By Bob Levoy

What are the core elements needed to attract and retain top-notch employees in the current marketplace? What accounts for what the Gallop Organization calls employee engagement , a characteristic that is correlated with productivity, profitability, retention and patient satisfaction?

In their book, First Break All the Rules (Simon & Schuster, 1999), Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman discuss research on these topics conducted by the Gallop Organization. The massive, in-depth study correlated performance data from over 2,500 business units and opinion data from over 105,000 employees.

After extensive analysis (including a combination of focus groups, factor analysis, regression analysis, concurrent validity studies and follow-up interviews) the following 12 questions were used to measure what the authors call the “strength of a workplace.” While these questions don’t capture everything you want to know about a workplace, they do measure the core elements needed to “attract, focus and keep the most talented employees.”

How would your employees answer these questions on a 1-5 scale, in which “1” equals strongly disagree and “5” equals strongly agree?

[ ] 1. Do I know what is expected of me?

[ ] 2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work correctly?

[ ] 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 good work?

[ ] 5. Does my supervisor 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 the practice make me feel like my work 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, have I talked with someone about my progress?

[ ] 12. At work, have I had opportunities to learn and grow?

What the authors found was that “those employees who responded more positively to the 12 questions also worked in business units with higher levels of productivity, profit, retention and customer satisfaction. This demonstrated for the first time, the link between employee opinion and business unit performance, across many different companies.”

You may be wondering, why there are no questions dealing with pay, benefits, or advancement. “There were initially,” say the authors, “but they disappeared during the analysis. This doesn’t mean they’re unimportant. It simply means they are equally important to every employee, good, bad or mediocre. Yes, if you are paying 20 percent below the market average, you may have difficulty attracting people. But bringing your pay and benefit package up to market levels, while a sensible first step, will not take you very far. These kinds of issues are like tickets to the ballpark-they can get you into the game, but they can’t help you win.”

Action step: By guessing how your employees would answer these questions (or if have the courage, actually learning first-hand) you can evaluate the motivational climate in your practice and perhaps identify what if anything, is needed to improve it.

Columnist Bob Levoy is a seminar speaker and writer. He can be reached at 516-626-1353.