Employee engagement surveys, as discussed in our previous blog, have an important role in collating and understanding your team’s levels of motivation, involvement and satisfaction towards your company and the work they do.
Most of the time, employee engagement surveys are conducted through generic ready made pulse surveys that can include an option of creating your own questions.
While this is the default option, a Quality of Work Life (QWL) engagement survey offers a much higher and more useful level of insight.
Here’s why conducting a QWL engagement survey can help your business in many ways by learning more about your staff.
What is QWL?
The Quality of Work Life (QWL) index is a job satisfaction poll developed by Marko Kesti, an Adjunct Professor at Lapland University of Applied Sciences. The QWL survey is based on this index, using a scientifically-based approach to measure employee productivity and employee welfare at work.
The Quality of Work Life (QWL) approach identifies and interprets employees' "weak signals" and utilizes those insights to provide actionable recommendations that support real improvement initiatives.
It is a tool that enables organizations to use the tacit knowledge in the workplace. While the traditional employee satisfaction surveys show how things are, the QWL method also shows development needs so that the right corrective actions can be taken.
Additionally, the QWL method shows if the improvement actions should address the lack of quality or quantity. For example, with traditional surveys micromanaging managers receiving a low score might think about solving the situation by “doing more micromanaging because they got a low score”.
This might not make the situation any better. However - thanks to the QWL report telling the managers to increase quality instead of quantity - they know to increase the quality of their work, meaning that a different approach - instead of micromanaging - should be applied.
A QWL survey provides consistent questions to maximise insights, efficiency and accuracy. The quality and quantity of each assessed item are the key dimensions in the QWL method that help organizations like yours optimize job satisfaction improvement efforts.
Here is an example of how the two dimensional QWL rating scale works:
What are the advantages of using QWL Surveys?
By fostering open communication and establishing continuous feedback, employee engagement surveys are meant to utilize the tacit knowledge within your organisation to bridge the gap between you as a leader and your staff.
QWL polls support this by also identifying the areas to improve and the development needs of your organisation. These QWL surveys track and measure the different kinds of variables that can affect job satisfaction and performance of your team.
QWL polls provide the following:
- An overview of your company and employees’ performance based on engagement and wellbeing
- A sick and absence risk assessment
- The early identification of employee turnover risk factors
- A list of the most impactful improvement actions based on employee responses
- How these actions improve your bottom line
Once you’ve effectively addressed the concerns of employees through QWL survey results, you can expect meaningful change and growth from your team.
Remember – employees’ quality of work-life directly affects their performance.
So, if you want to enhance your overall business, make sure you can listen in a holistic way.
What questions are included in QWL Surveys?
A VibeCatch QWL survey consists of 15 short and scientifically researched questions that aim to uncover development areas in relation to each of the five key indicators of a successful organisation, which are:
- Leadership
- Line Management
- Culture
- Skills
- Processes
Under every area, there are three questions specifically designed to highlight strengths and detect areas of improvement often overlooked by traditional surveys – this makes for a total of 15 questions.
How does a QWL survey work?
With its two-dimensional rating, a QWL survey is an upgrade to the usual pulse poll which generally offers just a regular ascending scale (from, say, 1 to 5).
The two-dimensional scale, however, has two negative scores on the ends and a top score in the middle. The employee has to decide which point along the scale best matches their feeling towards each question.
To illustrate, here is an example:
The purpose of this two-dimensional scale is to provide far better insights on a particular issue.
Here, your responders can decide whether current conditions are good and poor. If poor, there's a way to attribute it either to the left, which is a negative quantity experience, or the right, which is a negative quality experience.
Having this kind of valuable and relevant information directs you to the real issues that need attention and therefore, the right plan of action to make improvements.
Why is a QWL survey more effective than an average pulse survey?
Unlike the common pulse survey, a VibeCatch QWL Survey is backed by scientific QWL analysis to constantly determine the performance of your workforce with greater accuracy. A QWL survey places the opposing factors of job satisfaction on the same scale to enable you to identify immediately what the exact problem is and what needs to be addressed.
With these deeper insights, you can take improvement measures that increase productivity, minimise the time wasted on unnecessary hassles and reduce employee dissatisfaction.
VibeCatch's QWL is the only survey that has a scientifically proven connection between engagement and productivity so that we can accurately estimate the productivity and financial impact of engagement improvements.
It’s easy-to-follow reports also show a thorough breakdown of employee engagement issues and conditions, helping business leaders like you ramp up employee relationships, strengthen decision making and forward company success.
What is VibeCatch?
VibeCatch is a HR platform based on 15 years of proven research, offering you the opportunity to make a difference and prove the impact that you know you make every single day for the people around you.
Through VibeCatch’s QWL Polls, Pulse Polls and 360 Feedback Polls, you can uncover hidden opportunities, correct issues and address areas of improvement for both employees and management.
This time, you in the HR department will be able to work based on reliable information and you can now have a tangible Return on Investment (ROI) to present to management.
Book an obligation-free consultation and we’ll discuss your options to show you how VibeCatch can help you help everyone.
