Finding out if anything is wrong with employees could be as easy as asking them.
Businesses have had to put up with a tough few years, with the recession hampering their bottom lines, money too tight to put wages up and the cost of everyday expenses going through the roof.
Although company owners will no doubt be doing their best to ensure employees aren’t feeling unappreciated, it may be that they are becoming resentful about certain parts of their job and could be considering moving to another firm.
Indeed, a poll by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in January 2013 found that out of 2,124 employees, only 35 per cent could say they were actively engaged with their employer, which is a record low.
The organisation also noted a "worrying deterioration" in the ability of workers to register concerns and complaints with people in management positions – possibly due to fear of losing their jobs – which means these problems aren’t likely to get addressed.
One possible way of keeping tabs on people’s wellbeing and likelihood of leaving could be to carry out regular surveys and make sending them around the office to be filled in confidentially a habit.
Design firm Killer Infographics owner Amy Balliett told the BBC she had become aware of discontent at her company, but didn’t know what was causing it or how to manage it. She decided to implement surveys so that she could log responses and flag up any serious bones of contention, then set about fixing them.
The surveys also feature questions that encourage people to raise issues with their bosses that might not have cropped on an average working day and that staff didn’t feel they could bring up out of the blue.
Ms Balliett explained the project has worked by preventing unhappiness from festering and even leading to an increase in productivity because people are happier.
If you’re interested in carrying out surveys but don’t know what you’ll do with all the paperwork and are unsure of how to be able to mine the responses afterwards, just give Dajon a call. Our document scanning solutions could be the answer to your problems – and it may mean better employee engagement in the long run.