People's attitudes directly affect their workplace effectiveness. If an organization can improve its workers' level of morale, it will probably also realize improved productivity and customer satisfaction.

Frequent staff turnover and absenteeism are strong indicators of an unhappy workforce. The best way to find out what is causing low morale is to take an attitude survey. This will enable your organization to collect measurable data and determine specific reasons for discontent.

If your organization or department is carrying out an attitude survey, you can assist in the improvement of workplace morale with the following positive responses.

BEFORE THE SURVEY

1. Attend any information meetings with a positive attitude. However, satisfy yourself that the survey is legitimate, and that it is being conducted professionally and for purposes that will benefit staff. To do so, you will want to ask

   • what steps are being taken to ensure the anonymity of the participants;
   • what assurances and safeguards there are that all the information will be fed back to the participants;
   • how long it will take for the feedback to be made available;
   • what steps will be taken to ensure that the data will be acted upon;
   • whether front-line staff will be able to have any input into the questions that will be used in the survey.

DURING THE SURVEY

2. • Answer all questions frankly.
   • Do not write your name anywhere on the questionnaire if anonymity is important to you.

DURING THE FEEDBACK SESSION

3. • Ask for a copy of the results so you can study them in more detail at your leisure. If the complete survey is not available for everyone, ask if you can access it somewhere in the organization.
   • Help to keep the meeting positive. Do not try to embarrass anyone through your questions. Focus more on next steps and new action plans than on finger-pointing.
   • Volunteer to take care of some actions. Focus on items over which you have control. This will encourage others to get involved too; more of the issues will be dealt with if they are not all left to your manager.

AFTER THE SURVEY

4. • Keep the interest in the survey going by referring to it and the action plans that were developed previously.