Knowing where you're at.

[Dean Reed]

Hello,
I made the mistake of mentioning that I knew something about engagement and suddenly I'm thrown head first into our site's engagement project. (Funny how that works.)

Here's some vitals: We have over 900 employees, we just moved from a new product launch site to a contract manufacturing site (That alone is a big paradigm shift.), we’re just recovery from a major downsizing with another one perhaps this fall, and at this time we have no one taking care of organizational development. (Well, not yet, but I can guess who that will be as well.) Hold on, let check for any more arrows in my back! Oh, yes. I found out that they had a new vision, but no plan to back it up. (Yes, I'm on that team as well. I just introduced them to strategy mapping. What fun!)

Anyway, to make a very long story short. I told the group that I didn't want to jump into any type of development phase until I do a good needs analysis and some bench marking. At this time I'm looking hard at Gallup's Q12 because it's short and to the point and I'd like to create my own version so as to not step on any copyright toes. Any suggestions?

Has anyone used the Q12 or a similar tool and if so, how did it work for you?

Thanks,

Dean

[Mike Healy]

HI Dean

You certainly seem to be taking a lot on board in a short space of time. Best of luck.


I am not a user of Q12 but I do use surveys. Before I get involved in surveys ( which are convenient and save a lot of time) I often do my best just to walk around and have a few face to face discussions with different people at different leves in the organisation. Thjis often gives me a much better insight into culture, values and management style than any survey.

I also get a better insight into where the supporters are , where the apatheric are and where the actively disengaged are located. You wouldn't get this from a survey I don't think but it is very useful when trying to to introduce change.

Mike

[Dean Reed]

Thanks Mike.

In fact I did conduct some focus groups. The original intent of the groups was to run the organization's new vision statement past them and ask them what they thought it meant to them and how they might define it. Then we asked the all important question "do you see any barriers that may prevent us from being successful?" This of course opened the flood gates of comments which is what I was really looking for. Some really good information came out of the groups.

Dean

[Terrence Seamon]

Dean,
I will "second" Mike Healy's suggestion about geting out there and interacting with folks in the organization. In fact, that could be a prelude to a survey, using some of the themes you heard in your walkabout to develop the instrument.

By the way, I recently attended Conference Board's Employee Engagement conference in New York and one of the speakers (a consultant with CB) talked about measuring EE. CB has been doing a global research study on EE. One of his points was that their study seems to suggest that there are just a few measures that really tell the story about where your employees are at.

Here is the short list of some of the factors most critical to EE:

- Relationship with one's manager – Does the employee have a positive working relationship with his or her manager? (Note: This is a biggie!)

- Trust and integrity – Does the employee feel that the organization and its managers are honest and and 'walk the talk'?

- Nature of the job – Does the employee find the work fulfilling and stimulating day-to-day? (Note: Another biggie!)

- Line of sight - Does the employee see the connection between their own goals and performance and the company's goals and performance?

- Feedback – Does the employee get feedback about how their work contributes to the company's performance?

- Career Growth – Does the employee see a personal future for growth?

- Pride in company – Does the employee feel good about being associated with the company?

- Coworkers – Does the employee feel accepted and included by their work team?

- Employee development – Does the employee feel that the company is serious about training and development?

Notice the repetition of the word "feel" in the above list? Engagement is all about feelings.

Terry

[Dean Reed]

Great information Terry.

We conducted some focus groups (see my reply to Mike.) and much of the information falls in the topics you listed and these all fall in line with the Q12. I'm not promoting the Q12, it just looked like an easy tool to use.

However, you and Mike made me think that perhaps I have enough information gathered already from the focus groups to divide up into the topics you listed and then develop the right intervetions/strategies. Even though the focus groups only accounted for about 4% of our total population the answers were pretty much all the same and quite loud. I've even heard the same type of answers when speaking informally with other folks.

I'll do that this weekend and let you know what I find. If it works out then maybe I don't have to bother our folks with another survey.

Dean

[Mike Healy]

Hi Dean

It will be interesting to hear how things went with you.

Please keep us posted

Thanks

Mike

[Patty Jones]

Hi Dean,

I'm now really engaging myself into all the materials on the site. I would appreciate hearing the update on your experience since July.

Best,

Patty

[Mark Johnson]

Hi Dean, I just completed a Q12 for our Region, 14 offices with a total of 190 employees working for the BC Government on Vancouver Island.

I called it a “Temperature Check” with the accompanying visuals to reinforce that the survey was not about performance. I just wanted to get a feel for how we are doing and if any of the engagement strategies implemented in the last year were working.

The survey was easy to administer and score but the real benefits were:

The generated conversations with staff regarding the survey
Supervisors and managers were able to identify some really easy to start quick wins
Staff felt heard and loved getting their office results and overall regional scores

Let me know if you choose this option

Mark