Resources 7 Paths Blog More Engaged Staff: a New Year’s Resolution
More Engaged Staff: a New Year’s Resolution
Recently I was listening to a radio interview and the consultant being interviewed said that currently the biggest area in human resource consulting is employee engagement.
As we launch into 2012 many nonprofits face government cuts and nonprofit leaders are trying to figure out how to keep employees engaged as they cut staff and benefits.
When I first began working in human resources for a nonprofit in the late 1970’s we said to prospective staff members, “The pay may not be great but the benefits are excellent.”
Now even the benefits are being cut. I know one nonprofit that reduced their holidays from 11 a year to six and if you want to be paid when the agency is closed for a holiday, you have to use one of your vacation days.
Ouch.
Yet, nonprofits have been forced into these cuts because of hard economic times.
So how can you keep employees engaged in these tough times?
Regular readers of these posts know that for the last several months I’ve been doing a series based in Gallup’s Q12. Through decades of research and thousands of interviews the Gallup Organization discovered 12 questions that are powerful measures of how engaged employees are in a particular workplace.
I’ve taught Gallup’s Q12 to nonprofit staff including direct care staff and they love it. They immediately recognize the value of these simple, powerful questions.
“In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?” is one of the Q12.
I’m sure you want to make progress on staff engagement this year. To begin, have the staff in your department rate each of the Q12 from 1-5 with 1 being the poorest rating and 5 the best. Tally up the results and you have a baseline for staff engagement in your workplace.
Then develop a plan for how your workplace can improve staff engagement in each of the areas.
By the way, the Q12 are the property of Gallup Organization so don’t simply copy the Q12. You can create a form with space for 12 answers and send employees to this page on Gallup’s website to read the questions and rate them on your form. Or you can purchase a few copies of First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman which contains the Q12.
If you commit to using the Q12 in your organization, let me know. In six month’s I’ll ask you about your progress.
Wisdom for the week: The beauty of the Q12 is it’s inexpensive and produces great results for workplaces that commit to it.