Its 2021 and for some businesses it has now been nine months or more since they were all together in an office. Managing your teams and their wellbeing during this time is harder now we are not seeing our teams every day. We are going to have to rely on new tools to keep get feedback. The good news is that Microsoft 365 offers us some tools to help.
We have worked with GFHR Consulting to produce a simple guide on how to use Microsoft Forms to collect feedback from your team to help manage their wellbeing.
Importance of Managing Mental Health & Wellbeing
You may notice that mood levels are low, productivity has declined or absences have increased. There may be higher levels of friction between colleagues or a lack of team spirit that is emerging as a result of increased periods of isolation. You may even have no idea how people are doing. Whatever it is, it’s perhaps worth now checking in with everyone in your organisation to see how the land lies and to see if there’s anything practical you can do to help people personally or professionally. There are a huge number of ideas of little ways you can help – such as a simple takeaway offer for the family (instead of a team lunch out) or setting up regular zoom drop-in chats for people working from home, as well as considering professional input from Employee Assistance Programs.”
How to manage Mental Health & Wellbeing
Now is a vital time to check in with your employees to ensure that they feel well supported and to ensure, where possible, issues are dealt with at an early stage. This will help them and will help you too in the future. The first step to managing this could be to complete a short survey with your teams about how they are feeling currently.
There are several ways to do this, but Microsoft Forms makes it very quick and simple for Managers to send a short survey out to their teams and get a feeling of how people are.
What is Microsoft Forms?
Microsoft Forms is a survey tool that can help you create a quick, simple, reusable form to collect survey data and review the results. It is based inside your Microsoft 365 environment and is therefore under the same security that you have with all the rest of your company data. The good news is that for most 365 customers you already have this tool and just need to set it up.
How do I use Microsoft Forms?
To create your first form, visit https://forms.microsoft.com or pick Forms from the application list on the 365 portal.
Click New Form and you will see a blank form that you can now edit. From here you can start to create questions and answers. See our video for a basic guide to get started:
If you want to download our prepared survey using questions from GFHR Consulting, then you can download a template which will insert directly into your Microsoft Forms account which you can then edit and send to your teams.
Next Steps
Once you have the results then you can look to develop a strategy for you to act appropriately, proportionately and sensitively to ensure you are doing your best to support your employees through this crisis and beyond.
If you have any help determining with this or any other HR related issues then GFHR Consulting are always available to give practical advice and real support.
For other tips on managing wellbeing during lockdown visit https://gfhr.co.uk/articles/tips-to-improve-employee-wellbeing/
