STAR Workplace - what is your team thinking?

Kristi Sinclair - HR Professional

Let’s state the obvious, Coivd-19 has impacted our team connections irrespective of how well we have utilised Zoom or instigated programs to keep our people engaged.  How could it not? 

​For many businesses, working from home was uncharted territory but many employees seem to be getting on with it and are still actively engaged with their work.  But how do you really know?  

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At HR Staff n’ Stuff we have always advocated that it is important to check in on your team as you cannot manage what you do not know.  To best understand what is going on you need to actively check in and regularly measure what is happening and how your employees feel about their work, their role, the business and the workplace culture.  So how do you measure employer and employee satisfaction? And why does it really matter? 

SURVEYING YOUR TEAM
Surveys are a vehicle for change and drive strategy in your business.

Research shows that happy, engaged and satisfied employees positively influence overall business performance. In addition, if employees believe they are being heard they feel valued and when they feel valued, their productivity increases.  Actively contributing to the business increases an employee’s sense of responsibility and ownership.  It’s a win-win situation for the business and your people. 

On the flip side, disengaged, unsatisfied employees can and will impact the performance level of your business and like a virus, a negative culture can spread if left unchecked.    Identifying the areas that are causing the dissatisfaction for both you as the business leader,  and the employees , means you are then in a position to devise a strategic plan and get your team moving forward again.

The cost of staff turnover can be inordinately damaging to your company’s bottom line.  It is expensive to hire and train new employees and losing great talent and knowledge can not only be extremely difficult to replace, the impact of losing key people can negatively impact your clients. Proactively working on employee satisfaction will help to keep recruitment and training expenses down, have a positive impact on your employer brand and ensure a positive, engaged culture which will drive retention. 

So how do you get out in front of possible issues before they become difficult to turnaround?  Knowing how your business measures in areas such as leadership effectiveness, employee satisfaction and working environment will provide a snapshot of the strengths and weaknesses within your business and give you actual objectives and opportunity to implement change. Through data analysis you may find departments rate differently to each other in terms of satisfaction and engagement and it is wise to understand why so you are able to address these. A staff satisfaction survey will help you understand the areas of risk, areas to be aware of, and areas of strength in your business and allow you to focus in the right areas, implementing positive work, team or leadership practices that are required across the business.

Australian workplaces are not all the same. As the people responsible for the success of the business, you and your team are the best judge of the quality of your workplace and business results. 

STAR WORKPLACE
If you are serious about understanding what is going on in your business, you need to ask the right questions in the right way.  HR Stuff n’ Stuff uses and recommends the STAR Workplace Program because it delivers robust, evidence based data that measures employee engagement and satisfaction and also measure the employer’s satisfaction with the business and how employee actions are linked to strategy.   The survey provides your team with an online, confidential survey that allows everyone to respond honestly and anonymously, enabling you to truly understand the pain points in your business.  In turn, you will receive information that will allow you to benchmark your business against other businesses, establishing where you currently sit and identifying key areas of action.  The STAR Workplace Program evaluates four main components:

• Strategy fulfilment
• Team satisfaction
• Actions & Processes to retain employees
• Results of company performance

 
 
BENEFITS OF STAR WORKPLACE PROGRAM
There’s no point investing in a program unless you know what the benefits are right?  So why do we see value in the STAR Workplace program?  Amongst other things, it will deliver:

• Insights into your business from all levels of the business.  You may have a view from the top but what is happening at reception, the factory floor, in marketing, or on the road with the sales team?  Find out what your team truly thinks of the business and what is helping or hindering them in achieving company goals. 
• Identify the key strengths and weaknesses in the business which will in turn drive focus areas for improvement and investment.
• Measurement – if you are serious about improvement then you need to measure the changes you make.  STAR Workplace surveys will help inform what changes are needed.  Once implemented, further surveys will determine where you have success, and what requires further attention. 

 
We always recommend surveying your people. In our current Covid climate, it’s perhaps even more important to do your check in and gain real data about how your people are feeling about their job and the business. It may also help inform you of what changes need to be made in a post Covid world.
 
For those that love getting down and dirty in the detail, here’s how it all works. 

1. An automated Employee Survey (collates data and comments so you receive a qualitative and quantitative report)
2. An Employer Survey (unique to HR Coach)
3. The STAR Workplace Review
4. An independent benchmark report of your workplace
5. Action Plan and priorities for the future
6. Certificate and use of the STAR Workplace logo for 12 months​

 
Firstly, we have an in-depth discussion with you to measure your satisfaction as the key decision maker and to understand what drives your business. A survey is then created with 30 statistically validated questions and up to ten custom questions specific to your business for your team members to anonymously complete online. Next up, the data is  collated and an independent benchmark report of your workplace is produced based on their responses.

You aren’t left alone to decipher it all – we’ll then debrief you and selected team members on the results and can ever prepare a presentation to share with all staff.

From there you can accurately determine how the business is tracking and identify where to focus to achieve the most growth. We will even help you prioritise actions and review options for improvement which can be actioned over the next six and twelve months.
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If you would like to know more ​​​Download a STAR Workplace brochure, or contact us today to discuss how the STAR program can help your business link people to performance and profit.

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