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And the question is: ‘Why are you still here?’ You learn about the organization by asking questions to employees when they leave you (exit interviews) but you learn far more when you ask them why they are staying (‘stay’ interviews). It’s not a joke. ‘Why are you still here?’ – with the emphasis on the word still – it’s the best Employee Engagement survey you can have. It’s also very cheap and you don’t need an external agency.

It’s the only question that allows the person to respond with something like ‘I need to pay my mortgage’ (I have never seen an Employee Engagement survey with this kind of answer). Also, possibly, ‘It’s the best place I could dream to work in’, and anything in between. We are so afraid of direct questions that we tend to ask people things in complicated ways. I have practiced this with clients many times and I have always got the richest of answers. Believe me, a one-question questionnaire is a dream.

 

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  1. Scott Fahlman

    Hi Leandro,

    I’m a scientist, not a manager, but I have run a corporate research lab and research groups within my university. There are few jobs where communication and motivating others is NOT important if you want to succeed. Even if you’re not officially a leader, you have to influence others (and sometimes your boss) in order to get things done. Anyway, I’ve enjoyed your Daily Thoughts and hope you can keep it up.

    Regarding these engagement surveys, I think it would be a rare company in which you would get honest answers to “Why are you still here?” from employees who want to stay on, at least for a while. Do you really think any employer is going to hear “I’m not really interested in what we’re doing here and don’t like the atmosphere, but I have to pay the mortgage?” Employees who are feeling loyal and engaged won’t need to say that; employees who are not, but want to stay or have to stay for a while, have no incentive to be this honest. The employee knows full well what the employer wants to hear, and it would be a rare act of trust and courage to give useful negative feedback on a matter so closely tied to the employee’s own future.

    Even on an exit interview, the smart employee will sugar-coat his reasons. Unless the place is truly horrible (and far beyond the point where this kind of feedback would help), the employee is better off leaving on the best terms possible. Things can change, and you never know whether you might want to (or have to) return in the future.

    So if I’m right about that, you’ll have to get this information in more personal and subtle ways, or find some scheme where the employee answers anonymously and really believe his answer is safely anonymous.

  2. Pay As You Go | Bright lights, little city

    […] sentiment was echoed in the second piece I read, Leandro Herrero’s “shortest Employee Engagement survey”, which has just one straight-to-the-point question: Why are you still […]

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