Polling & Your Team’s Needs, Preferences, and Potential

Using polling effectively can be a valuable tool for understanding the inner dynamics of your team or circle. There are issues, ideas and impressions our colleagues, circle members and employees would rather not say for different reasons, and often these are the most important aspects of work which influence heavily everyone’s well-being and level of contribution. These needs and preferences, if reasonably fulfilled, directly contribute to bonding, creativity and better self-awareness within your team or circle.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can leverage polling to help your team members:

Identify Objectives:

Clearly define the goals you want to achieve through polling. For example, you might want to understand team members’ preferred communication channels, identify areas of improvement, or gather feedback on specific projects. Examples:

Objective: Understand team members’ preferences for collaboration tools.

Objective: Evaluate team members’ experiences and preferences regarding the quality of life in the office versus working from home.

Choose the Right Platform:

Select a polling platform that suits your team’s preferences and is easy to use. PollPapa app is one of the best tools for that purpose. It’s easy, fast, economic, fun, intuitive, offers private polling within circles, and the results are completely transparent. It has a unique “out of the office” feel to it,  that predisposes the respondents to frankness.

Create The Right Questions:

Craft clear and concise questions that address your objectives. Make sure the questions are unbiased and easy to understand. Pollpapa offers a mix of multiple-choice, open-ended, and rating scale questions to gather diverse insights in a poll or survey. In addition, you can further explain what your question is about in Learn More field, situated right under the question field. PollPapa also allows attaching photos, voice files, links, even videos to every poll. Visualising is easy!

Ensure Anonymity (if necessary):

If you want honest feedback, consider making the poll anonymous. This can encourage team members to share their thoughts without fear of reprisal. However, keep in mind that sometimes non-anonymous polls can encourage accountability.

Spread the Word:

Send a team-wide message (using Circles option in PollPapa chat) or an email with link to PollPapa explaining the purpose of the poll, emphasizing that their feedback will help shape policies related to remote work and office arrangements, for example.

Set Active Time:

Establish a deadline for completing the poll to ensure timely responses. Make sure the timeline allows everyone to participate without feeling rushed.

Detailed Results:

Once the polling period is over, analyze the results. Look for patterns, trends, and areas that need attention. Identify strengths and weaknesses within the team.

Share Results:

Share the poll results with the team in a transparent and constructive manner. Highlight positive aspects and address areas that need improvement. Be prepared to discuss action plans based on the feedback received.

Implement Changes:

Act on the insights gained from the poll. Implement changes or improvements based on the feedback received. This demonstrates to your team that their input is valued and can lead to positive outcomes.

Follow-Up:

Schedule periodic check-ins or additional polls to assess the impact of changes and gather ongoing feedback on topic.

Modify as Needed:

Be open to iterating the polling process based on the evolving needs of your team. Regularly reassess your polling strategy and adjust it to better serve your team’s goals.