly

When considering its most fundamental elements, business process management turns out to be a pillar to improve the organization, efficiency and productivity of your company.

However, it is important to remember that BPM is not a miracle solution, it requires special attention and organization.

But it is oh, so worth it!

Turn your employees into process champions

Your employees hold your company’s in-house expertise and organizational memory: don’t risk losing it all! 

You should develop your employees into internal procedure champions and involve them in the content creation process. By sharing this task with your main employees, you ensure greater longevity for your team’s knowledge.

Engaged employees will be more inclined to adhering your BPM anyway.

As a team leader, you know that employee engagement surveys can give you invaluable insights into company culture, employee satisfaction, team well-being, and much more. You hold engagement surveys, follow all the best practices, and do your best to make sure everyone takes part.

You have the results; but what next? How can your survey results help you spot areas for improvement and map out potential action plans? Read on for ideas about how to use employee survey results to promote a healthier, more productive organization.

Communicate the employee engagement survey process

Before you analyze engagement survey data and start your action planning process, take a moment to thank your team for participating in the survey. Answering employee surveys takes time and thought, and your team members deserve acknowledgment for their contribution. This hat tip can take the form of a brief email or even a verbal message.

This is also a good time to mention any employee participation rewards your company may provide for those who answered survey questions.

It's also useful to outline how the company intends to use its employees' feedback. For example, you can say: "Your responses will play a major role in our action plan to improve employee engagement levels and create a better company culture."

In short, a simple “thank you” goes a long way. Employees who feel their managers recognize their contributions are happier, more engaged, and more loyal to their organization.

Review and analyze the employee engagement survey results

What do your survey results mean? In-depth analysis is a vital step in moving from raw data to understanding employee engagement survey results and what they mean for your company. Choosing the right survey tools will make it easier to interpret your results and answer questions such as:

  • What are some key themes in employees' responses? For example, do many of your employees point out difficulties in communication with their managers?
  • How does employee feedback compare between different demographics? For example, a good percentage of employees aged 45 and younger may state that they are interested in flexible work hours, while those closer to retirement might prioritize their financial wellness.
  • How do survey results differ between various departments or teams? Your survey may uncover that satisfaction levels are 15% higher in the research and development department compared to the marketing department, for example.

What changed since your previous employee survey?

If you have already run employee surveys before, comparing the current results with previous answers can show you changes in important metrics like staff engagement, satisfaction, and communication.

For example: "Our latest survey shows that compared to January last year, the number of employees who state they enjoy a positive work-life balance increased by 20%."

Once you distill the employee engagement survey results into a list of main points, you can present this data to company managers and discuss:

  • What are our key takeaways from the survey results?
  • Can we identify areas for improvement? (i.e. workflow, communication, cohesion, etc.)
  • What action plan do we propose? (i.e. employee engagement initiatives, workplace wellness programs, etc.)

Consider influencing factors

As you analyze survey results, keep in mind that several factors can influence your metrics. These may include:

  • Timing. Could an approaching holiday season explain a slump in motivation? Did you run the survey in August when half the department was on vacation?
  • Changes in the organization's size. If your company grew from 10 to 100 employees in a year, this will naturally influence team dynamics and engagement.
  • Context. Did your survey coincide with a big company triumph, like a successful product launch, or a turbulent period like changes in management?

Share the survey findings with your team

Now that you have your employee engagement survey takeaways, human resources can communicate results to the entire team, starting with company leadership and managers. The managers' involvement and cooperation in action planning will play a major role in using survey data to promote company goals.

The role of leaders and managers

Discuss results with managers and heads of departments from the unique perspective of each team. After looking at the macro-level results, it’s useful to zero in on the findings for different departments and teams.

For example, you might point out to a manager: "We see that your team members are happy with collaboration and teamwork within the department. However, your particular department's responses also point to a high level of workload stress. How do you think we can change these dynamics?"

It’s vital for leaders and managers to keep an open mind when looking at survey statistics. It's tempting to say, "I have been working extra hard with and for my team this quarter. I don't think it makes sense for my team's engagement scores to go down. Maybe the survey questions were unclear or something was wrong with the survey process."

With an empathetic, caring approach, the HR team can help managers take survey feedback in a positive direction and plan ahead for improvement.

Communication with employees

Once organization leaders and managers understand the survey results and have a broad idea of a workable action plan, it's time for open discussion with your employees. Each manager can give their team the result highlights, like satisfaction scores and other critical findings.

{highlight}💡Pro tip: Stories work better than numbers for engaging employees. Rather than saying, "Our engagement scores improved by 7.5% in the last 12 months," try: "We are proud to say that most of our team members are happy working at our organization. We hope to use the latest employee engagement survey results to create an even better and more supportive work environment in our company."{highlight}

Conduct follow-up team and one-on-one meetings

Following up lets employees know that the company leadership cares about their feedback. Follow-up meetings after a survey are like saying, "When we run a survey, we don't just gather the data and forget about it. We take the time to see what survey results mean for day-to-day teamwork and how we can grow together."

In large organizations, individual employees may often feel overlooked or disconnected. A department or team meeting to discuss survey results creates a more approachable, personalized vibe and allows employees to give their managers additional helpful feedback.

Managers can take this opportunity to initiate an open-ended discussion attuned to the team's needs: "According to the survey results, employee stress levels in our department are 40% higher compared to the rest of the organization. What do you think about this and how can we create a more balanced work environment?"

If possible, managers might also discuss the survey with employees in individual follow-up meetings that provide a safe space for workers to air their concerns, questions, and insights. A one-on-one meeting may help an employee open up about some issues that they wouldn't feel comfortable discussing in front of the team like mental health challenges that affect their productivity.

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Create action plans based on employee feedback

After you've analyzed survey findings, shared key data with managers, and promoted team meetings to discuss the results, you can start the action planning process. If this is your organization's first major survey, it might seem like every area needs improvement.

As you prepare for action planning, remember that successful long-term change can start small. A gradual but consistent reform may prove more effective than a dramatic overhaul. To put recommendations into action, we suggest that you:

  • Choose a few areas where you can achieve improvement quickly. Let your action planning concentrate on these points to carry out change and gain momentum.
  • Be specific in actions and timelines. For instance, rather than say, "We will assign a mentor to all newly onboarded employees," say, "All new employees will undergo an onboarding period of one month, during which their mentor will touch base with them daily."
  • Appoint a leader responsible for carrying out the plan. For example, if your goal is creating a better workflow, assign a manager who will monitor workloads and ensure that important tasks get resolved when employees are at their most productive.

Act on the plan

Once you have a detailed plan, announce it to your employees. Doing this will promote transparent communication and team engagement. Here are a few examples:

  • "To improve work-life balance for employees in our organization, we will limit all work-related communication to work hours, except in emergencies."
  • "In an effort to promote better eating habits in our company, beginning next week, we'll provide all our employees with healthy snacks and beverages throughout the day."
  • "We have purchased new task management software to improve efficiency, productivity, and communication. We'll provide tutorials and individual support."

Communicate progress regularly

Once you follow through on the first stage of your action plans, monitor their effects to see if the results match your expectations. Consider running targeted follow-up surveys that focus on the specific change you're implementing within the company. These surveys will let you know how well your plan is working and what you can do to improve it.

Above all, don't hesitate to fine-tune any plans that fail to meet expectations. A workplace initiative or a wellness program may look good on paper, but does it actually tap into your team's key drivers? Continue engaging with the people in your organization to gauge what actions can bring real and lasting positive change.

Continue surveying, tracking results, and updating the plan

Taking action on employee engagement survey results can help you increase engagement, boost employee satisfaction, and achieve an overall improvement in your organization. However, a single survey is just one link in the communication chain between company management, human resources, and employees.

To continue building an open dialogue between the leadership team and the rest of the organization, plan subsequent surveys to get real-time feedback and promote steady incremental change. To achieve more accurate results and amplify engagement for the next survey, you can:

Officevibe: Easily track employee experience with a user-friendly platform

Wondering how to approach employee engagement surveys? Not sure what questions to ask to figure out what your team needs? Officevibe simplifies the process of getting employee feedback and improving team engagement.

Our Pulse Survey tool makes it easy to assess employee experience, track your team's progress, and promote higher staff engagement levels. Try it for free!

Fostering a positive work environment and employee experience is crucial to the longevity of any organization. Happy employees tend to stay with a business longer, have more focus at work, and perform better on tasks. On the other hand, low employee satisfaction can lead to high employee turnover rates and instability within the company.

Learning what your employees think about your business is the first step to creating a sustainable company culture that encourages employee loyalty.

So, what's the best way to learn how your employees feel about their workplace? Measuring eNPS for your organization.

eNPS stands for employee Net Promoter Score. This metric is a simple and effective way for HR teams to measure employee engagement and satisfaction.

Let’s go over why and how to calculate your employee Net Promoter Score and how you can use eNPS data to implement positive changes in your company's work environment.

Why should you calculate your employee Net Promoter Score?

How organizations treat their employees directly affects the quality of their work. Calculating an organization's eNPS can provide a practical understanding of how employees think and feel about their workplace experience. As a manager, you can use the data to develop impactful strategies to motivate and engage your teams.

Studies show that positive employee engagement can dramatically increase employee retention rates and lead to greater overall work satisfaction and higher productivity levels. 

Officevibe data shows that 96% of employees feel like regular feedback and performance reviews were helpful to their work.

By conducting regular eNPS surveys, you can keep your finger on the pulse of your organization's culture. This allows you to watch how the changes you implement improve your employees' view of your organization over time.

Engaged employees who feel heard typically focus harder on their work and develop a more positive attitude toward their employers. Calculating your eNPS is a positive way of letting your employees know that their thoughts and ideas matter. 

Interpreting employee feedback

Developed by Fred Reichheld in 2003 as a metric to gauge customer satisfaction, the original Net Promoter Score (NPS) helps businesses increase consumer engagement and provides crucial data about consumer concerns.

With the success of the Net Promoter Score (NPS) aimed at consumers, the next step was developing the eNPS, which became an effective method to measure employee satisfaction within an organization.

The data that eNPS questions produced have proved useful for employers looking to better understand how they might improve their internal business practices. Rather than having management implement changes without the input of their people, eNPS scores can give your leadership team valuable employee feedback to help establish a baseline understanding of what employees want and need from your organization.

You will calculate your eNPS from employee answers to the key eNPS question:

Using a scale from 1 (unlikely) to 10 (highly likely), what is the likelihood that you would recommend your current place of employment as a good place to work?

To understand the rationale behind your employee responses, your survey should also provide a follow-up question or prompt that elicits a more qualitative response, such as:

Please let us know why you provided this score.

The initial 1-10 scale allows you to measure the eNPS and determine employee engagement. While you will likely receive a mix of positive and negative feedback, performing this eNPS survey can give you a general sense of how employees are feeling about your company at that moment.

The quantitative data you collect contributes to a helpful rubric for understanding your employees' relationship to their work. Interpreting the data requires the follow-up qualitative prompt, which gives you vital insight into the reasoning behind the score and will give you a window into the individual experiences of each employee.

Grouping employee responses into separate categories based on how they feel about their work will provide your management with an understanding of the state of employee loyalty within your company.

Screenshot of Officevibe showing the team eNPS scores
An example of an employee Net Promoter Score.

Breaking down the data into three employee Net Promoter Score categories

When we conduct an eNPS survey, we look for trends in the scores that can tell us more about employee experience. The eNPS formula provides us with data that can help us visualize different aspects of employee feedback in more concrete terms.

To process the survey results, you will group employee responses with similar scores on the eNPS scale together into one of the three basic categories. Each category reflects how likely an employee is to recommend your place of employment to friends and family.

To help unravel this data, we assign value associations to each of the three categories, giving us a clear idea of employees' relationships and attitudes about their organizations.

Promoters

We label the first group as Promoters, a category that includes employees who assign the highest scores (9-10). Promoters are indispensable assets and may serve as ambassadors to your company's brand identity and recruitment campaigns.

These highly loyal employees feel the greatest satisfaction and are the most likely to recommend your company to prospective employees and customers. They may even promote your company publically on LinkedIn and spread positive word of mouth among friends and family.

Detractors

On the other end of the scale, we have the Detractors, which includes a broad range of unsatisfied employees who provide the lowest scores (0-6). Detractors are more likely to be pessimistic about the company's future and may view their work negatively. They are likely to be at the core of your low-morale challenge.

Detractors are the least likely to recommend your brand or employment to friends and family. Those with the lowest satisfaction rates may go out of their way to discourage others from engaging with your company.

Passives

The last group, the Passives, are those employees who score a moderate rating (7-8). While passives may enjoy working for your company, they may be open to other employment options, even if they aren't actively seeking new opportunities.

Since Passives are neutral, you will not use their scores to calculate your employee Net Promoter Score. However, this group is the most likely to provide constructive feedback. Passives may also move up to the Promoter category if you make positive changes to your company's culture.

How to calculate your employee Net Promoter Score

Now that you know what measuring your eNPS can tell you about the range of employee attitudes, let's dive deeper into how to calculate an eNPS score.

After you collect your eNPS survey responses and separate the scores into three categories, subtract the percentage of Detractors (those with scores from 0-6) from the percentage of Promoters (those with scores of 9-10). The number you get will be your employee Net Promoter Score.

The eNPS formula should look something like this:

Employee Net Promoter Score = Promoters (%) - Detractors (%)

Although you're subtracting percentages, your eNPS is a number rather than a percentage.

Your eNPS will fall somewhere between +100 (the highest possible score) and -100 (the lowest possible score). An eNPS that is less than the zero midpoint is a serious red flag and can indicate the root cause of systemic issues.

Regardless of whether or not you receive a positive or negative score from your company's eNPS survey, you may be surprised by what the responses tell you about your workplace. Part of what makes engagement surveys like eNPS so effective is their ability to tap into the underlying sentiments of an organization's employees.

One simple question can tell you a lot about what your employees think and feel about your company. Their responses and feedback can help you gauge if your company is heading in the right direction. This metric should serve as the first crucial step toward making improvements in your workplace.

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A practical example of an employee Net Promoter Score calculation

Examining a real-world example of an eNPS calculation can highlight what you might expect from your company's score. It also provides a rough sketch of the process.

Let's use Organization A as our example.

Organization A is a signage business with 300 employees. Amy, Organization A's CEO, has noticed a recent dip in employee performance and focus. Using her eNPS score, Amy wants to measure employee satisfaction and collect feedback. Ultimately, she wants to learn what she can do to improve Organization A's work environment for employees.

Out of Organization A's 300 employees, the survey scoring found that 180 (60%) are Promoters, 65 (22%) are Passive, and 60 (18%) are Detractors.

Disregarding the Passives, the key percentages were 60% Promoters and 18% Detractors. With this information, the results for Organization A looked like this:

60% [Promoters] - 18% [Detractors] = +42 [Organization A's Final eNPS Score]

While Organization A received a positive score from the eNPS surveys, the employee responses revealed a significant number of Detractors. Just by asking one simple question, Amy was able to measure her company's eNPS and find out that nearly one out of five of her employees were dissatisfied with their jobs. But why?

Amy’s analysis noted that a common answer to the qualitative question from the Passives highlighted poor communication from management as the main cause of their discontent. Using this feedback as a baseline, Amy was able to implement changes to increase employee engagement with management.

To find out if the changes she made were improving her employees' outlook, Amy continued to conduct monthly engagement surveys to see if her company's eNPS was improving.

After several months, Amy observed that Organization A's eNPS jumped several points from +42 to +47. While the number of Detractors only slightly decreased, a considerable number of Passives had become Promoters since the eNPS survey and following the management changes.

What should you expect from your organization's eNPS metric?

When you calculate your organization's employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), it's important to keep an open mind about the results.

As a leader, you’ve poured your heart and soul into your company, so it's normal to be nervous about what measuring eNPS may tell you about your business. But a good leader is one who is open to negative and constructive feedback rather than one who immediately gets defensive. Emotional responses to the data can make it more difficult to understand eNPS results.

Once you calculate your eNPS, you can then use the feedback from your employee Net Promoter Score qualitative surveys to come up with strategies to improve engagement. Regardless of the mix of positive or negative results, what's significant is understanding why your employees gave the responses they did.

For those with positive responses, find out why employees like working for your organization. Rather than patting yourself on the back, use this as an opportunity to expand on working strategies. For the negative responses, consider this a valuable way to review those areas in your organization that need improvement and to reconsider your management tactics.

What is a good employee Net Promoter Score?

While you may expect a higher score than you receive, that doesn’t mean that your score is bad or reflects poorly on your organization. Just keep in mind that eNPS scores can mean different things for different types of companies.

An employee Net Promoter Score can fall anywhere between -100 and +100. The following is a general rubric for gauging your eNPS score:

  • Acceptable = 0 (or above)
  • Positive or Good = 10-30
  • Superb = 50 (or above)

Although your organization's score provides a good baseline for understanding employee engagement, it's more important to look at the underlying factors that contributed to the score you received. The responses to the additional qualitative question in your survey will provide you with insight into your employees' perspectives and the mood of the organization more broadly.

Employee opinions are subject to change, often very quickly, so be sure to remember that eNPS surveys only reflect attitudes in the present moment. As a result, it's important to hold an engagement survey periodically to keep you updated on how your employees regard your organization.

Negative responses one month do not automatically translate to negative responses the next. This is especially true when you implement strategies that target identified areas of weakness.

Conducting an eNPS survey is especially important for companies going through a period of upheaval. Dramatic changes can be unsettling for employees and cause increased levels of discontentment. Calculating eNPS provides an important metric that will help you keep your finger on the pulse of your employees and that can allow you to anticipate these dips in performance so that you can take preventative action.

Tactics to improve your eNPS to increase employee engagement and employee satisfaction

Although the exact tactics an organization can use to improve their eNPS will vary between companies, several general principles can help guide you.

One of the major benefits of eNPS is the opportunity it provides an organization's leadership to reach out to employees for input and general feedback about their workplace experience. The first step to improving your eNPS is learning how your employees feel about working for your company and how they feel conditions might improve.

Often, their suggestions will contain practical answers that are within your organization's means to implement. Some of their suggestions will also align with general strategies for increasing morale in the workplace and improving employee efficiency. Several of the goals and strategies you might adopt include:

  • Developing transparency between employees and management
  • Empowering employees through recognition and incentives
  • Allowing flexible work hours so employees feel that they have more agency over their schedules
  • Providing constructive feedback regularly (Officevibe statistics show that 83% of employees appreciate feedback, regardless of whether it's negative or positive)
  • Encouraging collaboration among employees can build a sense of unity and promote loyalty within an organization

While these are all good places to start, the tactics you will employ will largely depend on your organization's specific needs and the types of changes you are able to achieve. Because some changes may not be possible for your organization, be sure to think creatively about what methods are available to allow you to meet your employees’ needs.

Once you implement these initiatives, the best way to keep track of the results is by continuing with engagement surveys. Future surveys will help you gauge the success of your strategies and can provide you with crucial insight into why and how your initiatives worked (or not).

How Officevibe can help

Officevibe’s easy-to-use, intuitive engagement surveys and Pulse Survey tools help managers connect with their employees on a deeper level. From showing you how to calculate eNPS to recognizing employee achievements, we can help your organization gain a better understanding of what makes your team want to stick around for the long haul.

Sign up for a free Officevibe trial and start improving your employee experience— your team will thank you for it.

Employees are arguably an organization’s most valuable assets. So it makes sense that having optimal employee performance is key to ensuring a company’s long-term survival. 

Keeping your team happy and engaged can help you maximize profitability and provide a consistently pleasant customer experience – and setting up a recognition program will let you do just that.

We understand that as a manager or supervisor it can be challenging to promote employee satisfaction while:

  • Treating all team members fairly
  • Setting clear expectations
  •  Establishing trust and healthy peer relationships
  • Addressing conflict and other roadblocks
  • Understanding everyone’s challenges, aspirations, and motivations

Overcoming this challenge, with the support of your management team, makes it possible to implement a dynamic employee recognition program to boost employee engagement and productivity.

To help you understand your team’s needs and expectations, we’ve put together 20 employee recognition questions for your next survey.

The importance of employee recognition

Recognition occurs when an employee receives an acknowledgment for their contributions to their team and/or organization. These contributions include consistent performance, new ideas, and professional behavior.

According to an analysis by Gallup, 74% of employees who say their team receives regular recognition strongly agree that they feel their work is valuable and useful. It’s clear then that implementing a vibrant recognition program is the key to:

  • Providing employees with a sense of accomplishment
  • Enhancing employee engagement
  • Establishing company loyalty
  • Improving employee productivity
  • Maximizing employee retention and saving costs

Creating an employee recognition survey is an effective way to gauge how employees feel about the current recognition program and identify areas for improvement.

20 employee recognition survey questions

Including the questions below in your employee recognition surveys will allow your employees to give feedback and helpful suggestions to improve their employee experience. Using the answers to these questions, you can pinpoint problem areas and formulate optimal solutions for your team.

1. How often do you receive recognition?

How frequently employees receive recognition for their contributions plays a role in how appreciated they feel. 

One-on-one meetings with employees are the ideal opportunity for managers to acknowledge stand-out work or an innovative idea. If employees indicate that they only receive recognition once per month or even less often, you should start making improvements to your recognition program.

{emphasize}💡 Pro tip: Employees should receive recognition, either from their managers or peers, at least once a week.{emphasize}

2. Do you feel you receive enough recognition?

Each employee is unique. Some individuals require daily recognition to feel valued at the workplace, while others might not know how to respond to recognition or may feel uncomfortable with praise. This question in the employee recognition survey indicates whether or not the existing program is sufficient.

{emphasize}For example, if employee responses show that your team is happy with a yearly reward, implementing a daily or weekly appreciation program may be unnecessary.{emphasize}

3. Is the recognition you receive meaningful?

The employee recognition survey should give insight into how relevant and substantial your organization’s rewards are. If an employee doesn’t find the existing rewards valuable, upping the frequency might not be the right solution. They may be looking to receive meaningful rewards instead.

{emphasize}For example, some employees prefer acknowledgment in front of their peers, while others may feel appreciated with a private message. Each organization needs to determine whether the form of recognition it offers is effective, and then make changes accordingly.{emphasize}

4. Do you feel valued at the company?

Employees want to feel that their daily activities, work ethic, or ideas contribute to the company’s success. When employees know they play a specific invaluable role within the organization, they are more likely to stay on which boosts employee retention rates and creates a more positive work culture.

{emphasize}💡Pro tip: You can easily show employees that their roles are valuable through clear communication. Being attentive to an employee’s wins and giving real-time kudos will help your team feel appreciated.{emphasize}

5. Do you know which behaviors receive recognition?

Employees should clearly understand the behaviors that receive recognition within your company. When your team knows what is most important to your organization, they are more likely to focus on these tasks.

{emphasize}💡Pro-tip: One-on-one meetings or training initiatives are effective ways to let employees know what the company expects of them.{emphasize}

6. Which behaviors should receive recognition?

This employee recognition survey question prompts employees to consider other achievements that managers should acknowledge. Because employees deliver products and services, interact with customers, and collaborate with vendors, they can identify efforts that are integral to the company’s success.

{emphasize}Managers might not be in tune with which tasks are necessary to retain customers. In the survey, employees can indicate that personalizing offers and selling loyalty programs are the reasons customers return. These tactics and initiatives should receive recognition.{emphasize}

7. Which recognition type do you value most?

As managers, it’s important to know what part of your recognition program is the most valuable to employees. Making changes according to these survey results is simple and will make sure your program runs more effectively.

{emphasize}Officevibe can help give your team a safe space where they can be honest about the type of employee recognition they value.{emphasize}

8. What rewards would you like to receive?

If you’re missing the mark with the previous question, you may need to reevaluate the rewards you're offering altogether. Asking employees what they'd like to receive can give you more clarity. 

Providing valuable rewards ensures that employees find the recognition meaningful and motivating. At Officevibe, we strongly believe that non-monetary recognition, such as verbal or written praise, peer-to-peer acknowledgment, or leader-to-team recognition, leads to more intrinsic motivation than to monetary perks.

{emphasize}💡Pro-tip: Consider asking this question in multiple-choice format. Employees’ recognition preferences should align with your organization’s resources.{emphasize}

9. Is the company’s recognition program fair?

Keeping things fair promotes a healthy company culture. This can be as simple as recognizing two employees if they both worked on a successful project.

{emphasize}💡Pro-tip: Set personal relationships aside when recognizing employees. Remaining unbiased makes sure all employees are satisfied with the recognition program.{emphasize}

10. Are the recognition benefits proportional to achievements?

Do employees believe that the recognition they receive is appropriate for their achievements or milestones? Recognition can be tiered according to the impact a person’s work or efforts have on the team and/or organization.

{emphasize}For example, if a team member proposes a new process that will streamline their team’s work, they can receive kudos during their next team sync. On the other hand, if someone secures the biggest client of the year, a company-wide shoutout may be worth giving.{emphasize}

11. How can HR improve the recognition program?

If you have difficulty coming up with ways to recognize employees and improve employee satisfaction, why not ask them what they want? 

Your employees likely spend a lot of time thinking about how the company can show them they are appreciated. Adding this question to the survey allows them to give their valuable input anonymously.

{emphasize}With Officevibe, you can give your team members a stake in their own development.{emphasize}

12. How accessible do you find recognition benefits?

Having an accessible program can be as simple as ensuring your employees know the program exists and making all the recognition tools easy to find and use. If employees need to jump through hoops to view or access their praise after earning it, you may need to rethink how your organization tackles recognition.

If the employee recognition survey answers indicate that the program is complicated or time-intensive, be sure to find a way to improve their experience.

{emphasize}💡Pro-tip: Having a centralized and user-friendly platform like Officevibe can make your recognition program intuitive for the entire team. {emphasize}

13. How frequently do you give others recognition?

For a culture of recognition to thrive, showing recognition is just as important as receiving it. Implementing a peer feedback loop is effective and can motivate employees to be excellent team players.  

In organizations where employees recognize the accomplishments of others, employee experience tends to reflect the company values.

{emphasize}💡Pro-tip: Encourage employees to provide weekly feedback and acknowledgments to each other. This can be done verbally during a coffee chat, or by sending Good Vibes on Officevibe.{emphasize}

14. Is the recognition for additional effort sufficient?

Some employees have the inherent need to go the extra mile for their employer. Those who go above and beyond should always receive recognition from company management.

This survey question provides valuable insights into how the company treats high achievers. You can optimize these employees’ efforts by making the necessary improvements to the recognition system.

{emphasize}💡Pro-tip: If an employee consistently performs well, it’s important to schedule one-on-one time to understand their career goals and how you can play a role in their personal growth.{emphasize}

15. How easy is recognition across geo-locations?

Employee recognition is critical in a distributed workforce. Building personal relationships can be challenging when dealing with remote teams, and you might also have difficulty determining a remote employee’s motivators. Asking this question can help you make sure you have a team of engaged employees, no matter where they work.

{emphasize}💡Pro tip: If remote workers participate in the employee recognition survey, ask them if they find the acknowledgments from the organization meaningful. These answers can help you make improvements to establish loyalty among all employees.{emphasize}

16. When did you last receive recognition from management?

Communication gaps may exist between management and their direct reports.

For example, team leaders might believe that they regularly acknowledge employee contributions. But if the employee recognition survey indicates that several weeks have passed since employees received an acknowledgment, they might not realize that management recognizes their achievements. This can allow managers to assess and revisit how they are giving kudos.

17. What is the impact of recognition on employee morale?

The ultimate goal of an employee recognition program is to keep your team happy and engaged. Asking this question will help you determine if the current program is effective in keeping employee engagement levels high and boosting your team’s morale.

{emphasize}💡Pro-tip: In some cases, acknowledging one employee’s achievement can enhance the general mood of an entire office. This simple act of appreciation can be a source of inspiration for other employees and can even carry a domino effect.{emphasize}

18. Does the organization reward new ideas?

Through employee recognition, a company can incentivize team members to come up with new ideas to improve efficiency.

The survey answers to this question should indicate that employees are satisfied with the acknowledgment of a new idea. If the answers highlight a pain point, you’ll be better equipped to come up with a solution.

{emphasize}💡Pro-tip: Let people in your organization know that you value innovation by creating an innovation board or Slack channel where everyone can share new ideas.{emphasize}

19. How does employee acknowledgment impact the work environment?

Digging deeper, does acknowledging employee performance affect the general mood and productivity of the team?

Giving kudos is a win-win situation for both employees and organizations. When employees feel recognized, not only do they feel motivated to do their best work, but they can also see a clearer picture of how their work impacts the company’s goals. A pleasant work environment is essential to ensure company-wide efficiency and productivity. 

20. Does the company culture promote employee satisfaction?

Once you start building a culture of recognition, you’ll want to measure if there is a clear connection between the appreciation given and the levels of employee satisfaction.

Do employees feel motivated after receiving kudos? Do they recognize employee engagement efforts set forth by the company? This will help you identify the efficacy of your recognition programs and allow you to make any tweaks to improve them.

{emphasize}💡Pro-tip: Consider following up your recognition questionnaire with an employee engagement survey to better understand how the two align.{emphasize}

How to create employee recognition surveys

Creating pulse surveys is one of the most effective ways to collect employee feedback. These feedback tools give you a real-time, bird’s eye view of your team’s employee recognition requirements so that you can make informed decisions.

An employee engagement survey is also viable if you need to keep track of remote teams.

85% of workers who use the Officevibe Pulse Survey tool believe that their current employer cares about their well-being.

Employee recognition ideas to improve employee engagement

Effective ways to recognize employee achievements include:

  • Scheduling one-on-one meetings and carving out time for kudos
  • Promoting employee feedback within a virtual setting, like sending Good Vibes on Officevibe
  • Acknowledging team members’ contributions during company-wide projects
  • Celebrating employees’ milestones

How Officevibe can help

As a Pulse Survey platform, Officevibe lets you measure 10 metrics and 26 sub-metrics of staff satisfaction, including wellness and recognition. Using Pulse Surveys, you can collect employee feedback from targeted questions more frequently, which means you don’t add to your team members’ workflow.

Using Officevibe, you can track metrics like recognition quality and frequency. You can also generate a visual report that overviews employee satisfaction and problem areas needing attention.

Want to talk with our team about how Officevibe might help your organization? Request a demo today where we'll get the conversation going!

We all like to know that someone sees and appreciates our efforts. When you recognize and reward employees' hard work, you improve employee motivation, boost their loyalty to the organization, and create a more positive company culture.

So how can you improve employee recognition, especially in a dynamic workplace where many people work remotely? Read on to discover the most effective ways managers and leaders can improve recognition and boost employee morale.

The importance of employee recognition in the workplace

In today's intensely competitive and stressful workplace climate, people don't just work for a paycheck. Employees also need to feel recognized and valued to sustain their mojo.

Research shows that individual and public recognition can boost employee motivation, improve performance, and reduce attrition. A full 91% of employees say recognition is meaningful, even if it's just a simple "Thank you!"

Today, many organizations understand that showing appreciation for employees can:

  • Make employees happier and more ready to learn new skills that will make them an even better fit for their role
  • Increase employee engagement and promote team collaboration
  • Improve staff retention and help keep valuable talent within the organization
  • Foster friendly competition between team members
  • Boost employee morale during challenges, like working towards a tight deadline

8 ways to improve recognition in the workplace

Here's some good news: you don't need to spend a lot of money (or any!) to recognize your employees or make them feel appreciated. 

In fact, it’s been shown that cash rewards can actually decrease intrinsic motivation. Companies without a large budget for employee rewards can develop an effective and authentic recognition program without spending money with the following low-cost high-impact suggestions. 

#1: Make employee recognition genuine and impactful

Giving kudos should be intentional and well thought out. Sending a robotic “thanks” or “great job” every time an employee goes the extra mile won’t get you much further than not recognizing them at all.

That said, recognition doesn’t have to be long and tedious to give. Including these simple points in your message will make sure it’s authentic and effective, ultimately helping you boost your employee engagement:

  • Include a short but clear recap of what they accomplished
  • Mention the value it brings to the team and/or organization
  • Share any shoutouts you received from other employees and leaders
  • Add a personal flare and warmth

For example, rather than just saying, “Great job on building this landing page,” say something like, “I really appreciate your efforts in fixing the glitches on the homepage. Your work helped us reach our campaign targets, and our customer acquisition team is so excited about the improved user experience!” The key here is sincerity; if you don’t mean it, don’t say it.

#2: Advocate for regular virtual recognition

With a distributed workforce, employees, especially those that are fully remote, may sometimes feel disconnected at work. It’s normal. Casual chats by the coffee machine aren’t as common or may not even happen at all for some team members. 

Making real-time virtual recognition a habit and even the norm can make sure everyone feels seen and appreciated, no matter where they choose to work from. From video sessions, to Slack channels, to a recognition platform, the opportunities for remote employee recognition are endless. 

{emphasize}Pro tip: host casual virtual games and get-to-know-me sessions that add a more fun and personal touch to professional relationships.{emphasize}

New Good Vibes message opening with a burst of confetti in Officevibe’s My Recognition dashboard.
Officevibe's Good Vibes tool makes manager and peer-to-peer feedback effortless.

#3: Prioritize employee engagement

Employee appreciation and recognition go hand in hand with employee engagement, which is critical to the success of any organization. Rewards and recognition motivate employees to invest more in their performance and go the extra mile to advance and fulfil company-wide goals.

A strategic employee recognition program will also include elements that improve engagement, like building connections, encouraging collaborative teamwork, and providing real-time feedback and praise. Engaged employees are happier, more productive, and less likely to seek out professional opportunities elsewhere.

{emphasize}Officevibe's employee engagement platform can help you assess engagement levels in your company and map out a plan to boost employee motivation.{emphasize}

#4: Provide career development opportunities

Investing in an employee’s professional development is one of the most effective ways to incorporate recognition into your company culture. Nurturing your employee’s career development is like saying, "We believe in your abilities and want to keep you in the company long-term."

Today, many employees prioritize professional growth and are more likely to stay in a company that understands and promotes their long-term career goals. While some larger corporations subsidize their employees' MBAs or provide other scholarships, an organization can also help its employees develop their careers with:

  • Targeted mentorship programs and workshops
  • Flexible work options for employees balancing work and academics
  • Setting goals using OKRs 

Employees can upskill with both hard skills (i.e. learning a programming language), and soft skills like leadership, empathy, and communication.

A good manager will encourage employees to reflect on their strengths and plan their career for the next year, five years, and 10 years.

#5: Promote peer-to-peer recognition

Recognition and appreciation shouldn't just flow from managers to employees. A healthy company culture encourages employees to value, acknowledge, and motivate their peers. When team members share peer recognition and support, the entire crew works better together.

Promoting recognition between colleagues can lead to: 

  • Improved collaboration. When coworkers uplift rather than compete, it encourages mutual trust and cooperation. While a bit of inner competition is healthy, managers should emphasize that individual success is team success.
  • Higher job satisfaction. Employees who are supported and acknowledged by their peers are happier with their workplace and less likely to look for a new job.
  • Increased motivation. Positive feedback and recognition from colleagues can boost employee initiative and autonomy.

Managers can encourage inter-team recognition using different methods like sending appreciation messages on Slack channels or implementing an anonymous shout-out platform.

[ov_cta id="5118858"]

#6: Acknowledge work anniversaries and other milestones

In a large company, employees may wonder how much they really matter. Acknowledging each employee’s work anniversary shows them that the company values them.

The “workiversary” recognition message can appear on a physical board or a communication app and say something like, "Two years ago today, Susan joined our team. We all treasure Susan’s commitment, initiative, and willingness to lend a helping hand.”

You could also turn the spotlight on successful past projects that played a major role in your business with a message such as: “Exactly one year ago today, we signed the contract with our biggest client. We could never have done this without David’s skilled networking.”

#7: Recognize employees' personal accomplishments

Recognition in the office is not just about highlighting a great PowerPoint presentation or a thorough annual report. In a positive company culture, a tight-knit team celebrates its people’s personal milestones, like getting married, having a baby, or completing an academic degree.

Employee recognition programs may also acknowledge employees whose personal endeavors reflect company values, like giving back to the community through volunteering or fundraising.

#8: Carve out time for recognition during team events

We love recognizing employees regularly and virtually. With the right tools, it’s easy, tidy, and accessible. But sometimes nothing compares to being celebrated or celebrating someone else in person. It's the cherry on top of the recognition sundae.

Whether your team has gatherings once a month, quarter, or year, taking the time to recognize them during these events will bring an extra layer of motivation and engagement. The important thing is to let employees know that you value them not only for their productivity, but for who they are as individuals. 

{emphasize}Pro tip: For smaller team gatherings, make a list of the milestones and/or accomplishments (promotions, work anniversaries, birthdays, etc.) that happened since your last event and take 5 minutes to give each person a shoutout or toast.{emphasize}

Tips for successful employee recognition programs

We’ve walked you through why you should work toward improving recognition in the workplace and the ways to go about it, but now we’ll go through some handy and actionable tips for making your people feel seen at work.

Give real-time recognition

When you want to highlight someone’s accomplishments, there’s no better time than the present. Thank your employees for their outstanding work in real time, even if you plan to offer a more structured reward later.

{emphasize}Emails are great tools for real-time recognition. Acknowledge your employees' successes, big or small, using our email templates for expressing gratitude.{emphasize}

Recognize efforts, not just success

We all love to have our work yield positive results: a major contract, new clients, or an inflow of sales. However, your employees deserve to feel appreciated for their extra hours and effort regardless of the outcome.

Ask for feedback

Is your recognition program working? Does it improve your employee engagement rates and promote a healthier, more supportive company culture?

An employee survey can help you assess how much your employees benefit from the program and what changes you can implement to show employee recognition even more effectively.

Demonstrate team appreciation with Officevibe

Create a healthy recognition culture in your organization with Good Vibes, Officevibe's newest platform for highlighting effort and the little victories in everyday tasks. Motivate your employees with personal recognition tools that help improve team vibes and create a more positive workplace. 

Society values know-how, expertise and technical skills, but remember that companies are, above all, human organizations. 

What does that mean, actually?

Companies are made up of men and women working together. In doing so, they have to deal with all kinds of situations that require special skills that are neither technical nor specialized.

In other words, the employees’ technical knowledge is necessary but it is not enough to manage their daily missions and reach the objectives of their company. There is a growing need for ‘soft skills’.

Would you like to find out how to develop your team’s soft skills to achieve your growth goals and improve your work environment?

{emphasize}

What's in this article

{emphasize}

What are soft skills ?

Soft skills definition

In business, ‘hard skills’ are often contrasted with 'soft skills’, or ‘behavioral skills’. This refers to human-centric skills. They are general, transversal and adaptable to any type of position.

Behavioral skills: examples

Would you like a few examples? No need to look far, everyone uses them every day, all day long, without necessarily realizing it.

Here are some of the most well-known soft skills, which would benefit from being better developed if you wish to improve the working atmosphere of your company:

  • Communication (allowing everyone to know what they have to do to achieve the company’s objectives);
  • Leadership (essential qualities that inspire and guide others);
  • Empathy (the ability to understand how someone else feels or acts);
  • Decision-making (done in an informed manner and after analyzing the consequences);
  • The ability to give and receive feedback (one of the best ways to progress and improve collectively);
  • Etc.

Who are soft skills for?

Behavioral skills are very often associated with executives and managers, but it would be wrong to think that these skills are exclusively reserved for them!

Why? Because any employee, regardless of their position and responsibilities, is required to use behavioral skills in order to exchange with their manager and colleagues, organize their priorities, manage conflicts, do a job interview…

Here are some concrete examples of using soft skills in business:

  • To lead a transformational project (reorganization, implementing new tools, defining new objectives, etc.), the ability to show leadership and to develop communication are crucial.
  • To resolve a conflict within a team, managers and employees have every interest in communicating and showing empathy to defuse the situation and find a solution together. 
  • To welcome neuroatypical employees, managers must know how to adapt to their communication style, and show empathy and flexibility, in order to ensure the employee’s well-being.

Soft skills are useful at any point during the day and in many situations. That is why companies integrate them in their employee skills development programs.

What are the 5 main benefits of soft skills training in business?

Soft skills are coming up more and more often, and it’s not a coincidence!

It’s because they are beneficial in business and many other areas.

Boost productivity

Developing your employees’ soft skills contributes to strengthening their skills, which impacts their productivity. This is particularly true for employees who work in teams, in direct contact with customers, such as customer service and sales.

Helping your employees to be more attentive to customer needs, identify problems and solve them is a real value added for your company!

Make decision-making more efficient

Within a company, managers and employees must make many decisions on a daily basis (and be accountable for them). Some must sometimes be dealt with in a rush, which impacts the company’s activities and employees.

This is the type of situation where soft skills are very useful, as they allow us to make decisions in an informed way, having analyzed and anticipated their consequences.

Improve the work atmosphere

There is no team that doesn’t experience tension or friction, but not dealing with the issue is even worse than having it in the first place!

Adapting your communication, knowing how to dialogue, raising sensitive points rather than avoiding them, pays off and can greatly improve a team’s work environment. 

Good communication within a company is particularly important for the work atmosphere (and not only!)

Through ‘lateral’ or ‘horizontal’ communication, employees can share information and collaborate in good conditions, without silos. This contributes to the creation of good cohesion within companies.

Promoting internal mobility

Acquiring non-technical skills, or soft skills, prepares the most motivated employees to take on more responsibilities and eventually move on to management positions.

Therefore, an employee who wishes to benefit from internal mobility will benefit from developing their soft skills, both in order to be part of the progression process and because they will need them in their new position.

It seems that soft skills are becoming more and more important as one moves up the chain of command. 

Increase employee retention

This brings us to the main problems companies face today: talent retention.

Employees who are trained more fully, in different types of skills, with prospects for progression, will have more good reasons to stay within the same company. It’s as simple as that.

Essential behavioral skills to develop

There are so many soft skills… Of course, we cannot go into detail for each of them, but here are 3 that we would like to highlight.

Communication, a vital skill for any organization

If we had to only address one soft skill, it would be communication.

Can you imagine a company where nobody knows what they have to do to achieve the organization’s goals? Without communication, the company would be in serious trouble.

It is because managers have understood its importance that communication is present everywhere in a company: in procedures, emails, from the bottom up, from employees to management, etc. Everyone is constantly communicating.

Implementing good communication in business is not always easy, but it can be learnt!

Using leadership to rally employees to a common vision and goal

It is important that we insist on leadership in business, because it encompasses many other qualities such as empathy, communication, a sense of organization, decision-making, courage, charisma, intelligence and integrity.

It is therefore a key skill to have - and it is not reserved for managers, contrary to what some may think.

Leadership encourages the development of autonomy and promotes everyone’s professional development.

In other words, leadership can be defined as the ability to motivate others and inspire them, so that everyone feels more involved and therefore more effective.

Creativity, a source of innovation in business

When faced with complex situations or an uncertain future, creativity makes it possible to approach issues in a new way, by allowing employees to think outside of frameworks that are too rigid, strict or procedural.

It is a ‘safety valve’ that some people need.

Companies that want to develop intrapreneurship and foster innovation should be encouraging creativity, because all these elements are interlinked and together, they stimulate the growth of a company.

3 ways to develop your employees’ soft skills

Now that you are aware of the main benefits of soft skills, would you like to know how to implement them?

Let’s see what your options are.

Peer learning and mentoring

Peer learning and mentoring are part of what is called ‘social learning’. These can be exchanges with peers (peer learning) or with people who are more professionally advanced (mentoring). 

The common point of these two methods is learning from others, exchanging resources and best practices. Peer learning and mentoring are sources of engagement and they both promote a sense of belonging. 

While some exchanges can take place informally, you can also set up a mentoring program to develop your employees’ soft skills.

Online training

Let’s now look at some of the more formal learning methods. Online training is one of them. Concretely, through an online training platform (Learning Management System) like Workleap LMS, you can:

  • create training courses and divide them into modules;
  • create varied content (texts, videos, audio files, PDF documents, quizzes, etc.);
  • set up clear summaries for each part of the course;
  • unlock content according to a set schedule, in order to set a pace of progress, or, inversely, let employees progress at their own pace;
  • ensure that employees have followed the training, evaluate them and monitor their progress.

Online training gives you a lot of freedom and control. After choosing a training platform, you can organize your content as you wish.

Our advice for getting your employees onboard? Make your training information concise and focused so that they can apply it concretely in their daily life.

You may just be getting started, but know that in the long run, an LMS like Workleap's can help you build a knowledge management system on the topic of soft skills, for your company and employees.

Interactive, in-person workshops

Nothing beats practice !

One cannot talk about soft skills without mentioning in-person workshops and live simulations. The advantage of this kind of format is that it promotes exchanges between participants and trainers, in particular through role-playing games:

  • A work dispute within a team about conflict resolution;
  • A scenario about meeting facilitation techniques that help improve communication;
  • A situation (urgent or not) in which someone has to analyze different elements in order to make a decision.

The possibilities are endless, and the experience is particularly stimulating!

Everyone can share their vision of things, react or even change roles during the workshop (from manager to employee, or vice versa, for example). 

In order for this kind of workshop to be beneficial, it must be concrete and allow each employee to participate and evoke real-life situations. The goal is for employees to be able to apply the newly-acquired skills in their everyday life.

How to use Workleap LMS to develop your employees’ soft skills?

Are you wondering what the easiest soft skills would be to teach with an LMS?

Let’s look again at the 3 examples mentioned above.

Communication

You could create a training course that explains the importance of corporate communication and details the different types of communication (top-down, bottom-up or horizontal).

In order to enrich the training, you could add testimonials from managers in video format to provide practical advice on improving team communication.

Another idea would be to detail the different existing communication tools (phone, video conference, chat, email, etc.) and explain which tool is more relevant for which context.

Leadership

Using an LMS to assess leadership competence is a good place to start.

Since this is a key skill and quite a complex one, you can divide the training in several modules: positive influence, trust, qualities expected of a leader, etc.

The topics can be approached from different angles, including a more playful one, through quizzes, for ex.

Creativity

How could you encourage employees to develop their own creativity?

What would be the possible benefits?

How could you foster creativity in team meetings?

Are there any methods that promote creativity?

An LMS could help you all of these questions. You can reserve some modules for managers, and others for employees. With a topic like this, you can let employees progress at their own pace, and maybe even top it all with a virtual classroom.

It’s your turn now !

Start a free trial of Workleap LMS and discover all the features you can use in your team’s soft skills training.

If you need help with your gameplan, ask for a demo and we will be happy to exchange ideas with you.

As an SME manager, reducing expenses and optimizing your budget are among your top priorities. And one of the hardest expenses to estimate is training. 

Whether it is for continuous training or onboarding new employees, the bill can get steep quite fast.

On the other hand, not training your employees can bring significant losses in terms of efficiency, inconsistencies in the service and a great fragility when it comes to internal expertise. In the end, neglecting training is also expensive.

Training employees is one of the most important investments you can make for your business. But how can you know if the cost of training is really worth it?

By calculating its ROI (Return on investment)!

Knowing how to calculate the cost of training and its ROI will allow you to make a more informed decision before investing in employee training.

6 factors that affect the cost of training

What is training?

Training is a process that enhances an employees’ skills, knowledge set and abilities. It can be done through in-class learning, on-the-job learning or e-learning.

Knowing how much training costs involves more than just its total price or its price per person.

It involves its real cost and the return on investment (ROI) it will yield.

There are different factors that can affect the cost of training: the type of training, the size of the class and the duration of training; these are some key factors to consider.

The size of the company

You have several options.

You may choose an external trainer. External trainers are specialists in their field, and they sell their expertise. You can also opt for an internal trainer. This would be an in-house specialist who could share their techniques, tools and best practices with their colleagues.

One thing is certain: using an external training company is usually more expensive than opting for internal trainers.

However, if you manage a large company, you may be able to negotiate a better price per person.

Hiring an external trainer is often the most expensive option, but it can be very advantageous: you will be able to benefit from an expert-level training that is adapted to your company needs.

Although this is a cheaper option, there are also costs associated with using an in-house trainer: their remuneration and overheads. 

When choosing a trainer provider, it is essential to compare their price per person with their experience and qualifications.

Initial skills

If your employees have little experience in the field that you would like them to be trained in, it will usually take longer and cost more to train them.

Inversely, if they are already familiar with the subject, it will be cheaper and faster to train them. 

You can do a skills gap analysis to assess the current situation and better target the level that needs to be developed, according to your organizational priorities.

The training method

The teaching method you choose will also impact the cost of training. In-class learning is usually more expensive than online learning. 

And even for online training, there are significant differences between the investment required for synchronous vs asynchronous training. Although setting up a pre-recorded training has a higher initial cost, it often yields a more interesting ROI in the long term.

Think about it: you only create the training content once, and you can reuse it for several years!

The type of position

The type of position will influence the type of training required, and involve online or field sessions, depending on the position needs.

This could impact the total training cost, since not everything can be done online.

The training location 

Off-site training will inevitably be more costly than on-site training. If you opt for off-site training, you will have to consider the venue rental costs and your employees’ travel expenses.

However, this is sometimes the best option, especially if you have employees in several locations that need to be trained. 

There is always the option to hold your training in the office. In this case, you will only need to account for travel for employees who normally work in other branches or work remotely. This is a good middle-ground option!

If you are considering online training, there are no costs related to conducting the session!

Productivity loss

While training employees provide many benefits, it can also lead to loss of productivity. Obviously, employees cannot work while they are in training, and this cannot be avoided.

You also need to think about the amount of time your employees will have to adapt and apply the newly learned concepts, which can vary in complexity.

However, it is important to note that lost productivity is not always a negative cost. You also must measure its indirect benefits.

For example, training can sometimes help avoid potentially costly mistakes!

5 Hidden Costs to Watch out for 

In addition to direct costs of training, there are hidden costs that you need to be aware of.

Trainer’s fees

The trainer’s fee is usually the most important cost of the training. The trainer’s expertise and the duration of the session impact the cost of training. 

Apart from the trainer’s fees, there are also travel and accommodation costs to consider, if the trainer comes from a different location.

Your employees’ time

The time your employees spend in training is another important cost to consider.

When employees are in training, you still have to pay their salary. You might also have to pay replacement salaries, if their positions are critical to the smooth running of operations. 

Material costs

Next, you have to consider training material costs, such as manuals and supplies.

And then, there is the cost of certification, which is inevitable if your company needs staff to be certified after being trained.

Employee travel costs

If your employees have to travel away from their usual workplace for training, they will have to pay for transportation costs. 

For long training sessions, it is often recommended to provide meals or snacks, especially if the sessions are not being held at the office.

Administration

There are costs related to the administration of the training, such as application fees and venue rental. There is also all the time your human resources teams and managers have spent making an inventory of the training to be offered to each employee, and managing registrations. 

These costs are not easy to estimate, but they must be included in your training budget planning.

How to calculate the ROI of your training?

How can you know if a training program is worth the investment?

It can be hard to determine whether a training program is worth the investment or not. You must consider all associated costs, both direct and indirect.

This brings us to the concept of return on investment (the famous ROI)!

The return on investment is a way to measure whether a particular investment is worth making (or not).

You calculate the return on investment by dividing the gain from the investment by the amount of money invested. The result is a percentage that indicates how profitable the investment is.

But how to calculate the cost of training and its return on investment?

There are different ways to do this, but the most common one is to divide the expected gain (benefits) of the training by the cost of the program (the amount you are investing).

(Gain – Amount invested / Amount invested = ROI

A good ROI comes close to 10 (the higher it is, the better).

For example, if you invest $500 in a training that allows you to earn $2000 per year, your ROI will be 3, or 300%.

(2000-500)/500 = 3

(2000-500)/500 x 100 = 300%

Cost of training calculator

Use this table to determine which costs apply to your training and calculate the total amount to be invested.

To estimate the average cost of training per employee, divide each item by the number of employees participating in the training.

Acquisition costsLogistical costsParticipation costs
Cost of purchasing the training Venue rental Material printing
Trainer’s fee

Training time x Trainer’s hourly rate

Travel expenses Travel time

Travel duration x Payroll of participating employees

Salary for the creation of the training

Production time x salary of the employee in charge of creating the training

Coffee, meals, snacks and allowancesTraining time

Training duration x Payroll of participating employees

Content creation software license

Divided by the number of training courses created in a year

Online training platform license

Annual invoice / amount of training courses to be published on the platform

Inactivity costs

Estimated cost of lost operational productivity while employees are in training

Cost of purchasing or renting content creation equipment

Divided by the number of content or training courses in a year or during the rental period

Managing costs

Time needed for organization and follow-up x Salary of the person in charge

Time for applying the training content learned 

Allow 1 to 3 hours per employee to experiment, after the training x Payroll of the participating employees

Employee training is a real investment

Training is an investment, and like any investment, there are associated risks. 

However, if you choose your training well and manage it properly, it can turn out to be very beneficial for your business.

Trained employees = Employees who are better equipped to meet your business needs.

Employers often consider training to be a cost rather than an investment, when they see it as an expense.

However, good training can be very profitable.

A company that trains its employees is better equipped to deal with its changing needs. Trained employees are also generally more motivated and have a better opinion of their company. 

Here are some key elements to measure to estimate the benefits of training: 

  • More conversions by the sales team
  • Reduced customer churn
  • Improved customer satisfaction score
  • Decreased support call numbers
  • Faster and easier implementation of new systems or processes
  • Increased average bills, as a result of good customer service
  • Faster pace of daily production
  • Decreased numbers of injuries and therefore absences
  • Improved employee relationships

Therefore, training is an investment that has many potential benefits! When done right, it leads to increased profits, greater employee satisfaction and better customer relations, to list just a few!

The many benefits of continuous learning

Continuous training is an excellent way to develop and deepen employee skills and keep the company up to date with the latest technology. 

Beyond the technical aspects, training on behavioral skills is also important.

Employees who receive behavioral skills training are more aware of their own behaviors and those of others. They can better communicate and collaborate, which leads to overall improved productivity. 

Training allows employees to feel valued and motivated, which is crucial to a company’s success.

Where does an LMS come in?

A learning management system (LMS) is a powerful tool that helps companies reduce their training costs.

Workleap LMS can help you optimize your ROI by allowing you to track the effectiveness of your training programs. You will be able to target your spending more efficiently and get a better return on investment. Ultimately, you can manage training processes more efficiently, thus making the most of your resources.

How is that possible?

  • Centralizing training allows the sharing of best practices, which leads to an increase in productivity.
  • Digitizing data yields time savings in management by human resources and managers. In addition, by digitizing the data, you no longer have to worry about losing important information (yay!).
  • One way to reduce the cost of training is to use asynchronous training. This type of training helps employees become more autonomous in their learning, as they can learn at their own pace. They can spend less time on training, which in turn reduces the overall cost of training.
  • Creating online content is a great way to reduce training costs. By creating the content only once, you can reuse it for different trainings. This not only saves you time, but also reduces the overall training costs. 

Online content creation also provides more flexibility and creativity in the way the information is presented. 

Therefore, an LMS clearly plays an important role in reducing training costs and increasing efficiency.

And if you're wondering how to build a customized employee journey, just request a demo a we'll show you!

When it comes to touching base with employees, keeping track of their workload and deliverables, and just checking in on a personal level, one-on-one meeting questions are the way to go. While one-on-one meetings are a great time to ask your direct reports any important questions you have for them, they also serve as a great time to address any questions your direct reports might have for you.

As a manager, you have a long to-do list and many moving parts to keep track of. As a result, you might not always have the time to craft the perfect questions for your one-on-one meetings. Sometimes, it can be challenging to know what one-on-one meeting questions to ask managers and employees or what you should be discussing with your team members.

We get it. So to help you get enough feedback (and valuable insights!) we’ve put together a handy list to keep you on track, dividing them by subject. Because, after all, if you’re not asking the right questions, you might not be reaping all the benefits of one-on-ones.

Use the following questions to efficiently set discussion points in your next one-on-one meeting agenda so that you can focus on your employees’ answers, and the next steps that come from these meaningful conversations.

How to structure one-on-one meetings

Before even jumping into one-on-ones, it’s important to brush up on how to structure them appropriately. While the conversations should always feel natural, preparing for them will help you feel confident in your approach and can even help improve communication and build trust over time.

Whether you want to talk about professional development opportunities, company culture, or anything in between, a one-on-one meeting template can help you get started and master your one-on-one conversation!

The great thing about a template is that it still allows you to stay true to your management style and put your personal touch on it. Managers and employees alike will benefit from proper preparation and structure.

While different types of meetings call for different structures, the goal is to cover the right talking points and follow up on action items. For example, a classic one-on-one meeting generally follows these steps:

1. Informal check-in (5 minutes)

2. Recent work recap (10 minutes)

3. Upcoming work preparation (10 minutes)

4. Wrap-up and set action items (10 minutes)

A goal-setting meeting will follow a different structure, with some preparation ahead of time:

1. Employee self-reflection (before your one-on-one meeting)

2. Setting individual employee goals (during your one-on-one meeting)

3. Establish smaller action items (wrapping up your one-on-one meeting)


Now let’s jump into the questions, shall we?

50 One-on-one meeting questions

Now that we’ve explored the structure of one-on-one meetings, let’s walk through the kinds of questions you can ask in each situation. From general check-ins and career development meetings to personal or difficult conversations, we’ve got you covered.

Come prepared with appropriate questions for the meeting in order to cover everything on the agenda and maintain a great flow.

Questions to check in with employees

Whether it’s your first one-on-one with an employee or you’ve been having regular sessions for a long time, it’s always good to have a check-in meeting. Open up your next regular one-on-one conversation with a meeting question from the list below.

These questions will help you understand what’s on your team member’s mind, so you can direct the conversation from there during your check-in:

  • Can you tell me about what you’ve been working on and how it’s going?
  • What’s been on your mind concerning work these last two weeks?
  • Can you share a recent example of a work situation where you thrived? What were the key components that led to your success?

💡 Did you know? Open and honest communication between managers and employees can have a huge impact on employee motivation, satisfaction, and even productivity. So having one-on-ones regularly can even help with employee retention. In fact, a recent study showed that high employee engagement actually results in 18% more productivity (Gallup).

Plan, track, follow-up on your one-on-ones

Other managers themselves are often some of the best people to ask for tips on having better one-on-one conversations.

Questions about personal life

While chatting about career goals and offering constructive criticism is an important part of one-on-ones, it’s also important to show an interest in their personal life. How employees feel in the day-to-day is often a reflection of what’s going on outside of the workplace.

Not only does tapping into this help build a better relationship, it also plays a big role in building trust. At the end of the day, we are all human. It’s important for everyone to be able to talk about the challenges they are facing, as well as the non-work highlights they would love to share.

At the same time, it's also important to maintain the balance between being personal and remaining professional. While it's necessary to show that you care, it's also important to ensure and respect privacy.


To help you navigate this, here are some questions to ask when you want to check in with your employees on a personal level, without being invasive.

  • How are you doing, and how is life outside of work lately?
  • How do you feel your work/life balance is right now?
  • Is there something you enjoy doing in your free time that you feel you haven’t had time for lately?
  • Is there something you wish you could change about work that would positively impact your personal life? What would that be?

Pro tip: Be specific whenever you can. If they have children, ask their names and be sure to check-in and ask questions about them. If there has recently been a holiday or a life event, ask about that too.

Showing an interest, remembering little personal details, and having these relatable conversations can make a world of difference in an employee’s day.

Questions about employee engagement and motivation

So many factors that contribute to employee engagement and motivation, so tapping into what those are is key. After all, a successful business runs on employees who are driven and content in their role and career progression.

Sometimes the biggest challenge managers face is making sure their team stays motivated and kicking ass, so these meeting questions are designed to find out what they’re enjoying, what they’re not, and how you can address the challenges they face:

  • Are you excited about what you’re currently working on?
  • What motivates you to come to work?
  • How do you feel about our upcoming projects?
  • Do you sometimes feel bored or unchallenged at work? If so, how can we make your day-to-day more motivating?

Questions about employee performance

Success is a two-way street. Employees perform better when the company succeeds in listening to their needs and responding in a way that enables them to hit their goals. Performance management helps with professional growth, which in turn contributes to company success.

Here are some questions to ask to ensure you’re receiving feedback that can help boost employee performance:

  • What skills or behaviors do you demonstrate at work that are a win-win for you and for your team or company?
  • Do you ever have to work on more than one task at a time? If so, how could your duties and your responsibilities be reorganized so that you avoid having to multitask?
  • In your judgment, what does our company value or expect from you regarding your performance? Have you had the opportunity to satisfy these expectations or actualize these values in your work?
  • In your judgment, is the method for evaluating and awarding one’s job performance justified and fair?

Pro tip: Have performance review meetings with new hires after their first 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days to set the tone for future performance discussions.

One-on-one questions about team alignment

Staying aligned takes some finessing, but finding the right balance is always possible when done right. Having your team aligned can help improve performance and increase employee satisfaction (win-win!).

Deep dive into these questions to assess what’s working, and what can be done to increase alignment:

  • Do your colleagues know when they can interrupt you? If not, how could you communicate this to them without it undermining your ability to collaborate?
  • Are there things happening on the team that make it difficult to collaborate?
  • Do you feel the team has sufficient resources (IT, human, budgetary, material, or other) to achieve our shared team goals?
  • If there was one thing you could see our team or company accomplish, what would it be? What would help you or your team to achieve it? What do you think might get in the way?

Pro tip: Officevibe is the ultimate tool for getting everyone to focus in the same direction. 

Questions about professional development

When it comes to professional development, everyone has their own career aspirations. From learning new skills to building long-term goals, growth is subjective. That’s why it’s essential to find out what matters to each employee, the direction they want to take, and the career goals they have.

HR leaders and managers alike can benefit from having these career conversations in order to help each individual grow.

Ask these professional development questions in your next one-on-one:

  • Do you feel like you’re making progress in your role?
  • Do you feel challenged at work? Are you learning new things?
  • What is something we could do to help you achieve your short and long-term goals?
  • Do you feel we’re helping you advance your career at the pace you want?
  • Are there any events you’d like to attend or training you’d like to have to help you develop your skills?

💡 Did you know? 1 in 3 employees say they don’t have someone at work who helps them grow and develop (Officevibe Pulse Survey data). 

A workplace mentor can be a great way to help further an employee’s professional development. Get tips on how to mentor an employee.

One-on-one questions about employee challenges

No role comes without its share of challenges. Whether it's learning how to manage distractions (at the office or while working remotely!), day-to-day problems with communication, or even an issue with the company culture, employees should always be encouraged to speak up.

Remedying these issues and blockers will help improve employee satisfaction and performance. Even if past managers haven’t taken the time to take employees’ grievances into consideration, you certainly can!

Here are some useful questions to ask in your future meetings (on-site and with remote teams):

  • What elements of your work environment cause the most frequent interruptions to your productivity and how could you remedy this problem?
  • In your judgment, is your workload reasonable? If it isn’t, can you suggest solutions that we could implement together to address the problem?
  • What are the best ways for you to communicate with me when you find you lack resources whether IT, human, budgetary, material, or others?
  • What are the best ways for you to communicate with me when your role and your responsibilities at work aren’t clear to you?

💡 Did you know? Remote workers face a number of challenges that aren’t necessarily faced in the office. Since a recent study has stated that a quarter of working hours will continue to be worked remotely (BNN Bloomberg), it’s important to ensure that remote employees’ challenges will continue to be addressed. 

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Check out 6 proven solutions to common distributed teams challenges.

Ask questions about recognition preferences

Being recognized for your work is a huge motivational force for employees. But how they receive positive feedback can differ. Checking in to ask about the method and frequency is a great way to keep employees on track with their accomplishments and recognized in the way they want.

Ask these questions when checking in during your one-on-ones:

  • In what context would you prefer the good work you’ve done to be underscored?
  • What kind of employee recognition would have the most positive impact on you? Do you prefer voiced appreciation of your input during team meetings, positive feedback from me in one-on-one meetings, team activities that highlight the success of a given project, or something else?
  • Do you make an effort to recognize your peers’ work and accomplishments?
  • Is there something we could do as a team to improve recognition?

Employee feedback and communication questions

Similarly to recognition preferences, it’s also important to ask your employees how they like to receive feedback in general. Some employees take well to receiving feedback and constructive criticism, while other employees require a different approach. Getting to know what works and what doesn’t is key.

Here are some straightforward meeting questions you can ask each individual:

  • How do you prefer to receive feedback?
  • Is there a piece of constructive feedback that you received recently that was particularly helpful? Why?
  • Do you feel comfortable offering your colleagues feedback on the work you collaborate on?
  • Is there anything I could give you feedback on right now, or any feedback you might have for me?

Pro tip: Check out our employee feedback guide for managers and find out how to give constructive feedback that helps your team.

One-on-one meeting questions about career goals

Setting career goals helps to keep employees on track and focused on where they want to be in both the short term and the long term. But it’s a manager’s role to help them determine what those are, and how to stay on track when trying to achieve them.

Asking the right one-on-one meeting questions is a great place to start:

  • Do you need to have a clearer picture of how your individual career goals allow us to attain our goals as a team or a company?
  • Do you need my help identifying which actions could help you achieve your long-term goals?
  • As things stand, do you think you will be able to achieve your goal?
  • Do you think that we should work together to revise your goal, or set new ones?

Setting employee goals can be tough. In Officevibe, you can set individual goals collaboratively with employees, and connect them with your team’s collective goals. From there, you can set smaller action items at every one-on-one meeting, so your team members are set up for success to achieve.

Ask questions about employee work-life balance, wellness, and stress.

Just like the importance of asking questions about an employee’s personal life, checking in on their work-life balance is also crucial. Now more than ever there is a focus on managing stress and taking care of mental health.

Be sure to ask the right questions to let your team know you are listening and that you support a healthy balance:

  • How are you prioritizing work-life balance?
  • Do you feel comfortable taking breaks, time off, and making use of flexible work policies?
  • Can you give me concrete examples of stressful situations you experience at work?
  • In your judgment, what’s causing the stress? Is it a sense that you lack control, a feeling that you aren’t proficient, or difficulties dealing with unpredictable or new aspects of your job?
  • Are you able to ask colleagues with more experience than yourself for help, support, or input when it comes to managing stressful situations?
  • What do I do as a manager already, and need to continue to do, to support our team’s physical and mental well-being?

Pro tip: Checking in on your employees’ mental health can be a sensitive thing to handle, but it is a necessary one. A mental health template can be a great guide in helping you navigate through asking the right questions.

Questions to wrap up and set next steps

From career development to an employee’s wellbeing, every issue is worth diligently following up on. Personal productivity questions are just as important as work culture questions, so these open-ended options can cater to everything and anything that may be on an employee's mind during your meetings.

  • What’s one thing you’ll put into place in the next week or two based on our conversation?
  • Is there a specific talking point we should circle back to in our next meeting?
  • Before we wrap up, can you think of anything I could do to help you out?

If agreeing to the next steps is important, tracking them is even more so. Officevibe lets you assign every action item (to your team member or yourself!) at the end of each meeting. Then, it sends you an email on Mondays to remind you of your commitments.

Action items automatically carry over to your next one-on-one agenda on the platform, so you never lose track of what you both said you’d do.

One-on-one meeting best practices

Now that you’ve navigated your way through each section of questions addressing topics like career growth, growing more soft skills, challenges while working remotely, and so much more, it’s a great time to check out the ultimate one-on-one meetings guide for more ideas to get you fully prepared for your upcoming meetings.

It’s got all the best practices, top tips, and insider knowledge you need in your toolbelt as a manager.

Get well equipped

You’re a great manager, and these questions will help you have great conversations with every direct report on your team. Whether it’s discussing goals, having a difficult conversation, getting a status update, or checking in on wellbeing, with Officevibe you’re well-equipped to cover any talking point needed.

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