Check-in Survey – company culture

Forget a lengthy survey, this is a quick and simple happy or sad face metric to get a sense of how people are feeling at that moment. With the prominence of mobile phones and handheld devices accessible 24/7, the check-in method enables you to ask people to rate their feelings honestly about anything that makes sense to your company and your people at that time. We designed this survey to provide people with a quick and easy way to share their opinion and raise any concerns they might have as they occur on the fly. As an organization, you can proactively seek to understand trends around how people are feeling in line with specific events. This survey is intended to be sent out on an as needed rapid fire basis. 

Customizing your survey

Given this is a two question survey, we recommend keeping it as it is. Ideally, you want to get as close to 100% response rate as possible and this is likely to reduce with the more questions you add. If you want to get feedback on a specific event or change then you could customize the first question to be more targeted eg ‘Right now, how would you rate your experience with recognizing others/ being recognized?’.

Food for thought

• Unlike some of our other surveys, the check-in survey is about getting a quick snapshot of how people are feeling and isn’t designed to delve deep. If you’re looking for depth, you might want to consider some of the more specific templates focusing on specific elements of engagement.
• This survey template focuses on asking employees about their views on the wider company culture and observations outside of their own personal experience. The questions are worded in such a way that employees are describing what they see around them and how they believe ‘things get done around here’.
• Surveying on the wider culture is different to asking about personal engagement which is more focused on the employee’s feelings specific to them rather than what they observe around them. The wider views someone has based on what they observe are less likely to change from day to day. Employee engagement, from personal experience, however, is likely to fluctuate depending on what’s happening at your company and how it directly impacts individual employees.
• Think about utilizing the check-in survey a couple of days before an all company meeting /announcement. It’s a great way of getting a simple gauge on employee sentiment enabling you to address any concerns or celebrate successes highlighted.
• The scale we have used in this template replicates the type of symbol people use on social media. Using such a simple method means the data produced is also easy to analyze and present. 
• We included an open text question to ensure that respondents can provide any qualification to the ratings which makes the data more meaningful. Customizing the open text question would enable you to go a bit deeper on specific ideas you would like to explore.
• When setting up your survey, you can choose to make the survey anonymous or open. The benefit of anonymized data is people can feel more comfortable sharing their honest opinion and it’s probable that you’ll see higher take up. However, it means we’re only able to provide you with overall data which is not personally identifiable. If you want anonymity but also want to identify trends in certain groups, we suggest sending the survey as ‘Anonymous’ but adding in relevant questions about location, department etc to the template to get a more detailed breakdown around the results. It is best to add these questions as a drop down list and to make the questions optional as an identifiable group with less than 4 members cannot be classed as anonymous. Keep in mind – if you ask too many identifying questions, you might make it possible to identify individuals. Only ask the questions you really need to!
• Some ways you might like to apply the check-in methodology are:
  • Prior to, during, and after a significant merger, change or launch.
  • Shortly after a new leader has joined or left the organization.
  • During a significant, highly publicized event such as a product launch, change in staff, or record breaking profits.
  • After a launch or change to your EVP.
  • Or stagger your check-in survey across each week in the year to map any seasonality or employee sentiment that can help inform the best times to make announcements and create buy-in.

What to do with the results?

Like any survey, if people have taken time to respond, you should provide them with some feedback on what you’ve learned and what you’re going to do. The best application of the check-in methodology is updating your employees on the trend of sentiment as it unfolds. The results can be used as a catalyst for some honest conversations about how employees can proactively contribute.