10 Questions for Your Employees

Business owners in all industries and of all sizes of business know how important it is to gauge the mood of their employees. You need this information to ensure that you create the best working environment possible and to encourage your staff to help you grow your business.

Unfortunately, many employee surveys aren't really doing their job because the questions are vague, unfocused and simply don't cover the areas that you need to know about the most. Poor employee surveys just cost you time and money without giving you the information that you need. They also tend to annoy your employees who begin to view them as just "busy work". They stop filling out the surveys entirely or just check the boxes they think you want them to check.

Here are some examples of survey questions that'll get you the information and response rate that you need.

Question 1
Do you know how your job fits into the organisation as a whole?
You ask this question to see if your employees know what they are supposed to be doing at work. Sounds simple enough but knowing what is expected is vital in fostering strong employee engagement. Being able to see a clear relationship between what one employee does and what everyone else is doing creates bonds of commitment and teamwork within the group. No one wants to be the person who lets the others down.

Question 2
Do you have the tools, materials, resources, training and authority you need to do your work well?
Employees who don't feel they have the necessary resources, including time, to do their work quickly become frustrated and angry at your organization for placing them in such a difficult situation. If providing a high level of customer service is easy, your employees are more likely to try. Just as important is that your employees feel your company backs them with the equipment that's needed to complete the job. This is a very powerful psychological motivator.

Question3
Do you have the opportunity to regularly showcase your skills and talents?
Matching the right person to the right job is one of the most complicated responsibilities any business owner will face. Creating positions that provide your employees with the opportunity to show off their best skills and talents creates self-confidence and a sense of pride that is key to strengthen employee engagement.

Question 4
During the last week, have you received recognition or praise for your work, or for contributing to the organisation in any way?
If you ask most employees, praise seems to be painfully absent from organisations. Recognition can strengthen the link between their job and the organisation as a whole, and emphasize the part they play in meeting company goals. Employees who do not feel adequately recognised are twice as likely to leave. And remember that praise can come from a variety of sources so don't limit this question to just praise from supervisors.

Question 5
Do you believe that the organisation cares about you personally as well as professionally?
It's important to most people to know that they are important to those whose opinion and relationship matter to them. Feeling cared about increases commitment to the relationship and is essential for encouraging increased discretionary effort. Compared with those who feel their company is looking out for them, a disproportionate number of workers who view the employer as unfair and uncaring will cheat when they think they can get away with it.

Question 6
Does your organization value your input?
Here's where you get it right on the nose if you haven't been listening to your employees. The success of any system or process depends to a great extent on the motivation of the people who run it. The employees who operate the system or use the process must be committed to not only using it correctly and consistently, but to also be on the lookout for ways to improve the system or use it in different ways. That level of motivation requires workers who strongly agree that their opinion matters.

Question 7
Does the company mission/purpose statement make you feel your job is important?
If a job were just a job, it really wouldn't matter where someone worked. Good pay, decent benefits, reasonable hours, and comfortable working conditions would be enough. For reasons that go beyond physical needs, an engaged employee looks for ways their work contributes to a higher purpose.

That higher purpose is usually looked for in the company's mission/purpose statements. The mission and purpose is also represented by the culture at work. Where the culture is aligned with the mission, there is a synchronicity that supports strong relationships. If a company has a mission to build strong customer relations, but internally has poor relationships with its employees, this disharmony interferes with employee engagement.

Question 8
Are your fellow employees committed to doing quality work?
For employees who are actively looking for ways to be more engaged, and particularly when it comes to decisions about making discretionary effort, the behaviour of co-workers makes a big difference. A new employee will carefully watch those around them and, in only a week or so, see and copy the work habits (both positive and negative) of the others in the group. Why? The new employee doesn't want to be chastised or ridiculed by the group for either over or under performing. The new employee wants to fit in.

Question 9
In the last 12 months, has someone at work talked to you (formally or informally) about your progress?
For a performance appraisal system to be affective, it must be tailored for specific tasks, occupations, and even personalities. Often performance reviews are skipped altogether, as they are put low on the list of priorities. Why? Perhaps as we all can relate to the discomfort surrounding being appraised. Supervisors often feel they have to come up with something negative to keep the process balanced. Some have avoided giving feedback in a timely manner out of the preference to avoid possible conflict. Others prefer to reduce the number of reminders that there is a hierarchy in place, feeling it threatens their relationship with employees.

Question 10
In the last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?
For many people, it is progress that distinguishes a career from employment that is just a job. Employees who have an opportunity to learn and grow at work are twice as likely as those on the other end of the scale to say they will spend their career with the company. Employees with the most to offer your organisation also have the greatest need to see themselves as being stimulated, growing, and contributing. As an employee links their growth in potential, skills, and experience to a particular organisation, they're connection and loyalty to that organisation grows as well. When employees feel they are learning and growing, they work harder and more efficiently and have better ideas that lead to better customer service and increased profits.

These 10 questions should form the basis of your initial employee survey. From the responses you receive this time, you can tailor subsequent surveys to focus on specific areas. And to further raise your chances of getting the feedback that you need, clearly communicate the goal of your survey, give your employees enough time to give some thought to their answers, and report on the survey results and your actions.

By Kathy Legg
President and Senior Employee Engagement Evangelist at Little Brown Mouse

News and Comment

World Cup Tactics

The World Cup will take centre stage this summer. But are you fearful that the World Cup will increase staff absences? Plan your game strategy now. Our suggestions might help work continue!

1. Easy options are for staff to book holidays or use flexitime or rearrange/swop shifts or to use ‘time off in lieu’ so they can watch the matches.

2. Agree different working times for staff to start, finish or take breaks, to fit around match times.

3. Bring a TV into the workplace and use extended lunch breaks.

4. Allow staff to listen to matches on the radio.

5. For certain matches (England, of course!) make it a team building event. Get the pizzas in and all staff can watch the match together in the staff canteen.

6. Reward attendance by offer additional incentives or overtime, for staff to attend during certain games.

7. Offer unpaid time off if staff don’t want to use up their paid holidays. Better than staff pretending to be sick and taking sick leave.

8. Put several TV’s around the workplace and allow staff to have the match on ‘in the background’.

Disabled and Wanting to Work 

If you are looking to recruit the best person for your vacancy, you may be missing out on a pool of talent because you are not fully engaging disabled job seekers. Many face barriers because of a disability they may have. The numbers speak for themselves:

• There are currently 1.3 million disabled people in the UK who are available for and want to work

• Only half of disabled people of working age are in work (50%), compared with 80% of non disabled people

• Employment rates vary greatly according to the type of impairment a person has; only 20% of people with mental health problems are in employment

• Nearly one in five people of working age (7 million, or 18.6%) in Great Britain have a disability

If you believe that everyone has the right to work, consider disabled job seekers as well.

Employment Law

Employment Tribunal award fast-track scheme 

Research carried by the Minister of Justice has shown that 39% of people awarded compensation by an Employment Tribunal have never been paid and only 53% of awards have been paid in full. A new scheme introduced in April 2010 registers all individuals and companies who have failed to pay tribunal awards made against them.

The effect of the scheme is to simplify the process and provide access to High Court enforcement officers to recoup awards on behalf of claimants. Providing the compensation awarded is £600 or more, a claimant only needs to pay a £50 court fee to issue a writ for the enforcement officers to seize assets to the value of the judgment awarded to them. Claims can be made for debts up to six years old.

Statutory Maternity, Paternity And Adoption Pay

The standard rates of SMP, SPP and SAP is £124.88 a week with the standard rate of Statutory sick pay (SSP) is £79.15 a week.

Are You Employing Staff Illegally?

Under Section 15 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 employers are liable to a civil penalty if they (by implication, carelessly or unknowingly) employed someone after 28 February 2008 who requires, but lacks, permission to work in that particular role. There is a maximum prison sentence of two years and an unlimited fine for employers caught in breach.

Employers have to check and copy specific original documentation before employment begins. But re-checking is also required for employees with time-limited immigration status. Relevant documents are:

• a passport showing that the holder, or a person named in the passport as the child of the holder, is a British citizen or a citizen of the UK and Colonies having the right of abode in the UK

• a national passport or national identity card showing that the holder, or a person named in the passport as the child of the holder, is a national of a European Economic Area country or Switzerland

• a residence permit, registration certificate or document certifying or indicating permanent residence issued by the Home Office or the UK Border Agency to a national from a European Economic Area country or Switzerland

• a permanent residence card issued by the Home Office or the UK Border Agency to the family member of a national from a European Economic Area country or Switzerland, who is resident in the UK

• a biometric immigration document (identity card) issued by the UK Border Agency to the holder which indicates that the person named in it is allowed to stay indefinitely in the UK, or has no time limit on their stay in the UK

• a passport or other travel document endorsed to show that the holder is exempt from immigration control, can stay indefinitely in the UK , has the right of abode in the UK or has no time limit on their stay.

Employers need to be satisfied that the documents genuinely relate to the person and have not been tampered with, although they are not expected to be experts in forged documents.
Business Link provide a useful interactive tool. Follow this link http://bit.ly/ahN9kP

Fascinating Facts

At exactly 06 minutes and 07 seconds after 5 o'clock on Aug 9th 2010, it will be 05:06:07 08/09/10. This won't happen again until the year 3010

Quote of the Month

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."
Douglas Adams