Module 3 / Unit 2 Measuring Digital Inclusivity

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Measuring Digital
Inclusivity
Module 3 / Unit 2

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Introduction
Unit 2 - Measuring Digital Inclusivity, aims at explaining the approach and process of measuring the sense
of belonging in the company.
As part of the agenda, we offer you the idea of the Employee Experience (EX) concept, to ease the
understanding, importance, and variety of methods that can be used to measure the invisible and very
personal feelings of the employees in one organisation.
As there are no recipes for what the best hybrid inclusivity is, each company should research and create its
unique approach to it.
There are some important steps before the measurement itself and we hope you find them interesting, as
the quality of this preparation can influence the outcome of all your efforts.
We offer you the modern concept of neuroscience - the SCARF model - to understand the factors that
affect the sense of belonging, motivation, and engagement of employees.
Of course - we offer some good examples to get inspiration from!

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01 Employee Experience (EX) in the Hybrid Workplace
02 Digital Inclusivity (The Sense of Belonging) as a Part of EX
03
Measuring the Digital Inclusivity / Sense of Belonging
04
Before You Start Measuring the Digital Inclusivity / Sense of Belonging
Table of Contents
How-to Methods & Tools for Online Surveys
05
06 Self-Assessment
07 Transition to next unite

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KNOWLEDGE:
Learning Outcomes
SKILLS:
BEHAVIOURS: You will be more active in the process of measuring and researching the sense of
belonging, and you will understand the significant role of managers and HRs in the
process
ATTITUDES: You will get more confidence and understanding of the importance, the stages and the
different roles in the process of measuring the hybrid inclsiivity.
You will be able to organise and conduct different processes of measuring the hybrid
inclusivity for the different levels and working models.
You will be acquainted with what employee experience is, the stages, its importance, and
the role of hybrid inclusivity in the employee experience in the life cycle of the company.
You will understand the SCARF approach and how to organise and measure hybrid
inclusivity.

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Employee
experience
in the
hybrid workplace
01

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When it comes to your employees, ensuring they have a great experience should be your top priority as a
manager. By measuring and improving it you can be sure that people not only feel good together, but that
they work well together, achieve their goals, and are the ambassadors of the employer brand.
The EX is based on the organisational structure, culture, rules, habits, relations, communication,
development, technical provision of tools for working in the hybrid environment, and leadership.
1. Employee Experience in the Hybrid Workplace
Employee experience (EX) - the key factor for success
But no matter what you do for your people, it doesn't automatically mean that they feel engaged
and as if they belong to the company and the team. You can’t force people to feel that, nor to
expect them to find great meaning in their jobs and roles only because you care as an employer.
So what is missing? And how can we help your employees to feel better, connected, engaged,
having greater input and living the live they want, especially in this new HYBRID reality?
The EX unites how people feel, how motivated they are, what
meaning they find in their jobs, how they contribute to the
common and specific goals, how connected they feel to the team
and the organisation, what is their daily experience in the
company’s life, how they overcome problems or conflicts, how
they learn and grow, and so on.

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To answer the previous questions, we will take a step
back to review the meaning of the so-called
EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE.
Definition:
The employees’ experience is a set or spectrum of
experiences that employees come to have during
their life cycle in an organisation - the interaction
with the team, managers, tools, software, facilities,
the sense of meaning, belonging, contribution, clear
goals, development, support, achievements, etc.
“EX is the sum of interactions between an
organisation and its employees that impact
performance and how each person thinks and
feels. It is the employee journey.”
https://management30.com/blog/employee-experience/
What is Employees’ Experience (EX)
So far so good… but what if the half of
your people interact with a computer
screen only 90% of the time?

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It is difficult to have the perfect recipe for a good Employee experience
since it is quite personal and specific for different people, even if they
are in one department or have the same positions. But you can
explore and learn these specifics by mapping your employees’
unique journey, together with your people!
The life cycle of the employees in business organisations is more or less
well-known:
• The Agile People model: Attract ➞ Recruit➞ Onboard ➞ Engage ➞
Develop ➞ Perform ➞ Reward ➞ Exit
The new aspect is the HYBRID working and the changes in each stage
that are taking place.
The challenge for the managers (and employees) is the need to ensure
equal processes and experience for people that are working remotely,
on the spot or in a hybrid mode. And even more – to be aware of how
they feel even if they don’t meet each other.
This brings another issue - how active and interested in this are the
employees.
The Stages in the Employee experience (EX)

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The current workforce comprises 5 different generations that need
to work together in a HYBRID reality.
Traditionalists/ Maturists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation
Z and Generation Y/millennials - all with their unique
characteristics, preferences, communication styles, and
expectations towards the workplace and the technologies used.
To attract and retain skilled individuals you need to make them feel
good together and work the way they need.
This means a combination of cultures, habits, relations, digitalisation
levels, leadership, skills, knowledge, experience, and so on.
A new win-win culture and practice is needed for the HYBRID
environment because only by questioning the old ways and
searching for new solutions, transformations and innovations can
happen.
The Different Generations and the Way They work

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By measuring something you can develop it!
By measuring the employees’ experience of remote,
hybrid, and on-the-spot, you can understand:
• To what extent the organisational model and
internal processes corresponds to people’s
needs and what needs to be changed;
• What are the weak points;
• What relevant actions to take to develop and
improve the situation?
Thus, the EX is a tool towards both organisational
sustainability and people development.
And even more - you can engage and empower
your people to be co-creators of the new
organisational processes and practices, that will
help them to apply their talents, drives and
energy for mutual progress (personal and
organisational).
Measure to Improve
Measuring the EX has become also a preventive
measure against the burnout, absenteeism, and
retention of people from one side, and from the
other - a way to enhance the business results, as
your people are the ones who make the difference
in customers’ experience and loyalty in the long
term.
92%
of companies are likely to prioritise
EX improvements in the next three
years, compared to 52% prior to the
pandemic,
says the WTW survey (1550
employers, 9.45 million employees
around the world in 2021)
80%
of employers notice that the EX
drives engagement, employee
wellbeing, productivity, and overall
business performance, thus creating
value for both employees and the
business,
says the same survey …

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To gain the right insights into how people interact
and what they experience at each stage of their
relationship with the organisation, you need to
create your own model of EX exploration by
gathering specific data by using the proper tools.
It will help you to find and measure the ups and
downs, the gaps and needs.
And most importantly - to measure them regularly
and to be able to catch the pulse of the
company.
It is called “experience parity”.
Otherwise, you risk investing lots of effort in annual
appraisals which simply have no meaning for the
people and the business.
Create your own approach to the Employee Experience in your
Self Reflection:
• Do you have a road map of your employees’
journey?
• How did remote and hybrid working affect the
experience of your employees in the different
stages of the employee life cycle?
• In which stages of the EX in your company the
hybrid working had the most significant role
and in which - less?
• Was it positive/negative?
• How did your measure the change?
• Is there room for improvement and where?

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Good Practices & Examples
Companies that see hybrid work as an opportunity to redefine company culture
Intel has explicitly stated in its Corporate Inclusion Report that it will follow data
when making decisions about the future of work for its over 121,000 employees.
The company also uses the shift in the approach to work to focus on making the
employee experience as diverse and inclusive as possible.
The HR organised a survey of over 3000 business leaders on these matters, making
the results available to everyone in their Inclusion report.
The automotive giant Ford announced they would move to a hybrid work
model.
All eligible employees at Ford can choose the remote-work balance that suits
them best, in agreement with their manager.
However, not all of the over 183,000 Ford employees will be eligible, so steps
are being made to increase the well-being and workplace satisfaction of
employees involved in manufacturing who cannot benefit from the hybrid
work model.
You can read more at: 12 Hybrid Work Model Examples to Inspire You to Work Differently

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The sense of
belonging as a part
of EX
02

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Engaged employees are over 30% more profitable and belonging plays a critical role in engagement. Pat
Wadors, an SVP of Talent Organisation at LinkedIn, spoke about her experience with D&I:
Diversity Efforts Fall Short Unless Employees Feel That They
Belong.
She went on to say, D&I grabs my intellect, but not my heart.
D&I initiatives are necessary to win the war for talent, to find and hire a diverse workforce, and to ensure fair
practices, but they aren’t sufficient.”
Organisations need to understand that D&I alone isn’t enough and the mentality of “checking boxes” for
diversity hiring doesn’t cut it.
Source: https://www.gqrgm.com/belonging-the-next-evolution-of-diversity-and-inclusion/
2. The Sense of Belonging as a Part of EX

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While diversity and inclusion can mean different things
to different people across different cultures, the
importance of belonging (inclusivity) is universal for
all human beings.
Cultivating an environment where all employees feel
like they belong is a goal that everyone can embrace,
and yet it is difficult to be achieved.
In 2015 a McKinsey’s study revealed that racially diverse
companies tend to outperform industry norms by
35%. And not the diversity itself, but how well people
mix and feel with each other, how well they feel as
part of their teams and organisations, was what made
the difference.
The Sense of Belonging is what makes the difference
It is a culture where your people feel
confident to express their true selves, to be
respected and accepted, no matter the
differences between them.

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Because humans are genetically wired to want to belong,
communicate, be accepted, be authentic and
successful, to be acknowledged and respected.
Some recent research shows that this sense of belonging
(with all its aspects) to a group of co-workers can be a
better motivator than money alone.
But what happens in the hybrid working environment
with the sense of belonging, where part of your
people don’t belong to a physical place regularly or in
general? Or never see each other? Or don’t know
anything about them? And just perceive them as a
voice in online meetings or an e-mail?
You can read the previous Unit 1 of this module for more detailed
information about the meaning and importance of the sense
of belonging.
Why the sense of belonging in the Hybrid Environment is so important?
Self Reflection:
• How does the hybrid working environment
affect your people and their sense of
belonging to the team and the company?
• Has the sense of belonging changed since you
started to work remotely / in a hybrid mode?
• Is the change positive or negative?
If you don’t have answers, maybe you haven’t
measured it yet…

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More than 1000 employees shared their opinions In
the ’Belonging Barometer’ (Nov.2018) research
on what makes them feel like they belong:
• More than 40% across generations and genders
feel physically alone or ignored, creating a sense
of emotional isolation;
• 56% feel that they belong most when they
consider that they are trusted and respected;
• Whereas belonging is accepted by all as a highly
positive feature in a workplace, more than half
perceive its opposite – exclusion – as a form of
bullying;
Another survey shows that the sense of belonging
advances employee engagement, motivation,
identification with the goals of the business and
collaboration.
44% of women and 33% of men say that
when colleagues check in with them about
how they are doing, they feel the greatest
sense of belonging!

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Before you start
measuring the
digital inclusivity /
sense of belonging
03

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Create a Sense of Trust
If you want to measure and develop something in the
company, be sure that people know it and
understand what your purpose is. Make them
cooperate and support the process, rather than just
fake it.
For this, you need to have / or create a sense of trust.
What better way than to involve your people in the
processes of defining what belonging means for your
company - in traditional, digital, or hybrid terms. Let
volunteers from different departments participate in
the whole process and support them with proper
specialists - HR and managers.
Depending on the size of your company, the
departments, and the teams, you may find it useful to
organise a pilot group first. This may save time and
resources, and decrease the chance of people getting
disappointed in the process in its early stage!
Acknowledge and Develop
Does your long-term business strategy include the
development of a culture of acknowledgement and
development?
If not - you may think of doing so. Why? Because it is
easier when people are involved and recognise the
process of improvement (their own and for the
organisation) as part of their duties and
responsibilities.
To achieve this, you need long-term reliable data.
Dedicate your efforts and make feedback gathering
an important part of the daily, weekly and monthly
routine of the team leaders and the managers. Be
sure to provide proper technical resources for
collecting and analysing the data.
Once you have the trust of your people and the data
you can analyse and choose proper methods for
further development.
3. Before You Start Measuring the Digital Inclusivity / Sense of
Belonging

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Attract Your Employees
To ensure that everyone can participate and share their
thoughts and experience, you may use different
methods of collecting data - online, offline, in groups or
individual conversations, anonymously or not. Thus, you
will guarantee that people have the chance to speak in
a way they prefer.
You can be creative and select the time you conduct all
your surveys - separately or as part of other processes
like performance management or group meetings;
during or after the working time; officially or not; long
surveys or click-and-go for measuring the pulse of the
day or an event.
Social media is another channel to increase and raise
awareness of your employees and society about the
processes in your company and the importance of your
people for your business! Make people proud of their
company!
Address the Different Levels Properly
You may find it useful and necessary to conduct a
different range of assessments which separately
measure the sense of inclusivity of team leaders,
managers, and employees in the different teams and
the organisation as a whole.
This will help all of you to create proper next steps for
improvement, regarding the different levels.
At the end of the survey, you will need to distinguish
what is the difference between people who are
working from home, hybrid, and in the office.
Belonging

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Consider Different Measurements
Employee’s belongingness to their organisation discerns
from other similar constructs such as identity, faith at
work, and satisfaction. That’s why it needs different
measurements and interpretations.
Whatever method you use, don’t forget that you are
examining a sense of belonging which is not a
predefined parameter that could simply be measured
by 0 to 10.
It is the personal experience of your people that can be
united in the collective wisdom of your company.
Thus, you may need to come up with your
company/team-specific definition of what is the sense
of belonging in the hybrid environment for them.
If you miss this step, you may risk throwing your efforts
in vain in improving and developing things in the
company that have nothing in common with how
people feel and what they need.
Start with Science
Unfortunately, there is still not enough research that
has exclusively examined “belongingness” in the
context of the workplace, which leads to the lack of
specific workplace belongingness measures and
good practices to share.
That’s why you may be tempted to compose a sense
of belonging survey driven by the impulsive desire
that can play a bad joke on you or waste your time
and resources.
The study of sense of belonging is part of the scope of
psychology, sociology, HR, and management. It is a
good idea to turn to specialists to advise you on
how to properly design your survey, what
questions to include, what measurement scales,
etc.
If you don’t have the internal know-how, you may
also ask the leading HR companies in your country
for support.
Belonging

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Keep it Simple, Experiment, and Improve
Be also sure to understand that the personal factors that influence
the sense of inclusivity are too many to be explored at once -
emotional stability, extroversion/ introversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, openness, neuroticism, culture, personal
experience, age, gender, education, religion, etc.
You can focus on examples that reveal when people feel included
and when not in your company.
It is a good idea to run an experimental survey to analyse the
results and to improve its structure if needed.
It is more important to be meaningful than sophisticated. It is
more important to discuss the results with people shortly after
you have them. This will increase the sense of the meaning of
such activities, especially if you let your people take care of and
decide on changes and improvements further.
Keep it simple and easy! With time you can add more aspects of
your approach and tools.
Common mistakes of
company surveys:
• People are not involved in
the process
• Lack of proper questions
• Too rare
• Too many – survey fatigue
• Too long
• Too short
• Not followed by results
• Not followed by actions
• People forgets easily the
good, but remember the
bad
Belonging

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Prepare proper tools for collecting data
● collecting data through surveys - both
quantitative and qualitative
● use online platforms and apps, not directly
connected to the company IT department - this
will increase the trust of employees
● invest in an internal communication system
● implement the process of data collection in
every stage of the employee life cycle with a
proper tool
● train people to use the tools you apply.
Belonging
Set rules for data protection and assure
the are followed
● ethics comes first
● view employee data holistically
● ensure legal compliance
● set rules for data security
● be transparent with your employees about what
kind of data you collect -
set rules for the usage and
access to the data
● delete unnecessary
information.

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Measuring the
digital inclusivity
/ sense of
belonging
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A modern and interesting approach towards
understanding and measuring the sense of
belonging is the SCARF model. David Rock, the
author of Quiet Leadership and founder of the
NeuroLeadership Institute, developed it to help
people understand their thoughts and emotions to
stay in a higher place of consciousness and
function.
The model stems from Neuroscience and supports
what is happening in our brains. It explains how
people react towards threats and rewards,
depending on how secure they feel.
Leaders can use the SCARF model to communicate in
a way that helps others to feel more secure and
ensures what they say does not activate threats
(fear and mistrust).
4. Measuring the Digital Inclusivity / Sense of Belonging
The SCARF model and how to use it
The SCARF model has five domains: Status,
Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness.
Source: https://netmind.net/en/neuroscience-for-agile-teams-the-scarf-model/

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The 5 elements refer to:
● STATUS: Our importance to others and feeling
like we matter.
● CERTAINTY: Our ability to understand
expectations and calculate the future.
● AUTONOMY: Our sense of control, freedom and
personal power.
● RELATEDNESS: Our safety and connection with
others, friend or foe.
● FAIRNESS: Our desire for a reasonable exchange
between people.
The SCARF model and how to use it
How to use the SCARF model?
You can organise a survey among your colleagues.
Choose questions that reflect the reality in the
company and the everyday routine and dynamics of
people.
Let them give examples of what kind of situations they
feel uncomfortable and emotional, and in which
they feel confident, proud, and empowered.
Analyse the results and take proper steps towards the
development of a greater sense of being part of the
organisation. Develop a training programme and
make it part of the employee experience!

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Try to answer the following questions:
● (S) How do you show your colleagues they are important and matters? How do you encourage them to
show each other the same?
● (C) In a time of problems, what do you do to decrease the uncertainty?
● (A) What part of their job your people can decide on how and when to do it?
● (R) How do your people feel about each other and with you as a leader?
● (F) People are quick to feel inequity and think about themselves (did I get some, was I missed, am I
included, etc.). Have you noticed such situations and what did you do?
Self Reflection

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In a huge research conducted by Lalatendu Kesari
Jena & Sajeet Pradhan, they have described three
important belongingness scales that are frequently
used to measure the sense of belonging in various
diverse social settings.
These are:
• Sense of Belonging Instrument-Psychological (SOBI-
P) (Hagerty and Patusky, 1995)
• General Belongingness Scale (GBS) (Malone et al.,
2012)
• and Need to Belong Scale (NTB) (Leary et al., 2013).
You can see the lack of specific workplace
belongingness research, which may inspire you to
be among the pioneers in the area!
General belongingness scales

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Lalatendu Kesari Jena & Sajeet Pradhan have
selected some parameters of the construct
“Belongingness” by involving 22 industry
professionals working in the field of engineering,
human resource, and strategy and 4 industrial
psychologists.
Based on their answers the authors developed a
pool of 12 items in the form of statements.
Many of those reflected the actual wordings
shared by the professionals.
● “Being a part of this organisation inspires me
to do more than what is expected”,
● “In my work unit I have many common themes
with my co-workers”,
● “I generally carry more positive emotions than
the negative ones during my job”.
All the items were positively worded with a
Likert-type rating scale having 1 (strongly
disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) ratings.
You can experiment with negative-worded as
well, and open questions to add value and
depth.
Keep in mind that the research was
conducted on a huge scale in India
(more than 800 participants),
among team leads and managers
with at least 3 years of experience,
and reflects their culture and reality,
thus for your company other topics
may occur in the list.

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(7) Fairness is maintained while executing rules and
policies in my organisation.
(8) My personal needs are well met by my
organisation.
(9) Whenever I have any personal or professional
issues my organisation extends necessary help and
support.
(10) My career goals are well considered by my
organisation.
(11) My organisation tries to make my job as exciting
and promising as possible.
(12) Accomplishments at work are adequately
rewarded in my organisation.
The 12 topics of Lalatendu Kesari Jena & Sajeet
Pradhan are:
(1) I can work in this organisation without
sacrificing my principles.
(2) I use “we/us” rather than “they/them” when I
refer my organisation to outsiders.
(3) I feel that there is a semblance between my
organisation and my values and beliefs.
(4) I generally carry more positive emotions than
negative ones during my job.
(5) Being a part of this organisation inspires me
to do more than what is expected.
(6) In my work unit I have many common themes
with my co-workers.

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The hybrid environment is framing a new
specific workplace context that is
influencing the way people feel, think,
and behave.
That’s why it is important to focus your
effort on discovering what the sense of
belongingness in the hybrid world looks
like for your employees in your
organisation and how to measure and
develop it in the future.
Mind the HYBRID component
and adapt the questions
4. Measuring the Digital Inclusivity
/ Sense of Belonging

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The right questions will help you to get the
right answers and to apply the right
measures.
Be sure to ask how people feel (good and bad)
and to give their examples - it is a way to
understand how they think, what they value,
what culture and experience they bring to
the company, and other aspects that you
may not even imagine are important for
people!
Prepare the Survey - Ask
the Right Questions

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Example
Example:
A young employee may feel neglected when during an
online meeting a client turns to his/her older colleague
for assistance, believing that older people knew better.
This may have nothing to do with the older colleague or
the company in general, but it will affect the mood and
the experience of this person, especially if the situation
repeats itself often.
Your goal is to understand what is behind this “bad”
feeling and to help your colleague to overcome it.
Self Reflection:
What would be the best
case scenario in this case, if
this was a colleague of
yours?

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TECHNOLOGY:
• technical connectivity;
• equal and timely access to information;
• how well the current collaboration and
communication tools are working.
SKILLS:
• skills, convenience and confidence to use
online tools, platforms, software and
hardware;
• No matter the skills - do people feel
overwhelmed with the variety of tools
they need to use?
Measuring the sense of belonging in the hybrid
work environment would require setting the right
for your company questions.
You have to include positive- and negative-worded
questions and examine the 2 main factors
simultaneously - rejection/exclusion and
acceptance/inclusivity.
When designing a survey, make sure to include
questions that measure the following drivers of
digital inclusivity in the hybrid environment:
technology, skills, culture:
Prepare the Survey - Ask the Right Questions

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• workplace scheduling and organisation
• the possibility to learn and develop;
• the possibility to develop personal
leadership skills no matter the position.
CULTURE:
• ability to collaborate with others, especially in a
hybrid environment;
• support they feel they have from managers and
leaders;
• cross-department collaboration;
• ability to participate equally and with ease in all
the hybrid processes of the job
• people relations - being accepted by others;
being supported;
• sense of (mis)fitting in the team/organisation;
• freedom to express opinion authentically;
• the sense of being respected, being valued,
being recognised for their contribution and as a
person;
Prepare the Survey - Ask the Right Questions

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● Are you satisfied with your current
compensation and benefits?
Funny questions (but not only):
● If you were CEO for the day, what changes
would you make?
● Can you suggest a good Netflix show for us
to binge this weekend?
● If you could pick any animal to be an office
pet, what type of animal would you
choose?
Need more? Read the whole article and find
more than 100 surprising questions you may use
here: List of employee engagement survey
questions
EXAMPLES OF QUESTIONS YOU MAY ASK:
To be prepared and to lead the process of finding
the right questions, you may need additional
inspiration.
Find the list of some serious and funny questions,
that may lead you and your team in the right
direction.
Serious questions:
● What factors most impact whether you like
your job?
● Do you enjoy working with your current team?
Why?
● Do you feel as if you have friends at work?
● Do you feel as if teammates and supervisors
recognise your efforts and accomplishments?

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You may ask specific uncomfortable questions
like:
• have people had to minimise their heritage or
personal identity to fit in
• OR if there are situations and examples in
which they don’t feel comfortable, but they
don’t dare to share and ask for support
• OR what are the worst feelings during the
work they have experienced for the period?
Ask these questions regularly, if possible, on
weekly bases. Otherwise, people may not
remember, and they will try to neglect the
issues they have had.
The Uncomfortable Questions
4. Measuring the Digital Inclusivity /
Sense of Belonging

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• Can you tell me about a time when you really didn't
feel like you belonged at ICL?
• What could someone see about you that would show
them that you felt like you belonged?
• Are there any ways that ICL could change to make you
feel like you belong even more? Tell me about those
ways.
• In what ways are students important for creating a
sense of belonging at ICL? In what ways are staff
important for creating a sense of belonging at ICL?
• What are the differences in the ways that students
and staff contribute to making ICL a place where you
feel like you belong?
• What does it look like when people at ICL respect each
other? What about when they're not?
Open question to add:
• Please, write down up to 10 words that come to your
mind when you think about belonging to the ICL.
The Imperial College London offers some ideas on
how to structure an interview/focus group with
people.
Interview protocol: Sense of belonging at Imperial
College London (for students)
1. What does it mean to feel ‘at home’
somewhere? How does that feeling apply to
your experience at ICL?
2. Can you tell me about a time when you felt a
real sense that you belonged at ICL? What was
that like for you? Can you describe it?
Ask more questions if people have not had the
positive experience of belonging in Question 1
above:
Good Practices & Examples – How to Organise a Questionnaire

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6. Is your work schedule flexible enough to meet family
and personal responsibilities?
7. Do you feel a sense of psychological safety while at
work?
8. Do you feel the organisation prioritises diversity,
equity, and inclusion?
9. Do you know where and how to report concerns about
harassment and discrimination?
10. Do you feel the perspectives of people from all
cultures and backgrounds are respected and valued?
1. Do you feel connected to the work you do?
2. Are you motivated by the mission of the
company?
3. Do you feel a sense of belonging at work?
4. Do you feel recognised and appreciated for your
contributions?
5. Do you feel leaders and managers are
transparent?
Some essential questions you may use in your survey

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By Pentabell >> www.pentabell.com/blog/sense-of-
belonging-in-the-workplace/
Instructions: Respond to each statement by selecting a
number to indicate how much you agree or disagree
with the statement. Use the following scale:
Strongly disagree 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 Strongly agree
Scoring:
Step 1: For questions 2, 3, 4, and 5 subtract each of your
answer choices from 8 (8 minus your answer choice
number) and then add them up to get a subtotal
Step 2: Add your answer choice number for the 1st question to
your subtotal.
Assess Your Own Sense of Belonging
1. I generally feel that people accept me in my
organisation.
2. I feel like a misplaced piece that doesn’t fit
into the larger puzzle of the organisation
3. I would like to make a difference to people
around me at work‚ but I don’t feel that what
I have to offer is valued
4. I feel like an outsider in most situations in my
organisation
5. I am uncomfortable that my background and
experiences are so different from those who
are usually around me in the organisation

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Score Your Result
A score of 0 – 15: You don’t feel a sense of
belonging. You do not feel safe and valued for
expressing your true self.
A score of 16 – 30: You feel some sense of
belonging. You mainly feel safe and valued for
expressing your true self, but there is still room
for improvement.
A score of more than 30: You feel a good sense of
belonging. You feel that you can usually share
your thoughts and know you’ll be respected and
heard.
Self Reflection
● How do you explain the results you just
had?
● What are the most significant factors
for your results?

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• Do your team members identify with the work (team
goals, function, department, geography, etc.)?
• Do your team members feel welcome to share diverse
thoughts without hesitation?
• Do your team members have a sense of community
and feel connected to each other?
• Do you offer social / community platforms through
which team members can connect with like-minded
individuals and voice their opinions?
• Do your team members feel valued for their individual
contributions?
• Do your team members feel aligned with the
organisation’s overall purpose, mission, and values?
• Does your organisation have (or is it considering)
methods/metrics to measure team belongingness and
cohesiveness?
In Deloitte’s article Guiding questions to enhance
team belonging, wellbeing, and productivity
there are a few more examples, that might be
useful for you when you start dealing with the
sense of belonging in your company.
Here are some of them, the others (regarding team
wellbeing and productivity) you can read in the
article:
• Are your team members comfortable bringing
their full, authentic selves to the workplace?
• Do your team members feel they are treated
fairly and with respect?
Good Practices & Examples – More Ideas for Questions

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How-to methods
&
tools for online
surveys
05

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• Surveys and questionnaires - use easy to manage
and conduct. Online or offline, depending on how
your people work;
• Pulse check - fast check on how people feel and
what they like or not for a shorter period;
• Focus Groups - it’s helpful to ask respondents to
opt into participating in focus groups around
these issues. Then, in the focus groups, you can
dig deeper into the survey questions and get at
people’s underlying feelings and motivations. Mix
people in the focus groups or use people from
the same team/department, regarding your goal
and issues found in the survey.
• Don’t forget to guarantee confidentiality and
security of information if you want people to
trust you and to participate freely.
Even if your questions are right and your
questionnaire is perfect, you still need to
consider at least a few different options to gather
feedback from your employees:
• Talk to people - this is still the most powerful
way to connect and exchange opinions. Ask and
share your own as well. Formally (interviews) or
not (just conversations)! And keep track of the
info shared with you by keeping your own notes
or even asking people to come back with
something written later;
• Use a 360-degree feedback method (better
written) to collect a range of viewpoints –
personal experience, people in the team,
managers, senior management, and the
company. Use both quantitative and qualitative
answers. Leave space for comments;
5. How-to Methods & Tools for Online Surveys

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Here are the must-have features of online survey
tools you will need:
• Real-time and Collaboration
• Mobile-Friendly
• Secure
• Embedded Survey
• Third-party Integrations
• Survey Templates
• Ease of customisation
• Multiple Question Types
• Analytics and Reporting.
There are many different free and paid online
survey tools nowadays. Not every one of them
offers the same features and value. You need this
online tool to make the complete process of
collecting feedback from your employees more
effortless and convenient.
Tools for Online Surveys

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The latest generation of online surveys can extract
a huge amount of information from open-ended
questions and unstructured language data.
This is due to the use of artificial intelligence (AI)
and natural language processing (NLP) which
deliver high-value insights and make them
available immediately, without any post-
processing or further data manipulation.
Another added benefit of these online tools is the
gamified interactive process that people like a
lot.
More engaged and attentive respondents, higher-
quality responses, and better validity.
Look at the Best survey tools of 2023.
How to choose an online survey platform

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● Google Forms: Best 100% free tool
● SurveyMonkey: Best for short surveys
● Typeform: Best user experience
● Jotform: Most complete freemium plan
● SoGoSurvey: Best for scaling
● SurveyPlanet: Best unlimited freemium plan
● Zoho Survey: Best for Zoho users
● Crowdsignal: Best for WordPress users
● Bonus tool: Qualaroo - for more advanced need
Read about the pros and cons of each of them >>
Some of the best online survey platforms

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Don’t jump directly to conclusions before you
analyse both quantitative and qualitative data.
You may need time to understand the results and
even discuss them with your managers and team
leaders before you do share them with people
and consider some changes.
If you do such research for the first time, use the
results as a benchmark, not as proof of how good
or bad your company is doing.
Remember that with time, and if people trust you,
they will be more willing to share their real
feelings and participate in the next steps of
improvement.
Whatever you do, be sure to analyse and share the
results with your people, and to invite them in the
next steps.
For sure you will be interested to understand how
the sense of belonging is connected to the people
who work from the office, from home, or hybrid,
for managers, team leads, and employees, based
on the department they belong to, or other
factors.
What is the distribution of people who feel
excluded versus people who feel they belong, and
what are the reasons; in which
teams/departments the results are better or
worse and why; is there a difference between the
newcomers and people with long experience in
the company; is it related to gender, age,
education, position, etc.
Analysing the Results

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Prepare Additional
Benchmarks
Before starting to analyse the results about digital
inclusivity you may prepare some additional
benchmarks about the teams and the company,
including digital well-being, digital productivity,
and sustainability.
When analysing the results of the DI, look for some
correlation with the benchmarks and explore it in
the future. This will give you a better
understanding of how all these factors are
connected to your unique business ecosystem.
For example, you may need to know how the sense
of belonging influences the L&D process (or
any other from the employee’s life cycle) of your
organisation and what are the outcomes.
5. How-to Methods & Tools for Online Survey

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• Once you have all the data analysed, determine
which metrics matter the most to your
organization.
• Then decide on a course of action on hybrid
work that would best optimise for your desired
outcomes.
• Determine a plan of action to implement the
new ideas, and don’t forget to use appropriate
metrics to measure the success.
• If necessary, revise the policy and see how that
revision impacts your metrics. Consider running
experiments to compare alternative versions of
hybrid measures.
• Keep the rhythm of your assessment and keep
people involved to ensure transparency and the
desired change.
Next Steps

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The employee life cycle in the organisation is
saturated with the personal emotions and
feelings of people.
There is no right and wrong to feel a certain
way, but organizations must create a
process of measuring and developing
people’s abilities to understand and take an
active part in their perceptions and feelings.
It is nice to have a scientific approach towards
measuring such sensitive subjects as how
people feel and why. Preparation is the key
to success and the first step towards a
better sense of belonging among the
employees.
Without measuring and benchmarking, you
can’t develop something, and you can’t
expect people to feel understood and
valued!
SUMMARY OF UNIT 2

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We offer you a short questionnaire
for self-assessment of the extent to
which you have understood the
content.
The goal is to check and reinforce
what you have learned.
You can take the quiz as many times
as you want. Remember, the quiz is
just part of the process of learning
new things!
SELF-ASSESSMENT
QUESTIONNAIRE

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Question 1: The employee experience is
based on:
• the organisational structure, culture, rules,
habits, relations, communication,
development, technical provision of tools
for working in the hybrid environment, and
the leadership
• how employees communicate with each
other
• how managers communicate with
employees
• the additional social benefits employees
have
• none of the above
Question 2: By measuring hybrid inclusivity
you can develop it
• True
• False
Question 3: The sense of belonging is part of:
• the employee experience in all the stages
of the employee life cycle
• the work of the HR department only
• the work of the managers of all levels
• all the above

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Question 4: Before you start measuring the
digital inclusivity/sense of belonging, you
need to:
• inform employees that they have to
participate
• invite people to be part of the process
• do nothing, directly measure it
• create rules for data protection
Question 6: Measuring the sense of
belonging should comprise:
• technology
• culture
• skills
• personal experience with examples
• other relevant data
• all the above
Question 5: When it comes to measuring digital inclusivity/sense
of belonging, it is better to:
• plan and use different approaches like online, offline, groups,
individual meetings, etc.
• it is enough to check employee’s results and get feedback from
his/her manager
• use 360 annual appraisal/performance management process

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• What Is Employee Engagement and How Do You Improve It?, https://www.gallup.com/workplace/285674/improve-
employee-engagement-workplace.aspx
• Employee Engagement vs. Employee Satisfaction and Organizational Culture,
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236366/right-culture-not-employee-satisfaction.aspx
• 8 Employee Engagement Statistics You Need to Know in 2023, https://haiilo.com/blog/employee-engagement-8-
statistics-you-need-to-know/
• Conceptualizing and Validating Workplace Belongingness Scale,
Conceptualizing_and_Validating_Workplace_Belongingness_Scale
• Why We Need Best Friends at Work, https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236213/why-need-best-friends-work.aspx
• The Need to Belong…, https://highstreet.bg/en/post/boxoj1pz0n/the-need-to-belong
• Guiding questions to enhance team belonging, wellbeing, and productivity,
https://action.deloitte.com/insight/1119/guiding-questions-to-enhance-team-belonging-wellbeing-and-productivity
• 105 Employee Engagement Survey Questions, https://teambuilding.com/blog/employee-engagement-survey
• New Deloitte Research Identifies Keys to Creating Fair and Inclusive Organizations,
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/4209_Diversity-and-inclusion-revolution/DI_Diversity-
and-inclusion-revolution.pdf
Further Reading / Watching /
Listening

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• Enhancing the Employee Experience with Management 3.0, April 14, 2022 - AGILE HR,
https://management30.com/blog/employee-experience/
• 2021 Employee Experience Survey, https://www.wtwco.com/en-GB/Insights/2021/07/2021-employee-experience-survey
• Definition - employee experience, https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/definition/employee-experience
• What is employee experience?, https://www.cultureamp.com/blog/what-is-employee-experience
• Employee Experience: 7 Steps To Ideal Experiences, https://www.personio.com/hr-lexicon/employee-experience-
guide/#example-jacob-morgans-employee-experience-model
• Guide to building an effective employee experience strategy, https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/Guide-to-building-
an-effective-employee-experience-strategy
• How To Measure The Success Of Your Hybrid Work Model, https://www.forbes.com/sites/glebtsipursky/2022/12/15/how-to-
measure-the-success-of-your-hybrid-work-model/?sh=3ed82b05476b
• 6 Metrics to Measure Hybrid Working Success, https://smartway2.com/blog/6-metrics-to-measure-hybrid-working-success/
• How Should You Measure Employee Engagement in Remote and Hybrid Work?, https://www.cmswire.com/employee-
experience/how-should-you-measure-employee-engagement-in-remote-and-hybrid-work
• 12 Hybrid Work Model Examples to Inspire You to Work Differently, https://www.deel.com/blog/hybrid-work-model-
examples
References

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• How to make the hybrid workplace a success, https://giarte.com/blog/hybrid-working-and-measuring-the-
employee-experience
• Belonging – The Next Evolution Of Diversity & Inclusion, https://www.gqrgm.com/belonging-the-next-
evolution-of-diversity-and-inclusion/
• Why Creating a Sense of Belonging Is a Gateway to Diversity and Inclusion,
https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-acquisition/why-creating-sense-of-belonging-is-
gateway-to-diversity-and-inclusion
• Tools for assessing sense of belonging, https://www.imperial.ac.uk/education-research/evaluation/what-can-i-
evaluate/sense-of-belonging/tools-for-assessing-sense-of-belonging/
• Organisations can and should measure their employees’ sense of belonging,
https://symmetraglobal.com/organisations-can-and-should-measure-their-employees-sense-of-belonging/
• 6 questions to measure your sense of belonging in the workplace, https://www.pentabell.com/blog/sense-of-
belonging-in-the-workplace/
• How People Analytics Can Gauge Company Culture, https://emtrain.com/blog/workplace-culture/people-
analytics-gauge-culture/
• New Deloitte Research Identifies Keys to Creating Fair and Inclusive Organizations,
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-deloitte-research-identifies-keys-to-creating-fair-and-
inclusive-organizations-300455164.html
References

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The main focus of the next Unit 3 will be how
to develop a sense of belonging in a hybrid
workplace. You will get a different
perspective on how you can implement the
digitally inclusive culture on different
organizational levels by developing the
leaders, and people, and using the
multicultural factor to create a unique
workplace and employer brand.
TRANSITION TO THE
NEXT UNIT

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“Diversity is a fact, but
inclusion is a choice we
make every day. As
leaders, we have to put
out the message that we
embrace and not just
tolerate diversity.”
– Nellie Borrero (Managing
Director, Senior Strategic Advisor –
Global Inclusion & Diversity at
Accenture)

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Thank you for learning with
us!
www.prosper-project.eu
You can find us:
● https://prosper-project.eu/
● https://www.facebook.com/Workplace.SMEs.EU
● https://www.linkedin.com/company/workplace-smes/

Module 3 / Unit 2 Measuring Digital Inclusivity

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