FAQs

Tracking employee engagement is essential, but Brighter Workdays' focus on measuring the impact of the workplace on employee wellbeing offers a unique and complementary perspective. Engagement metrics usually reflect an employee's commitment and involvement with their work and the organisation. However, they don't always reveal how the work environment affects employees' mental health and wellbeing. Brighter Workdays uses weekly surveys to assess how various aspects of the workplace impact your team's wellbeing, providing actionable insights. This real-time understanding allows for timely interventions and support, uncovering issues that may not be evident through engagement scores alone. By measuring workplace impact, you can ensure a more comprehensive approach to creating a positive and supportive work environment.

We've chosen to send impact measurement surveys on Wednesday at noon based on insights into typical workweek dynamics. Midweek is a strategic choice because it captures employee feedback after they've settled into their weekly routines but before the end-of-week wind-down begins. This timing helps in obtaining a more accurate and balanced reflection of how the work environment is affecting their well-being, unaffected by the fresh start of a week or the anticipation of the weekend. Additionally, noon is selected to avoid the busy start of the workday and the potential rush at the end, aiming for a moment when employees are more likely to have a brief pause to reflect and provide thoughtful feedback. This approach is designed to maximise response rates and ensure the data collected is both meaningful and representative.

At Brighter Workdays, we prioritise the privacy and anonymity of all employees participating in our impact measurement surveys. Our analytics dashboard does not provide the capability to review feedback from individual employees. Furthermore, the data we collect and store is designed to be non-identifiable; it cannot be traced back to any individual.

We believe that maintaining the anonymity of feedback is crucial for fostering genuine engagement. It encourages honest and open participation, as employees can share their true experiences without concern for potential repercussions. This approach ensures that the insights gathered reflect an authentic picture of how the workplace is impacting employee wellbeing, allowing organisations to make meaningful improvements that benefit everyone. By focusing on collective insights rather than individual responses, we help create a safer, more supportive environment for expressing and addressing workplace challenges.

Currently, Brighter Workdays does not have the capability to integrate directly with existing HR systems. However, we are actively working towards providing this feature in the future to enhance usability and streamline processes for our users. We understand the importance of seamless integration in maximising the efficiency and effectiveness of HR tools, and we're committed to evolving our platform to meet these needs.

We're keen to hear from you about which integrations would add the most value to your experience with Brighter Workdays. Your feedback is invaluable as it guides our development priorities and helps us tailor our solution to better serve your organisation's unique requirements. If there are specific HR systems or tools you're using that you'd like Brighter Workdays to support, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us. Your insights will play a crucial role in shaping the future functionalities of our platform.

Engaging with the feedback process in Brighter Workdays is designed to be quick and straightforward, respecting employees' time and workloads. Initially, employees will receive an email prompt to indicate their current wellbeing by selecting from five options. This step is incredibly swift, requiring only a few seconds to complete. For those who wish to provide further insight, an optional follow-up allows employees to select from a series of brief statements that best describe the reasons behind their wellbeing. Completing this additional step typically takes just 10-20 seconds. Our approach ensures that participating in this valuable feedback process minimises interruption to the workday, making it feasible and hassle-free for everyone involved.

Employee engagement assesses long-term commitment, encapsulating how deeply employees are invested in their company's success, typically through comprehensive surveys on job satisfaction and organisational alignment. On the other hand, monitoring employee wellbeing focuses on capturing the impact of the work environment on employees' immediate mental health. This approach provides real-time insights, reflecting weekly fluctuations in well-being due to various factors.

A key distinction is that while engagement surveys delve into the broader, enduring aspects of work life, wellbeing monitoring hones in on the current impact of the workplace on employees' mental health. Research, including a study by Oxford University's Business School, underscores that happier workers are 13% more productive. This finding highlights the practical value of wellbeing monitoring in identifying and fostering the conditions that contribute to a happier, and thereby more productive, workforce. Together, engagement tracking and wellbeing monitoring paint a comprehensive picture of the employee experience, each with unique contributions towards enhancing workplace culture and productivity.

Currently, Brighter Workdays is optimised for environments where employees predominantly use work email, as our wellbeing tracking relies on email communication. However, we're always seeking ways to enhance our platform and make it more inclusive. Feedback from our users plays a crucial role in guiding these improvements, and adapting our system to support organisations where work email is not widely used is something we may consider for future updates.

Numerous studies and research findings underscore the significant impact that monitoring and improving employee wellbeing has on productivity, staff retention, and profitability:

1. Increased Productivity: A landmark study by the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School found that workers are 13% more productive when happy. Employees in a positive state often exhibit higher energy levels, creativity, and a willingness to go above and beyond in their roles.
2. Staff Retention: According to research published in the "Harvard Business Review," employees who report higher wellbeing at work are less likely to leave their jobs. Positive wellbeing and job satisfaction are closely linked to employee loyalty, reducing turnover rates and the associated costs of hiring and training new staff.
3. Increased Profits: A study conducted by Gallup showed that businesses with highly engaged (and implicitly, happier) employees outperform their competitors by 147% in earnings per share. Engaged and positive employees contribute to a stronger work culture, leading to better customer service, fewer mistakes, and ultimately, higher profits.
4. Better Health and Well-being: Improved wellbeing at work is also associated with better physical and mental health among employees, as found in various studies. Healthier employees take fewer sick days, contribute to a positive work environment, and can perform at their best.
5. Enhanced Team Dynamics: Positive wellbeing within the workplace fosters better communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution among team members. This not only boosts productivity but also contributes to a more cohesive and supportive work environment.

Monitoring and enhancing employee wellbeing, therefore, plays a pivotal role in creating a virtuous cycle where happier employees drive better business outcomes, which in turn, contribute to a more positive workplace atmosphere. This evidence strongly supports the investment in tools and strategies aimed at understanding and improving employee well-being as a direct pathway to achieving organisational success.

Absolutely, Brighter Workdays offers flexibility in customising the follow-up statements to align with your organisation's unique environment and culture. While the wellbeing options—Feeling Great, Feeling Good, Feeling Okay, Feeling Stressed, and Feeling Overwhelmed—are fixed to maintain consistency in tracking and analysis, the platform allows you to tailor the follow-up statements that explore the reasons behind these well-being indicators. This customisation is done through the Brighter Workdays Portal, where you can adjust, add, or remove statements to ensure they are relevant to your team's specific situations, challenges, and achievements. This feature empowers organisations to gather meaningful insights that are directly applicable to their unique context, facilitating targeted improvements and interventions.

The 25-user minimum serves several purposes. Primarily, it ensures the platform's operational costs are covered for each organisation. Additionally, businesses with at least 25 employees are more likely to see significant benefits from using Brighter Workdays. In smaller teams, the close-knit nature often allows for a direct understanding of each member's mood and well-being. However, as organisations grow beyond this size, maintaining such an intimate understanding becomes challenging. Brighter Workdays is designed to bridge this gap, providing valuable insights into employee mood that might otherwise be difficult to capture, making it an ideal solution for larger teams.

Weekly wellbeing tracking with Brighter Workdays is designed to be minimally intrusive and quick, significantly reducing the risk of survey fatigue compared to longer, more in-depth surveys. The process is streamlined so that providing feedback takes only a few seconds each week, making it far less burdensome for employees than traditional surveys. The benefits of this regular check-in include real-time insights into the workforce's wellbeing, allowing for timely interventions that can enhance the workplace environment and employee satisfaction.

We are actively monitoring feedback on the wellbeing tracking process to ensure it remains engaging and not burdensome. Based on this ongoing feedback, we're open to adjusting the frequency of well-being tracking to best suit the needs of both organisations and their employees. Our goal is to continuously refine our approach to maximise employee engagement while minimising any potential for survey fatigue, ensuring that Brighter Workdays effectively supports a positive and productive work culture.