Employee mental health survey questions—actually, employee well-being overall—have never been more important. We’ve learned a lot about how social interaction affects mental health in recent times. And right now, we’re stuck in a crisis that has sped up a slow disconnection between people and their support systems. This shows up at home and at work. And when home becomes the workplace, employee well-being becomes a major workplace issue. Likewise, when employees return to a changed workplace, we have to ask: How does that change affect employee well-being?
Reconnecting Employees
As employees return to work—whether remotely or in a new type of workplace designed for safety and distance—we need to recognize that everyone will need to adjust to a new normal. We also need to remember that reopening and recovering from the COVID-19 economic hit is, at its core, a talent management challenge.
In other words, understanding how this new environment impacts your workforce well-being will be key to how quickly and successfully your organization can return to business. So don’t ignore mental health. It’s an important part of any employee experience survey or feedback program aimed at spotting issues and adapting to changes during these unsettled times.
This kind of feedback program should track:
- Employee reactions to changes in the work environment
- Employee reactions to changes in tools for the new environment
- Employee reactions to changes in processes
- Employee reactions to old processes that may or may not need updates
- Overall mental health and stress levels
- Open-ended feedback (suggestions, concerns, ideas)
Those Employee Mental Well-Being Survey Questions
To support our Survale Talent Feedback Platform clients, we’ve recommended questions across these categories. Here are several employee wellness survey questions you can use or adjust to understand how workplace changes and virus concerns are affecting your most valuable asset: your employees.
Here they are:
- On a five or ten point scale, how would you rate your overall well-being at work?
- On a five or ten point scale, how would you describe your work-life balance?
- On a five or ten point scale, how would you rate your stress levels at work?
- Do you feel [company] currently supports stress management?
- Would you be interested in more mental health resources at [company]? (such as mindfulness classes, meditation, stress reduction workshops)
- Do you feel like you can talk to someone or ask for help with mental or physical health issues at work?
- How would you describe your relationships with co-workers?
- How many hours outside work do you spend on work projects?
- How could [company] help improve your work-life balance?
- On a five or ten point scale, how would you rate your physical health?
- How could [company] help you improve your physical health?
It’s important to always include open-ended questions. Open-ended responses let you track high-level trends through workplace surveys and gather specific comments that point to solutions.
Survale’s talent feedback platform helps gather feedback both broadly and deeply. It connects employee responses to specific comments, helping you understand the real causes of workplace mental health issues. It also uses sentiment analysis on written feedback to better understand what employees are saying.
Pulse Survey Often, Monitor in Real Time
Finally, as our clients know, the key is to check in often and monitor employees in real time. A must-have tool for handling talent challenges during this crisis—and throughout recovery—is an integrated real-time platform for pulsing your workforce. A feedback platform that connects with your core systems, can be triggered by employee actions, and is set up for sequenced pulse surveys and real-time data analysis of employee experience.
This lets companies move fast with workplace changes, measure reactions, and adjust quickly. And in today’s world, who doesn’t need to respond fast with data?
FAQs
What are 5 questions for a mental health survey?
Here are 5 mental health questions for your employee engagement survey:
- On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your current stress level?
- Do you feel you have access to mental health resources at work?
- Do you feel comfortable talking about mental health with someone at work?
- How would you rate your work-life balance?
- How could [company] better support your mental health?
These are examples of workplace mental health survey items that help measure workforce well-being.
What are the questions for mental health check in employees?
Questions for checking in on employee mental health can include:
- How are you feeling emotionally today?
- Do you feel supported by your team?
- Do you have the tools you need to manage stress at work?
- How often do you feel overwhelmed by your workload?
- What could the company do to help reduce stress?
These kinds of employee wellness survey questions can be included in regular check-ins or workplace mental health surveys.
What are the 5 C’s of mental health?
The 5 C’s of mental health are:
- Connection (building strong social ties)
- Care (access to support and resources)
- Compassion (understanding and kindness toward oneself and others)
- Community (sense of belonging at work)
- Commitment (taking action to improve well-being)
These principles can guide mental health questions for your employee engagement efforts.
What questions to ask in a mental health assessment?
Questions to ask in a workplace mental health survey or assessment might include:
- How would you rate your mental health today?
- Do you feel stress is affecting your work performance?
- Do you know where to go for mental health support?
- How satisfied are you with work-life balance resources?
- Have you felt burned out at work recently?
These workplace surveys help measure well-being and guide actions to improve the employee experience.
