Company culture has become high priority in recent years, with companies like Google and Zappos building cultures we used to only dream of.
I probably don’t need to sell you the importance of happiness in company culture. But how do you know if your team is really happy? How do you get your staff to tell you what they want? How do you measure their happiness?
When we first started, just being open and honest with our team was enough, and it made them feel they could be open and honest with us. But as we’ve grown we’ve had to find new ways to find out how happy our team is. Here’s a few of our favourite methods for collecting feedback and measuring happiness…
Surveys
One of the quickest and easiest ways to get feedback from your team is to send out a survey. Or so we thought….
Our first attempt at a survey was a quick Google form.
The feedback we received was really useful. The only problem was trying to get a team of busy developers to fill in a 31 question survey… it wasn’t quick… or easy. We decided that this type of survey would be a great way to capture feedback maybe once or twice a year, but we wanted to be measuring happiness a lot more than that…
Recently, we’ve been using TINYPulse which sends out a weekly email to each team member with one question about happiness (e.g. How likely would you be to refer someone to work here?). The team can also give anonymous suggestions for the company and give a virtual “cheers” to a colleague who’s helped them during the week.
Happy Sheets
Reviews are an important part of the HR process that are often overlooked.
“The stakes are high. If your employees think you and your company aren’t making a genuine effort to evaluate and improve their performance, their morale and their engagement in the company’s mission will suffer.” – John Picoult, Founder of Watermark Consulting
We hold staff reviews quarterly and we try to keep them informal. We don’t deliver performance feedback in the typical shit sandwich style. We sit down with a cup of tea and have a chat about future goals and how we can help with them, as well as giving feedback on how our staff are doing so far.
To keep our reviews structured and make sure we get the feedback we need and give the feedback the team need, we use Happy Sheets which we ask everyone to fill in before their review and discuss during.
Regular Catch-ups
It’s so simple and yet so surprising how many managers don’t think about this – talk to your team! Involve them in important decisions and let them know you value their opinion. The more you talk to them, the more able they’ll feel to open up to you.
One way to catch up with your team is to have a weekly meeting with them. We have a Monday morning catch-up where we sit around with a coffee and have a chat. We talk about our weekends, any issues concerning the whole company as well as the projects we’ll be working on throughout the week and who’ll be doing what.
“People will get comfortable participating in the culture, sharing information and openly acknowledging colleagues for great work. Long-term, it will help your company find an authentic way of reinforcing your shared values and align everyone toward company goals. I dare even say, it may make you feel more like a family.” – Eric Ryan, co-founder of Method
How do you find out if your team are happy? Let us know in the comments.
