After three decades of in-depth research involving more than 25 million employees across 100k teams in 195 countries, Gallup says measuring the strength of a workplace can be simplified to the following 12 questions:
1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?
The single most important question for a company to get right is for your employees to say: “I know what’s expected of me at work.”
What is most interesting to me about this question is how much we all take it for granted.
Bosses assume that it's a given.
Employees think they should know and asking is going to make them look dumb.
So it never gets discussed.
No one is clear.
Nothing improves.
And everyone is disappointed.
Knowing what’s expected means you are clear about what you need to do and when you need to do it.
Don’t even bother looking at the rest of the survey unless your people are crushing it here.
You may say “Of course my people know what’s expected of them. We trained them, we talk to them and they do the job every day.”
Well, not so fast.
When you start digging into it, you discover that only some of them know what is expected of them and why they do what they do.
Here's a well-known anecdote that illustrates this very well.
President John F. Kennedy was visiting NASA headquarters for the first time in 1961.
While walking around, he spoke to a janitor who was mopping the floor and asked him what he did at NASA.
“Well, Mr. President,” the janitor responded, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”
Take a moment, and reflect on this idea.
The janitor got it.
He knew something that most of us struggle with - the purpose of his work.
He got the vision, his part in it, and he had a purpose.
He kept the building clean so that the scientists, engineers and astronauts could focus on their mission of putting “man on the moon”.
He saw where his contribution fit in the organization.
He connected his purpose with theirs.
When your people embrace that type of attitude, incredible things happen.
"People will go where you tell them to go. Just go somewhere. If you don't lead them somewhere good, somebody might lead them somewhere bad."
If you're not clear in your communication about the goals, expectations & what success looks like, how are your people supposed to have the clarity about where they fit in the organization?
Of course, most employees don’t voluntarily walk into your office and say, “Hey boss, I’m not fully aware of what I am supposed to do here.”
The goal of the Q12 engagement survey is not to have employees complete it and move on.
The goal is to start a conversation.
If you’re looking to grow your company, you need to know where you’re at and where you’re heading every day.
Here's a fun exercise.
Guess the average rating your people would give each question, then survey them and see how close you were.
Which ones were the lowest?
Those are your blind spots.
Shed some light on them.
Fix them.
Imagine how much better your organizations would be, if everyone knew what is expected of them and how their job contributes to the overall mission.
Trying to be a mind reader rarely works.
When in doubt, ask.
It's usually the shortest path to clarity.
P.S. Like what you’re reading here? Well, you have three choices really.
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3. When you are ready to level up, hire me.
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