By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN
Many healthcare organizations today use the Gallup Q12 to assess employee engagement. I often hear nurse managers complain about the questions. They wonder if there is a direct relationship between how staff answer these questions and other outcome measures. They are also often at a loss about what specifically to do with the survey results. In the newly released 2nd Edition of First Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers do Differently, many of these questions are answered. Gallup data continues to demonstrate that managers have the most powerful influence on employee engagement and on intent to leave. Managers trump organizations when it comes to employee engagement so a great benefit package will not compensate for a poor manager.
Of the 12 questions on the Gallup Q12, the following six have been found by Gallup to be the most powerful in terms of links to employee engagement and multiple other outcomes:
Q1 – I know what is expected of me at work.
Q2 – I have the materials and equipment that I need to do my work.
Q3 – At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
Q4 – In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
Q5 – My supervisor or someone at work seems to care about me as a person.
Q6 – There is someone at work who encourages my development.
Working with Your Results
Gallup suggests that as a manager if you want to improve engagement and outcomes that you should focus specific attention on these six items. They use the metaphor of mountain climbing to describe how to approach the journey of improvement. The base of the mountain are the first 2 questions in the Gallup Q12 – also described as “Base Camp”. Like the bottom or Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, these are things that employees need to know or have to do their jobs. Gallup research has demonstrated that the highest performing managers are extremely clear about performance goals. They work with each staff member to help them understand how their role contributes to accomplishing those goals. Once these basic needs are met, managers can focus on the items in Q3- Q6 or what is described as Camp 1. In this camp, managers need to work hard to identify the strengths of each staff member and assign responsibilities to allow their staff to do their best (Q3).
The role of recognition and praise for work well done cannot be overemphasized, and it needs to come directly from the manager (Q4). Taking the time to individually know each employee can be challenging but it is critical if staff are to perceive that they are being cared for and valued for who they are (Q5). I recently spoke with one of my graduate students who told me that the manager that she succeeded in a position acknowledged to her that she did not even know the names of half or her staff. She talked about how in her initial meetings with her new staff – many told her that they felt devalued and invisible with a manager who did not even know who they were. Q6 is about a manager who invests in your growth. We know from research with Millennials that coaching and development is a major retention strategy so it is a wise investment of a manager’s time.
While the other 6 questions in the Gallup Q12 are an important guide to meeting a staff member’s higher level needs, Gallup recommends to managers that your best investment is spending time in the areas addressed in Q1 – Q6. Their research indicates that if the Q7 – Q12 scores are good but the Q1 – Q6 scores are low, this indicates a level of disengagement that could ultimately result in staff turnover. In the end what matters is the manager selects the right person, sets expectations, helps to both motivate and develop to higher levels of performance.
Read to Lead
Gallup (2016). First, Break all the rules: What the world’s greatest managers do differently. New York: Gallup Press.
© emergingrnleader.com 2016
LinkedIn
Instagram