Sometimes it can be useful to do a health check to gauge the morale in an organisation. There are many ways to take this approach to help its people and the organisation to shape a positive future.
The traditional approach often revolved around using surveys. Much depended, however, on the way the various questions were framed. And there were also pluses and minuses to each approach.
Some approaches were outcome based. They invited people to describe to what extent: a) they were clear on the organisation’s goals; b) they were clear on the goals they were to deliver; c) they had the support required to deliver the goals.
Some approaches were more feelings based. They invited people to describe their feeling of engagement or other issues. Again, much depended on the way the questions were framed, because otherwise people might just respond with a list of complaints.
Some surveys were more numbers based. They asked people to give ratings – such as on a scale 0-10 – about certain things in their work and the organisation. Some also asked people to describe what could be done to improve the ratings.
Some surveys asked people to tick boxes regarding what they saw as going well or poorly in the organisation. Some provided more open-ended questions that gave people chance to express their ideas.
Some surveys were simply filed away before being issued again in the next round of surveys. This often led to producing cynicism. People responded by saying:
“What’s the point? Nothing will change.”
Some organisations used surveys to actually improve specific things in the work place. People were invited to join task forces that focused on:
The specific things that could be done to build on what the organisation was doing well;
The specific things that could be improved in the future.
People were invited to present their ideas – together with the pluses and minuses of each option – to the leaders. The organisation then aimed to, as far as possible, implement some of the ideas and deliver success.
Bearing these things in mind, let’s look at one approach to doing such a health check. You can, of course, adapt this in your own way.
The Organisational Health Check
For Shaping A Positive Future
As mentioned earlier, there are many ways to gauge the morale in an organisation. The following section describes one approach. Before then, however, it can be useful to give some background about the context.
This approach was initially used in an organisation that was experiencing great challenges. These were partly due to external circumstances. But some were due to decisions that had created internal challenges.
The leaders therefore decided to take certain steps to improve the situation and translated these into action. These included doing the following things:
To focus on the key strategies that would give the organisation the greatest chance of success;
To focus on how they could help their people to do good work and stay healthy on the way towards achieving the picture of success.
Bearing these factors in mind, they focused on how to support people and improve morale in the organisation. They chose to do this by inviting people to give their responses to certain questions.
As mentioned earlier, there are many ways to take this approach. When doing so, however, it can be important to set things up properly to make sure that it is possible to help the organisation:
To clarify and build on what it is doing well;
To clarify what it can do better and how;
To clarify the things it can do to shape a positive future.
The organisation took this approach. It asked a series of open-ended questions that enabled people to give their views. This resulted in providing lots of ideas that the organisation was then able to translate into action.
Let’s return to your own situation. Imagine that you work in an organisation and want to follow elements of this approach. The following pages provide a framework that you can use to get people’s ideas.
There are several ways you can apply this approach. You could choose either:
To send the framework to people in the normal way and ask them to return with their ideas;
To use the framework in one-to-one conversations with people where you are able to elicit their ideas;
To use the framework in workshops where you can gather people’s ideas for improving the organisation.
Whichever route you take, it is vital to show that – wherever possible – you are acting on some of the ideas. It can be good to translate some of these into action and get visible successes.
The following pages provide one version of the Organisational Health Check framework that you can use with people. It is also provides some possible wording you can use to introduce it to people.
You can, of course, adapt this in your own way. Here is the framework that you may want to send to people.
There are many ways to do a health check to gauge the morale in an organisation. This piece has described one approach that can help both its people and the organisation to shape a positive future.
Let’s return to your own work. Looking ahead, can you think of a specific situation where you may want to follow elements of this approach? How can you do this in your own way?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
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