Use of The Gallup Q12 Employee Engagement tool. Permissions and legalities of doing so?

[Stephen Lynch]

We obtained the 12 statements from Gallup's published books (which are in the public domain). We recommend our clients read these books, and we always reference the Gallup organization and attribute copyright whenever we refer to the survey. What are the implications of using these 12 statements in an employee engagement survey? Does one need to obtain permission from Gallup to use it, or can you survey people using the 12 statements and credit Gallup's copyright appropriately?

How do you use this tool? How do you attribute copyright? Do you ask for permission from Gallup?

Any suggestions or learnings people could share on this subject would be much appreciated.

[David Zinger]

Stephen:
I recommend you contact Gallup before using the Q12 as they have copyright and my understanding is that they are not that open to having anyone else use it. I would be interested in other people's experiences as my perspective is based on talking with others not talking directly with Gallup but certainly talking to Gallup is the place to start.
David

[Eric Nielsen]

David is 100% correct. The Q12 cannot be utilized in any manner outside of a Gallup led engagement. They are wholly and individually copyrighted. Happy to discuss it directly with anyone in the group.

Eric

[Roy Saunderson]

Stephen:

David Zinger is right.

These were copyrighted by The Gallup Organization, in Princeton, NJ. Both Gallup and Q12 are registered trademarks of The Gallup Organization and so the questions are "owned" by them in the form they are in as a set of 12 questions.

They want you to use their methodology so they can (1) add the company results to their database and (2) allow you and your company to benefit from the analysis and comparison of data from same industry, etc.

The questions can appear so simple yet they are very powerful so we all WANT to use them.

I think the best thing is to seek written permission, if they allow it, but foremost is acknowledge there work BUT stick to the principles of what they have done:

* measure behaviours and beliefs
* focus on key engagement areas
* develop simple and easily understood questions everyone could answer

We all wish we had developed the Q12.

Go and create your own set of core focused questions - but create them with a new angle that is all YOURS.

The Q12 is very much about relationships. What will your focus be?

Hope that helps.

Roy

[Stephen Lynch]

Thank you for the valuable input David and Roy,

Has anyone actually contacted Gallup, and what was their experience?

What other options could we explore?

Any help you could offer would be much appreciated

Regards
Stephen

[Jean Douglas, CMC]

To reference the Q12 in an article or presentation, and citing the source and copyright, would be an example of a proper use of someone else's work. However, using the survey items without permission from Gallup would be copyright infringement and I suspect could put you in an undesirable legal position. They may be listed in a book, but that doesn't mean they are free for use. To use them for profit - using them with clients or working with the results that clients collect (an internal survey with an external analyst) puts both firms at risk. Violation of copyright laws carry heavy penalties and fines can be charged on a per use basis (e.g., every survey distributed). This can be many thousands to millions of dollars in lost compensation and fines.

Gallup's Q12 seems to be the survey most copied, yet using other consulting firm's proprietory information appears to be a more common occurance than I would have thought. I know it happened when I was at Hewitt - we got a phone call from an HR person who had obtained our survey from an HR colleague, conducted it in their organization and now wanted advice on the analysis.

Gallup has invested heavily in their background research and has shared their findings with the world - yes there is a marketing and business opportunity - but they as good researchers have explained what they have done so that others can understand the process - this should invite discussion not taking their investment and using it for oneself.

You should always request permission before using any tool developed by someone else. If for no other reason, than as a professional courtesy.

We should all be aware of the copyright laws - not just for surveys, but for so much else. I have seen examples of copyright infringement by professionals as they use cartoons in presentations, adopt the framework of others for their own use, etc.

[Stephen Lynch]

Thank you Jean

Has anyone on this forum actually contacted Gallup about the use of the Q12?

What was their experience in doing so, and what were the outcomes?

Regards

Stephen

[Jean Douglas, CMC]

Here is the footnote below the Q12 (TM) in Gallup's brochure on Employee Engagement.
Copyright © 1993-1998 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.

I have contacted Gallup and am awaiting an answer. I will let you know when I know.

[Stephen Lynch]

Thank you Jean

I really appreciate your input on this. I look forward to learning more.

Regards

Stephen

[Jennifer Schulte]

Hi Stephen,

My organization uses the Gallup Q12 for our global (over 60,000 associates) survey and have been for the past 5 years. Let me know if you want to know more about our partnership with Gallup and how they handle the survey administration? The best benefit is stated above, we are able to benchmark against other companies and individual teams within Gallup's database. So when we survey our associates, we can compare to results from other companies similar to ours, other functions (our Sales organization to Gallup's Sales database, for example), and our senior leaders against Gallup's Executive database. It gives us a standard comparison point so we know how well we are doing both internally and externally.

[Jean Douglas, CMC]

Here is the response from Gallup:

The Q12© represents over forty years of research and development so Gallup closely guards the use of the Q12©.

Gallup has an independent copyright on the Q12© separate and apart from the book, First, Break All the Rules. Also, we do not allow independent administration of the Q12© in businesses since we have learned that the only effective way to administer the Q12© is through a Gallup led engagement. The Q12© are simply a measurement tool but the real power of employee engagement comes from the training and development that we provide that enables managers and teams to leverage the results into plans, energized teams and profitability.

Because we do not allow independent administration of the questions and because they are copyrighted, we will not allow them to be reprinted nor used in any way outside of a direct Gallup engagement.

If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

ERIC NIELSEN
Senior Director
202.715.3030
202.715.3041 (fax)
901 F Street NW, Ste 200
Washington, D.C. 20004
USA
GALLUP


***By the way - Eric is a member of our network so please contact him if you want to know more.

[Stephen Lynch]

Thank you Jean and Eric for the clarification.

Much appreciated.

Regards

Stephen

[Eric Nielsen]

I appreciate everyone's interest in this and for helping others to understand.

One point of clarification. it is always OK to talk about the Q12 in general terms like to emphasize the link between engagement and business outcomes or for instance to say that having a close friend at work is important. We just can't have people listing the Q12 or using them in their own organizations.

There is so much to share on engagement and it is the reason we've all come together on this ning and are passionate about creating engagement in workforces around the world.