April is Stress Awareness Month. It is a moment the HR and wellbeing world tends to mark with statistics about burnout and articles about resilience techniques. All of that is useful. But we wanted to do something a bit different this year.
We wanted to talk about what it looks like when things are going well.
We have just had the results of our latest quarterly engagement survey back. All members of the Ascend team took part. And the average score across five questions was 4.97 out of 5.
That is not a number we have put on a slide and called a win. It is what our people said, anonymously, when asked how they feel about coming to work.
What the survey asked
The five questions were straightforward.
- Are you proud to work here?
- Do you feel motivated to do your best?
- Do you see a future here?
- Are you aligned with where the company is going?
- Would you recommend this as a place to work?
The near-perfect scores are gratifying, but it is the comments that came with them that are more interesting.
Feedback from our team
One team member who had been with us for just two weeks at the time of the survey wrote that they already knew how much they could thrive here, and that having kind and helpful professionals around them made all the difference.
Another said they feel safe to be themselves.
A third mentioned that when they researched us before their interview, they saw that we talk about ‘always doing the right thing’ – and that this aligned with how they already wanted to work.
These are not things you can manufacture. You cannot write a values document and expect people to feel them. The connection has to come from something more consistent than that.
Why this matters beyond our own four walls
April is a useful moment to think honestly about workplace wellbeing, not just to acknowledge that stress exists, but to ask what causes it and what reduces it.
The research is fairly consistent on this. People experience more stress at work when expectations are unclear, when mistakes are met with blame rather than problem-solving, when they cannot see how their role fits the bigger picture, and when they feel like they are on their own with a difficult workload.
The opposite of each of those things is also true. Clarity, support, purpose and connection are not soft concepts. They are the conditions under which people do their best work.
That is what we try to build, and the survey suggests we are on the right path.
The connection between a settled team and good client outcomes
Payroll is a high-stakes and high-stress profession. Every month, real people’s salaries depend on the work our team does being accurate and on time. That requires concentration, expertise and a genuine commitment to the work.
It is very hard to bring that level of care to a job when you are anxious, disengaged, or unsure whether you are supported. A team that feels informed, valued and connected to the purpose of the organisation is not just a nicer place to work, it is a more reliable one.
We think the two things are inseparable – the way we look after our team is part of how we look after our clients.
What we are working on
We do not think a good survey result means the work is done. If anything, it raises the bar for what comes next.
- We are continuing to invest in professional development and structured progression routes.
- We have apprentices in the team and are committed to giving them a proper career, not just a placement.
- We are a Living Wage employer
- We are clear about what we expect from everyone, including ourselves.
Our values framework is not a document we revisit once a year, or a set of posters on the wall. It shapes all our behaviours – how we run our days, how we handle problems, and how we make decisions when no one is watching.
A score of 4.97 tells us that people can feel the difference between values that are lived and values that are just a tick box exercise.
A note for this month
If you are thinking about workplace wellbeing this April, the best starting point is probably the simplest one. Ask your people how they feel, listen to what they tell you and then do something with the answer.
Not because it is Stress Awareness Month. Because it matters, every month.
