Flight has three core values: People first, Do the right things right, and Support your community. 

Our twice-yearly team survey supports all three of these — ensuring that we’re checking in with our people to ensure they’re feeling valued and supported, that they’re set up with the tools and structures they need to excel in their roles and provide top-quality service, and that they’re feeling included and connected to their teammates. 

The survey provides us with key insights on the things that are important to us and gives us signals on the things we need to stop, start, and continue doing in order to keep running a values-aligned operation. 

If you’re curious to learn more about our approach and latest results, read on!

Approach

We collected information through Typeform, using two different surveys, one anonymous and one not. The anonymous survey is a shorter format, aimed at measuring overall eNPS and satisfaction. The non-anonymous survey has more questions and is meant to capture highlights and opportunities on a more micro level, like trends for each of our client crews or even individual-level requests. 

The reason for the multiple formats is two-fold. First, at our current size, it’s difficult to anonymously capture more nuanced levels of feedback, since the identifying information we’d need to interpret the data (e.g. role, team) would in many cases reveal the identity of the respondent.
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In addition, we wanted to strike a balance between the psychological safety of an anonymous poll while building non-anonymous safety by demonstrating in practice that all types of feedback are welcomed, not punished. It’s also important to us to be able to follow up on specific issues or concerns that haven't been raised through other channels

The longer-form survey covered a total of 50 questions, with a mix of Likert scales alongside open-ended fields where people could give more nuanced and detailed answers.

For the Likert scales, there were five response options - Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree - and the questions covered six themes: Leadership, Managers, People and Teams, Role, Culture, Growth and Development. A few of these themes were also broken down into sub-themes.

It’s worth mentioning that one of the challenges with a Likert scale survey is acquiescence bias, the tendency for respondents to agree with statements. To account for that, we varied the questions. Some were phrased positively, for example, “I am proud of the work I do here at Flight.” Others were phrased negatively, such as, “I do not understand nor feel aligned with Flight’s mission.”

Results

After sending out the link and providing a few reminders on Slack and in meetings, we heard from 94% of the team, which is almost 10 percentage points higher than the norm for a company of our size. Our VP of Operations served a key role in this response rate by agreeing to sing a Shakira song at our annual company karaoke party. 

Highlights

Overall, team feedback was largely positive, and we’re proud to share our results. Key highlights include:

- Overall eNPS score: 83

- No detractors

- 100% of the company would recommend Flight as a great place to work

To dig into themes, we codified Strongly Agree and Agree responses as “favorable,” Neither Agree nor Disagree as “neutral,” and Disagree and Strongly Disagree as “unfavorable.” 

While we saw solid sentiment across the board, we really stood out in the areas of People & Teams, and Culture. In addition to the numbers above, 100% of participants responded favorably to the following statements:

- Most people at Flight make an effort to collaborate when it makes sense. 

- We hold ourselves and our team members accountable for results. 

- I am respected and valued here at Flight. 

Furthermore, 98% of people responded favorably to:

- I feel comfortable asking for help when I need it.

- I am confident in our leadership.

Open-ended insights

In the open-ended questions, many mentioned their appreciation for our community, values, and culture. Some also called out our remote-first model and the flexibility it offers. As one team member put it, "I enjoy the flexibility the job gives me. Working from home lifts a weight off my shoulders. I don't need to worry about whether I'll be able to make it to work, because it's accessible regardless of my needs." 

Others expressed being energized by the positive impact they have on customers. In response to the question "What's your favorite part of your job?" someone shared, "Being able to flip someone's day from bad to good. You can tell when you've accomplished that because their tone changes entirely.”

In fact, in response to this same question, 67% of people’s answers could be covered by the high-level themes of helping people, working with people, or interacting with their team. In terms of what folks find the most challenging about their work, the most common response, covering 27% of answers, was keeping track of a complex product and product updates. 

Opportunities 

As for opportunities, we found that we had the highest number of neutral and unfavorable responses in three main areas — Role, Growth and Development (particularly Feedback and Recognition), and Managers. 

While we still had the large majority of the team responding favorably in these areas, we felt they were still worth investigating more closely.

By looking into the individual questions associated with these areas, as well as cross-referencing our open-ended responses, we gleaned that we can more clearly outline role requirements and how performance is evaluated, better communicate how individual work ladders up to the greater goals at Flight, and do more to support managers in giving even more feedback and information to their teams. 

For example, we’ve had a formal performance review process in place since early on at Flight, but as new people and especially new managers join us, it’s important to keep making sure that everyone understands how it works and is talking about it year-round. This also connects to the topics of feedback and access to information, which we’ll be doubling-down on in our manager trainings and monthly mastermind meetings.

We also noted that one big reason for the higher rate of neutral and unfavorable responses in the Role group is due to a key question landing here — the question of compensation. We believe it’s natural and expected for this question to land a bit lower on the favorability scale, and we feel confident in knowing that we offer strong, above-average rates across all our locales.

And as a small, bootstrapped business, we acknowledge that we have a limited budget. Therefore, we must consciously decide where to invest our time, resources, and budget to ensure that we continue to provide the best experience to our team and clients. For example, we have proudly invested in our team experience through our focus and spending on team community, learning, and development programs.

All this said, with any business of any size or stage, there’s always room for growth. As part of our value of “Do the right things right,” we work with a continuous improvement mindset and are always reaching for the next level of excellence (while taking stock and expressing gratitude for what’s been done well so far).

We’ll be working on some of the opportunities listed above, as well as ensuring that we’re continuing to offer new and different programs to help keep our team engaged, effective, and connected. Stay tuned to our blog, social media channels, and newsletter if you’re interested in following along as we continue to grow! 

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