Mindful Business Charter Community Area

Mindful Business Charter – Pulse Survey

MBC is ultimately about the stress people experience at work, trying to minimise that stress in order to promote healthier and more effective ways of working. A useful way to find out the progress and impact you are making is therefore to survey your staff to get their perspective.

Many organisations will already be doing staff surveys, for example around engagement. It would obviously be possible to include MBC related questions as part of such a wider survey. Various members have found it helpful to undertake regular MBC specific pulse surveys. That way one can measure progress, understand the impact of particular periods or events and also react quickly when issues seem to be developing.

Whether, how often and in what form you decide to conduct any survey will obviously vary from organisation to organisation. What we have done in this document is set out a range of suggested questions that might be included in a survey. They track very much the pillars of the Charter. You may choose to use all of them in a longer form of survey or select those that seem most relevant to your organisation and/or the aspects of the Charter on which you are focusing at any one time. We have also added a short form survey based on that used by Pinsent Masons.

We have not embedded the questions in a particular survey platform as you will all have your own preferences in that regard and so the example questions are here to cut and paste across. We have suggested both a graded question and then a free text option so that you can explore where problems seems to exist – clearly the free text option adds to the length of the survey and you may decide not to include that.

Before conducting any survey give thought as to how you will code the responses in order to more easily analyse the data. Please note that while most of the questions are asked from a positive perspective, ie where agreeing with the question will be a good thing, a few are reversed, so be aware of that when doing that analysis.

Finally, of course it is up to you what questions you ask your people and the form of those questions. At the same time, in due course it may be helpful to aggregate anonymous data across different organisations and, in that event, it would be helpful if the questions asked were consistent. As far as possible, therefore, please do try to stick to the wording below unless circumstances otherwise require.

If you have any feedback on this document then please let Richard Martin know.

Longer form survey questions

1. Do you feel you are treated with the appropriate level of respect and courtesy?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

2. Do your colleagues discuss with you their and your preferred methods of communication?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

3. Do you and your colleagues discuss and consider the implications of each other’s working patterns?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

4. Do you and your colleagues ask for and provide feedback to others on a regular basis?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

5. Do you feel you can work flexibly and control the methods by which you attend meetings?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

6. Do you feel your time is considered by others when organizing calls/meetings?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

7. Do you feel that meetings you attend are run effectively and inclusively, taking account both of participants’ location and how they differently process information and make decisions?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

8. Do you feel that efforts are made to reduce over-use of email and other e-communications, including avoiding unnecessary copying in of individuals?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

9. Do the teams you work with have agreements in place as to how different communication media are to be used?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

10. Are you able to work offline as necessary to enable focussed attention?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

11. Do you think adequate care is taken to ensure emails and other e-communications are clear in their meaning and reflect the subject heading?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

12. If you are required to work outside your normal working hours, do you feel you are given options for when that should be?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

13. Do you feel obliged to monitor emails and other e-communications outside of normal working hours?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Agree or Strongly Agree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

14. Do you feel that emails and other e-communications are sent unnecessarily out of normal working hours without thought being given to delayed delivery or to indicating their degree of urgency?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Agree or Strongly Agree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

15. Do you feel that your annual leave, weekends and any other non-working days are respected by others?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

16. Is good behaviour relating to communications and working out of hours and/or on non-working days role modelled by your leaders/managers?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

17. Do you and/or your colleagues include availability and working hours in your email signatures?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

18. When you are instructed on a task are you given sufficient context and information including the purpose and recipient?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

19. When you are instructed on a task do you feel deadlines are discussed with you rather than imposed and are you able communicate any concerns about those deadlines?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

20. Overall do you think that our adoption of MBC has had a noticeable impact upon your ability to work less stressfully and more effectively?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

Shorter form survey questions

1. Do you feel you are treated with the appropriate level of respect and courtesy?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

2. Do you feel you can work flexibly and control the methods by which you attend meetings?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

3. Do you feel your time is considered by others when organizing calls/meetings?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

4. Do you feel your annual leave/non-working days are respected by others?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

5. When you are being instructed on a task, do you feel that you can communicate any concerns regarding timescales/deadlines?

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree

If you have answered Disagree or Strongly Disagree please give further details of why, indicating whether the issue is an internal one, if it is caused by clients, or if it caused by other third parties.

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