From an intensive hiring process to the initial onboarding and training, it could cost you £12,000 (or more) to replace an employee… and that’s without considering the negative ripple effect on their team!
Luckily, though, you have the power to prevent this in over 3 out of 4 cases. Since unhappy employees are much more likely to quit, measuring their satisfaction levels can help you retain your workforce.
That’s where ScoreApp’s Am I Actually Happy scorecard comes into play. We’ll show you how to use it to assess your employees’ happiness and take relevant action before it’s too late.
Understanding the link between employee happiness and staff turnover
As teased before, replacing an employee costs you a whopping £12,000 on average, and this number can get much bigger depending on their role and seniority. On top of that, high staff turnover can also create disruption, affect your revenue, and stunt your growth.
But why focus on employee happiness to prevent it?
- Happy employees stay much longer – 60% of employees who report being happy at work are NOT planning on looking for a different company any time soon. In fact, highly engaged staff are 87% less likely to leave you
- A happier workforce brings you many more benefits – It’s not “just” about retaining your top talent. Happier employees are more productive too, and when you prioritise their satisfaction and engagement, you can expect a 23% increase in profit
- The importance of data and prevention – To improve your employees’ happiness at work, you can’t rely on guesswork or assume everyone is already satisfied. You must understand how they actually feel, what they enjoy, and what they’re struggling with. That’s why an anonymous scorecard is the perfect strategy to collect those honest answers! Then, you can make the right changes based on your new data
Creating an employee happiness survey with ScoreApp
ScoreApp is our quiz-building platform, and you can use it in lots of ways, from boosting your lead generation to selling out with a waitlist and improving your employee experience.
In this guide, we’ll focus on using a scorecard to measure your workforce’s happiness levels and take action accordingly, reducing your staff turnover.
Benefits of using an employee happiness quiz
When you test your employees with a strategic happiness scorecard, you’ll get to:
- Assess the actual situation in your workplace instead of relying on assumptions
- Measure their happiness across different categories (we’ll show you some examples soon!) as opposed to one generic percentage
- Give your employees a voice while showing them you genuinely care about their satisfaction and wellbeing
- Collect honest answers by giving them the option to complete it anonymously (otherwise, they might tell you what they think you wish to hear out of fear of repercussions)
- Choose to show them their scores and even personalised advice based on their results
- Create a clear baseline for measuring progress, so that you can review your data regularly and identify areas for improvement
- Take informed action to increase your employees’ happiness and engagement
Planning your employee happiness survey questions
To get a comprehensive overview of their happiness levels, assess your employees on different aspects of their experience with your company.
Don’t overwhelm your staff with long and time-consuming surveys, though. Otherwise, instead of taking a step towards improving their happiness, you’ll obtain the opposite effect! As a rule of thumb, aim for a repeatable pulse survey with 10-15 key questions.
Make it engaging through a mixture of formats (for example, with an open-text box to go more in-depth) but prioritise easy-to-answer questions like yes/no, multiple choice and rating scales.
As for your scorecard categories, they’ll really depend on your priorities and goals, but here are some ideas and question examples to get you started (you’re welcome!).
Job satisfaction
Is your workforce still finding their roles fulfilling? Discover how they feel about their day-to-day tasks and whether their jobs are aligned with their personal and professional development goals.
- “How fulfilling do you find your daily tasks?” (Rating scale)
- “Do you feel that your current role is aligned with your career goals?” (Yes/No)
- “How satisfied are you with your current salary/benefits?” (Rating scale)
Stress and mental health
Some of your employees’ mental health challenges might be triggered by their workload or environment. At the same time, if the cause is external but they aren’t met with the right support at work, they might still leave in the hope of finding it elsewhere.
- “How often do you feel stressed at work?” (Single choice with options like Never, Occasionally, Often, Every day)
- “Do you find your workload manageable?” (Yes/No, and if they answer no: “What do you think we can do to improve this?” as an open-text question)
- “How satisfied are you with the support and resources available to help you manage your mental health?” (Rating scale, and if they give a low score: “How would you like us to better support you with your mental health?” as an open-text question)
Work-life balance
The happiest employees enjoy their work experience but feel that they can make the most of their time off, too. Without this balance, you could lose your top talent simply because their entire lives have become all about work.
- “Are you satisfied with your current work-life balance?” (Yes/No, and if they answer no: “What can we do to help you improve this?”)
- “How often does your work interfere with your personal life and time off?” (Single choice with options like Never, Occasionally, Often, Every day)
- “How satisfied are you with our current remote work and flexible work hours policies?” (Rating scale)
Company culture
Some employees might be happy with their day-to-day tasks (for now) but disconnected from the bigger picture. So, measure how they feel about your company, and take action accordingly.
You can also use this part of your scorecard to calculate your eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score), the percentage of your workforce that would recommend you as a workplace to others.
- “How likely are you to recommend our company as a place to work?” (Rating scale)
- “How well do you feel your personal values align with those of our company?” (Single choice with options like Very poorly, Poorly, Neutral, Well, Very well)
- “How do you feel about our company mission and vision?” (Single choice with options like Aligned and inspired, Neutral, Misaligned and uninterested)
ScoreApp’s ready-to-go template to measure your employees’ happiness
If you’re with us so far but are worried it’s going to be too complicated or time-consuming to put all this together, relax. With our Am I Actually Happy scorecard, you’ll get to:
- Start with a relevant and highly specific template
- Use our intuitive drag-and-drop builder to edit it or add to it
- Customise it to match your angle and branding
- Use AI to craft the right questions and answers
- Create your entire scorecard within MINUTES!
Launch your employee happiness test with ScoreApp for FREE
Using your employee happiness survey
After putting your scorecard together, it’s time to share it with your staff and analyse their answers.
How to share your survey and encourage participation
- Communicate the purpose of your employee happiness test – If you skip this when sending them your survey, it’ll feel like yet another task on their to-do list. Instead, tell them why you created it and how taking it will benefit them
- Keep it anonymous – If your name was attached to your answers, would you feel comfortable sharing how stressed or unhappy you are at work? No? It’s the same for your employees. So, if you want honest answers (and you do), allow them to submit them anonymously
- Choose the right timing and frequency – Some common employee survey mistakes involve sending them too often (which leads to survey fatigue) or at the worst possible time (like before deadlines or big events). So, find the right balance for your staff and company. For example, you can easily share a short pulse survey every month, whereas a 15-20 question scorecard is better suited for quarterly reviews, and an even longer one (+20-30) for biennial assessments
Review your employee happiness survey results, and optimise your HR strategy
Creating and sharing a strategic employee happiness scorecard is a fantastic start. What you do afterwards, though, is just as important!
- Look for patterns – When reviewing your employees’ answers, can you spot any common themes (both good and bad)?
- Identify key problems and areas of concern – What are they struggling with or most unhappy about?
- Develop an action plan to address those issues – Double down on what your employees appreciate the most, and figure out what you can do to fix or improve the rest
- Communicate those changes to your employees – If you don’t, they might never find out! So, show them you’ve listened to them, informing them of any changes or explaining how to access their new resources
- Keep doing this regularly – Implement systems and automation to send out your new employee happiness test at set intervals. This will allow you to continuously improve their experience based on direct feedback, retaining more of your top talent
Create your employee happiness survey in minutes with ScoreApp
By measuring and prioritising your employees’ happiness at work, you’ll reduce costly turnover, increase productivity, and boost your revenue.
And the best part? Thanks to ScoreApp’s Am I Actually Happy template, it couldn’t be easier to get started!
So, don’t leave your staff retention to chance: start taking control of it by creating your employee happiness test today and for FREE.
