How to Use Salesforce Surveys to Shape Back-to-Work Decisions

Your team’s answers to these questions provide important datapoints as your business returns to the workplace after COVID-19 temporarily closed many offices. Surveying employees about these questions will help them feel included as leaders make important decisions for reopening.

At Salesforce, we adjusted our monthly Wellbeing Survey in April to ask employees about their preferences and concerns regarding returning to work. The results are helping Salesforce shape its plan for reopening offices around the world.

The survey’s purpose was threefold.

1. Check in with employees during a challenging time.
2. Listen to employee safety concerns and preferences regarding the workplace.
3. Set employee expectations about what may be involved in a safe reopening.

As companies worldwide explore the logistics of reopening, now is the time to create a simple survey to poll your employees and help set expectations about what kinds of changes they may see.

Planning, launching, and using your survey

Follow these four steps in launching and using a survey to show your team that you value their input, want to protect their health, and will be aware of their concerns and preferences when the time is right to regroup in person.

Step 1: Plan your questions.

We’ve included three questions below specific to reopening the workplace. The Salesforce survey also polled employees about their stress level, preparedness to continue working from home, and more. Consider questions specific to your team and workplace that leadership should ask in preparing to reopen.

Step 2: Prepare your survey.

Use a survey platform to create your survey. Salesforce customers can use Salesforce Surveys to create a polished touchpoint for questions like the ones below. An unlimited number of surveys can be created and sent out using Salesforce Surveys in Developer, Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited editions. Visit Trailhead to learn more about creating and sharing Salesforce Surveys.

Step 3: Send your survey and set a deadline for responses and review.

Send your survey link to your team and let them know when the survey will close — Salesforce allowed one week for employees to participate in its April survey. Be sure to deactivate the survey on the deadline so no one spends time on it afterward. Schedule time with your leadership team to review the results and discuss next steps.

Step 4: Use survey results to plan and set expectations.

Armed with feedback from your team, meet with leadership to explore options for returning to work safely. Keep employees in the loop as you make decisions about reopening.

• Consider assigning employees to work different shifts, arriving and leaving at designated times.
• Consider reorganizing the desk or cubicle arrangement, or marking specific desks as available.
• Consider asking employees to opt in to contact tracing in order to return to the office.
• Ensure social distancing in and around elevators as people arrive and leave.

If you want help with those logistics, visit Work.com or ask your account executive about Salesforce’s growing suite of apps and features designed to help your team return to the workplace safely and smoothly.

3 questions to include in your survey

The screenshots below are excerpts from a longer survey sent to Salesforce employees in April. We’ve rewritten these three questions here to make them applicable for other businesses, and easy to copy, paste, and edit in your survey tool.

1. At some point, we will return to work in the office. We want your thoughts on returning to work in the office environment. When the office reopens, which of the following concerns and challenges would stop you from returning to work in the office? Select all that apply.
   1. Schools remaining closed and/or not able to access childcare
   2. Not being able to commute to the office in a safe or timely way (e.g., crowding on public transit, availability of public transit, etc.)
   3. Concerns over cleanliness of office
   4. Ability to access PPE in the office for employee use (e.g., face masks, hand sanitizer, etc.)
   5. Ability to adequately physically distance in the office (e.g., elevators, kitchens, etc.)
   6. Risk to either my own health or health of another member of my household
   7. I don’t have any concerns
   8. I did not work in an office before the enforced work from home period
   9. Other (specify)
   
2. If it were safe to do so, I would prefer to return to work in the office versus continuing to work from home.
   1. Strongly disagree
   2. Disagree
   3. Neutral
   4. Agree
   5. Strongly agree
   
3. Reopening offices might involve temperature screening, being asked questions about your health, and reporting if you are sick. If coming back into the office meant sharing this type of medical information to help protect the health and safety of everyone else, would you be willing to do this?
   1. Yes
   2. No
   3. Not sure
   

Tell us how you’re returning to work

We want to hear about your experiences and tips for reopening the workplace! Here’s how to share your story:

1. Post with the hashtag #ReopenWithSalesforce in the Customer Success Community Group, where Salesforce experts and Trailblazers like you share ideas, find answers, and drive success together.
2. Connect with us on Twitter @askSalesforce and post about your success using the hashtag #ReopenWithSalesforce.

Want to learn more?

Attend a Salesforce-on-Salesforce session where you’ll get actionable insights to help you run surveys for your teams. Our experts will show you how we use Salesforce Surveys to measure wellbeing and build resilience among our own employees, and how you can do the same. Register Now >