Where people work
Hybrid work survey
Seven quarterly questions for a hybrid or remote company, with question 1 included so you can compare people by how they actually work, since a company-wide average tends to hide the differences.
Opens this survey in Gists as a draft you can edit. Sign in with Slack, Google or your work email. 30 days free. No card needed.
The seven questions
How would you describe your typical working pattern?
Pick one
- Fully remote
- Mostly remote
- About half and half
- Mostly in the office
- Fully in the office
How well does your current arrangement let you do your best work?
1 = not well, 5 = very well
How fairly are people treated regardless of where they work?
1 = not fairly, 5 = very fairly
How connected do you feel to your colleagues?
1 = not connected, 5 = very connected
What are the biggest upsides of how you work now?
Pick any, optional
- More focus time
- Less commuting
- Flexibility for life outside work
- Time with colleagues
- Better work-life boundaries
- None in particular
What are the biggest downsides?
Pick any, optional
- Feeling disconnected
- Harder to get quick answers
- Blurred work-life boundaries
- Commute time
- Uneven meeting experience
- None in particular
What one change would most improve your hybrid experience?
Written answer, optional
We wrote these questions for this survey and they are not a validated scale. You can edit them once the survey opens in Gists. If you copy them into another tool, check what it records about who answered.
Before you run this
If results lead you to set different rules for different groups, check who that affects before you decide. Whether a difference counts as adverse impact depends on the law where you operate, so ask your legal adviser.
The decision it helps with
Is your working pattern fair and workable, and for whom is it not?
Running it
Quarterly once a pattern has settled. The rating questions use their own scales, since a plain agree-or-disagree format tends to draw agreement regardless of the question. Compare by the pattern in question 1, and only where groups are big enough to report.
What the results might look like
These are made-up examples to show the patterns, not real data.
Mostly-remote people rate fairness lower
2.9 for mostly remote against 4.1 for mostly in the office.
- What it means
- People who are away feel treated differently.
- What it doesn't mean
- It doesn't show that they are. It does tell you where to check.
- What to do
- Compare who gets visible projects and promotions by working pattern.
Good work, low connection
4.2 on best work and 2.7 on connection.
- What it means
- People manage their own work and have drifted apart.
- What it doesn't mean
- It doesn't mean they want more office days.
- What to do
- Plan in-person time around work that benefits from it, like kickoffs, and skip the general socials.
What to tell people afterwards
Share the result by working pattern, what you're trying for one quarter and how you'll judge it.
What to measure next, and when
Repeat next quarter. If “Uneven meeting experience” persists, send the meeting effectiveness survey.
What researchers found
In Golden, Veiga and Dino's survey of 261 teleworkers and their managers, professional isolation went with lower rated performance and, unexpectedly, lower intention to leave. The performance link was stronger with more time teleworking and weaker with face-to-face contact and better communication tools (Golden et al., 2008).
Gajendran and Harrison's meta-analysis of 46 studies linked telecommuting to better job satisfaction and performance, partly through perceived autonomy. Above 2.5 days a week it also harmed relationships with coworkers (Gajendran & Harrison, 2007). Most of this predates hybrid work as we now know it, so your own results by pattern are worth more than these averages.
Each rating question names its own scale, because agree-or-disagree formats produced lower-quality data in a split-ballot study (Saris et al., 2010).
If you are mid-change
Use the return to office survey instead. That one is tied to a specific decision.
Splitting results safely
Results show only when 5 or more people answer. A team below 5 rolls up into the team above it. A group is also held back when comparing it with another group could reveal a small team. HR and named leaders see every team with 5 or more answers. Each manager sees only their own team. Employees see no team scores. Themes only by default. Word-for-word answers are a company setting, off unless turned on, and employees see a notice before they write.
Related
Sources
- Golden, T. D., Veiga, J. F., Dino, R. N. (2008). The impact of professional isolation on teleworker job performance and turnover intentions: Does time spent teleworking, interacting face-to-face, or having access to communication-enhancing technology matter?. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 1412-1421. doi:10.1037/a0012722
- Gajendran, R. S., Harrison, D. A. (2007). The good, the bad, and the unknown about telecommuting: Meta-analysis of psychological mediators and individual consequences. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1524-1541. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.92.6.1524
- Saris, W. E., Revilla, M., Krosnick, J. A., Shaeffer, E. M. (2010). Comparing questions with agree/disagree response options to questions with item-specific response options. Survey Research Methods, 4, 61-79. ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/srm/article/view/2682