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Workplace Stress

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has reported that the cost of work-related mental illness such as stress is a staggering £28bn, a quarter of the UK’s total sick bill (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8343074.stm). Such figures are particularly concerning in the current economic climate when the need for organisations to minimise costs is at its greatest. It’s not just staff who call in sick that cost businesses money but also the people who come to work and perform poorly due to their illness.

In an effort to cut costs, many organisations are reducing their headcount. This often results in remaining staff having to take on additional responsibilities and managers being put under increasing pressure to achieve targets with fewer resources. It is under these circumstances that staff and managers are at greater risk of suffering from stress and hence are likely to cost the organisation even more money through absenteeism and poor performance.

Some organisations feel that delaying their staff survey in the current economic crisis is another way to save money. Yet it is during these times that a survey is needed more than ever.

Engagement surveys can help organisations to assess how staff feel about aspects of their job and the organisation that are known to impact on their attitudes, engagement levels and psychological well-being. They can inform organisations where change and interventions are needed before staff become the victims of stress – a small investment for a big saving.

23/11/2009 – posted by Dr Jo Beale

How do you make surveys make a difference?

Making surveys make a difference is what we are all about. We recently completed a third employee survey of Ipsen’s production site in Wrexham, North Wales. The results were so good that we thought at first they must have cheated!

I was so impressed that I asked the HR Director how they had managed to build employee engagement and transform their culture so effectively. It is a story worth hearing.

Ipsen provide further evidence that good survey data can be the catalyst for change and improvement, but of course it takes a lot more than that. For them it took consistent leadership, continual communication, winning and sustaining commitment at all levels throughout the organisation, and some process and organisation to make things happen.

The Ipsen story is not about waving magic wands, or ‘silver bullets’.

But the results of all their effort are pretty magical.

Click here to read through the case study

06/11/2009 – posted by Chris Marshall

Is there more bullying and harassment going on?

Here at Employesurveys we have noticed an increase in reported harassment and bullying in recent client surveys. A couple of clients have asked us to investigate further and we are undertaking qualitative research to learn more about the nature and scale of the reported harassment and bullying.

So is there a general decline in acceptable behaviour or is it that employees’ expectations on how they should be treated at work by managers, colleagues and others they interact with is changing? Are we becoming less tolerant of behaviour that we deem to be demeaning, aggressive or disrespectful?

If the latter is true it would suggest that managers and supervisors may need to be made more aware of how to manage these situations and in some cases more aware of their own behaviour.

19/10/2009 – posted by Chris Marshall

How important is the benchmark?

We recently heard that we had been unsuccessful in a competitive bid for an employee survey. The buyer was kind enough to provide some feedback on our proposal. She said that there was nothing really between the two organisations that had been shortlisted, however they had plumped for a much bigger organisation on the basis that “their benchmarking data was better than yours.” Being bigger they had ipso facto done more surveys overall and more in their sector so therefore concluded that “we will get better data”.

I asked about price as we know that we are usually significantly cheaper than this larger organisation. She confirmed that we were but said that she had “been able to persuade the Directors to pay more for the better benchmarking”.

Frankly I found that message to be a little depressing. Sure benchmarking data is interesting and helpful, but is it really worth paying significantly more for benchmark data derived from a very large sample as opposed to a sample that is statistically big enough? The answer must be no. I would argue our data is more than good enough for the purpose it serves. Other aspects of the service are of greater importance.

Choosing a survey supplier should not be just about who has the biggest database. If it is all bar one of us in the market would be out of business.

17/10/2009 – posted by Chris Marshall