Ten years ago I
had the unique experience of attending the annual Positive Psychology Summit
held at the Gallup, Inc, headquarters in Washington DC. If you aren't familiar
with Gallup, some of their most outstanding work has focused on researching
what makes companies successful. My visit left a lasting impression and I have
continued to follow their various studies, in particular that of job
fulfillment.      

Dr. Gallup’s
early work, the topic of job satisfaction, has been studied and written about
in more than 10,000 articles and publications. Because most people spend a high
percentage of their waking hours at work, studies of the workplace are of great
interest for many professionals. The process of managing and improving the
workplace is crucial and presents great challenges to nearly every organization.

Since the 1950's Gallup has conducted
thousands of studies amid some of the world's most well known countries. They
have taken the analyses (called meta-analyses) of a multitude of questions and
responses and condensed it down to 12 simple yet powerful questions. This is now
known as the Gallup Workplace Audit or informally as the Q12® (questions included
below). The answers to these questions have been shown to have considerable
impact on an organization. In fact, the analyses
and further studies indicate that the answers to the Q12® and how a company responds to them, can largely define the
success of a company over time.

"The quality of an
organization’s human resources is perhaps the leading indicator of its growth
and sustainability. The attainment of a workplace with high-caliber employees
starts with the selection of the right people for the right jobs. Numerous
studies have documented the utility of valid selection instruments and systems
in the selection of the right people… After
employees are hired, they make decisions and take actions every day that can
affect the success of their organization."

(Schmidt, Hunter, McKenzie, &
Muldrow, 1979; Hunter & Schmidt, 1983; Huselid, 1995; Schmidt & Rader,
1999; Harter, Hayes, & Schmidt, 2004).

All this really says is, if your employees are engaged in their
job, the performance outcome is raised exponentially. And don't forget,
performance is directly related to the company objectives of customer ratings,
profitability, productivity, turnover, safety incidents, shrinkage, absenteeism
and quality.   Employment engagement and hiring the right
people matters. These are not just business clichés. Are you taking this as
seriously as it needs to be?

Take a look at the questions below. How do you
think your employees would answer the questions? Where are you "on
track" and where could you make improvements? How could your organization
benefit from knowing this information?

You could be a company who "Gallup's"
towards success!

The Q12® are:

Q00.
(Overall Satisfaction) On a 5-point scale, where “5” is extremely satisfied and
“1” is extremely dissatisfied, how satisfied are you with (your company)
as a place to work?

Q01. I know what is expected of me at work.

Q02. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my
work right.

Q03. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best
every day.

Q04. In the last seven days, I have received recognition
or praise for doing good work.

Q05. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care
about me as a person.

Q06. There is someone at work who encourages my development.

Q07. At work, my opinions seem to count.

Q08. The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my
job is important.

Q09. My associates or fellow employees are committed to
doing quality work.

Q10. I have a best friend at work.

Q11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to
me about my progress.

Q12. This last year, I have had opportunities at work to
learn and grow.

Q12®
META-ANALYSIS Copyright © 2006, 2009, 2013 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved. 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.