The Gallup polling people are famous for their predictions of political outcomes but they also spend a great deal of time polling workers about their workplaces.
After polling millions of workers, they have come up with 12 things that set a successful workplace apart from the unsuccessful. I have written to you about these before, but here is a reminder of the elements:
- You know what is expected.
- You have the right tools to do your job.
- You have the opportunity to do what you do best.
- You receive recognition and praise.
- Someone at work cares about you as a person.
- Someone at work encourages your development.
- Your opinions count.
- You connect with the mission of the company.
- You feel your coworkers are committed to doing a good job.
- You have a best friend at work.
- You have an opportunity to talk about progress.
- You have opportunities to grow and learn.
It would be great for you to keep the list handy and refer to it. Whenever you have a feeling that you don’t like your job, you can go through the list silently and just answer “yes” or “no” to each element. The theory is that the things you are saying “no” to would be the areas we could focus on together to figure out how we can change things and make your job better.
You notice, I say “we” here. Some of these things, you can identify as an issue, but it is up to us as a company to address them. For instance, if you don’t have the right tools to do your job, you can raise it as an issue. We still have to respond.
Or, if you think we are missing something on your work assignment which keeps you from doing what you do best, you can ask for a new assignment. But, we have to permit it.
These elements make sense, don’t they?
As a leader in this company, I am committed to having this done. I want the workplace to be a place of “engagement.” A place where you look forward to going. A place where you are satisfied when your work is done. We need to keep asking ourselves these questions and act to fix the areas where we fall short.
