Page 136 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

116 Building a High Morale Workplace

12 Smart Questions to Ask Your Employees
How does your workplace rate? Ask your employees to
answer these 12 questions developed by Marcus Buckingham
and Curt Coffman for their book, First, Break All the Rules:What the
World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently (New York: Simon & Schuster,
1999).
Answer each question from 1 to 5 (1 = “Strongly Disagree” and 5 =
“Strongly Agree”).
1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work
right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every
day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for
doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me
as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is
important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about
my progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

that a manager can make strong predictions about a worker’s
performance by allowing him or her to answer 12 basic ques-
tions (Sidebar, “12 Smart Questions to Ask Your Employees”).

Employees who answered all 12 questions most positively were
50% more likely to work in business units with lower employee
turnover, 38% more likely to work in more productive business
units, and 56% more likely to work in business units with high

customer loyalty.
So, think for a moment about each of your employees. For
each one, ask this basic question: What matters most here to
him or her? If you don’t know, how can you effectively show
that you care?