You think that you’ve created a great company culture. More importantly, you believe that your staff is completely committed to the firm and that your team is fully engaged in performing the mission of the business. Don’t be so sure. Looks can be deceiving!
We all want to believe that we are exceptional leaders and that our people are enthused to do their best every day. But, sometimes we have such a blind spot about how well we are doing that we can’t see the reality of the situation. Maybe we’re not all that engaging and our people aren’t as satisfied with their jobs as we like to think they are.
Here are five simple questions that you can use to test your staff’s engagement:
1. I am pleased to work here?
2. I am inspired to do my best for the Company?
3. I seldom think about working anywhere else?
4. I consider that this Company is the best place for me to work?
5. I would recommend the Company to a friend?
To keep things simple, you can frame these 5 questions as true or false statements, or you can choose to structure them on a 3 or 5 point scale. Either way, scoring the results from this type of casual staff survey will speak volumes – Lots of agreement, and all is fine, continue doing what you’re doing; lots of divergence, you’ve got a problem, and it’s time for some changes.
Here are some things that you can do to make things better for your staff and improve their engagement:
- Give them something to believe in: People want to be inspired. Give it to them. Create a compelling vision for your business and be sure to show them how they fit and will benefit through the achievement of that dream. Do this and staff engagement will follow.
- Place focus on the outside: Whether real or imagined, a sense of that an “enemy” wants to destroy the company, will inspire your people to work together to defeat their adversary. In turn, this will engage your team in the work at hand.
- Promote “Give and Take:” Ditch the command and control behavior as soon as you can. People know who the boss is; you don’t need to drive home that pecking order with every interaction. Instead, promote open and honest two-way communication and your people will gain trust in you and become more engaged with their work.
- Enable success: Do all that you can to knock-out the roadblocks that are impeding your team’s success. Once people see that you’re about making them successful, they’ll become more committed to themselves to getting the job done for you.
- Ask: People like it when you show them enough respect to ask them for their opinion. So, ask your team what else can be done to improve the company culture and make the work setting more compelling and satisfying. Having this type of ongoing dialogue, not only helps gain staff commitment, it also harvests some good ideas for advancing the business environment.
To close, I hope that you give this simple staff engagement survey a whirl in your business. If it is determined that cultural improvements are necessary, incorporate a few of the ideas presented here into your repertoire. I’m sure staff engagement will be enhanced, if you do.
For more thinking on this subject, please reach out to me directly. I welcome your questions and ideas.