It is vitally important to understand how engaged your employees are. This doesn’t just help with the retention and attraction of the best people, it also underpins service delivery, customer retention and profitability.
According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report, a staggering 85% of employees are either not engaged or are actively disengaged, a hugely worrying statistic!
When people are engaged, they are happier, more positive and this shows up in the quality of their work and commitment to achieving goals. If they are disengaged, they typically lack focus, may be negative, potentially leading to poor performance, reduced productivity and absenteeism. So, understanding employee engagement is essential and doing things to drive it even more so.
Unfortunately, surveys that try to understand employee engagement are often too dull and too long. No-one wants to scroll through hundreds of questions about what might influence how “engaged” they are. The Gallup Q12 index has proven to be a game changer not only in it’s clarity but also in how straightforward and engaging the survey process itself can be. Q12 zeros in on the key things that really matter and there are just twelve of them. Developed from 30 years of research and over 17 million employees, you can be assured that it gets that right..
Q12’s key points are the real foundations on which employee engagement is built and giving feedback on them doesn’t leave your people feeling like they’ve completed a counterproductive endurance test! So what are they? Gallup have proven that the 12 things that really matter to employees are:
Knowing what is expected – do I know what my role is and my responsibilities within it.
Having the right resources – do I have the tools I need to carry out my job well?
Do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
Frequent recognition - in the last 7 days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
Does someone, either my manager or a colleague, care about me?
Is my personal development encouraged?
Does my opinion count – do I feel that they have a voice? Are my opinions noticeably taken into account?
Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel that my job is important – Are company goals clear and do I feel that I play a valuable part in helping to achieve them?
Are my colleagues committed to doing quality work – it’s important that I’m not “carrying” other people and that everyone is pulling their weight equally.
Do I have a best friend at work? Not “does my best mate coincidentally happen to work here”, just is there someone at work I can relate to, confide in, a natural ally?
In the last 6 months has someone talked to me about my progress?
In the last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?
Adopting Q12 to measure employee engagement and to shape your management focus and will help you make positive strides forward in employee engagement. Don’t ask scrolls of unnecessary questions; ask the few right ones and live them in what you do.
ASKE Consulting are automotive industry experts and specialists in Executive Search, Resourcing Solutions and People Centred Consulting operating within the UK and internationally. For more information on what we do please get in touch.
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