Month: October 2023

I often gather qualitative data in my workplace and find this data to be rich with insights and often impactful for meaningful change. One-on-one interviews are best suited for exploring personal experiences and emotions, making them ideal for understanding people’s sentiments towards a situation. Focus group interviews are powerful to capture group dynamics and diverse perspectives and can be an energizing and idea generating experience. Open-ended questionnaires allow respondents to provide detailed, open responses, making them valuable for structured investigations into a wide range of views, like understanding employee challenges in a company-wide satisfaction survey. Observations, conducted in naturalistic settings are valuable for studying behaviors in their natural context. Document analysis is a powerful method for exploring historical, textual data, previous change events or even financial information.

In my workplace, we often use two question surveys post an engagement – one qualitative question and one quantitative question and our teams have gained significant insights on how to improve based on these responses.  We also do extensive observations which we call Go and Sees – and often praise and feedback is provided based on these observations via verbal or documentation. It is also quite common to complete focus groups and one on one interviews, especially when a potential extensive change may be coming to the company or department. Gathering voices, opinions, and especially ideas from the employees is often a positive and engaging experience for many.

An example I have experienced where all the above methods were conducted is for my company’s main internal employee web page – which is called Crew Net. This page is the ultimate resource for everything related to our work and houses extensive information. It also has a “google like search function too. I was a part of the pilot team and as the design team continued to tweak and improve the current Crew Net page, they utilized all the above methods to gather qualitative data. As a user and employee, I was quite impressed with the extensive analysis and gathering of data the team completed. The experience was positive and engaging for me and I was glad to share my reactions and ideas. Ultimately, there are many ways to gather data, and for many consultants, qualitative data can be a powerful learning tool.

 

I have chosen to share my experience with the Gallup Survey. For those that have not heard of this took, the Gallup Survey is used in organizations, often referred to as the “Gallup Employee Engagement Survey,” assesses workplace satisfaction and engagement levels among employees. It helps organizations identify strengths and areas for improvement in their workplace culture, employee morale, and productivity, ultimately aiming to enhance overall staff performance and retention (Gallup, Inc 2021).

I have taken this survey multiple times, actually more than 10 times, and I have been a consultant to the results to leaders across my organization. Some of the pros of Gallup are its scientific validity, actionable insights for improvement, benchmarking and the ability to track data year after year. Some the cons of Gallup are its expense, subjective responses and understanding of the questions, and employee resistance.

One of my biggest takeaways from the Gallup Survey, is how often employees misinterpreted the questions, which might be why my organization no longer uses it. For example, the question I have a BFF at work. This question was ALWAYS a deep conversation of confusion and comprehension. Many took the statement very literally and often said no, whereas the actual statement wants to know if you have a confidant or person you can trust and talk to in your workplace. Although this tool has been so widely used, it is still subjective and sometimes confusing for the participants. Setting the stage prior to completion is critical.

References

Gallup, Inc. (2021, October 26). Gallup’s Q12 employee engagement survey – Gallup. Gallup.com; Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/q12/

The Likert Model is a psychological measurement tool that uses a series of Likert scale questions (ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”) to assess individuals’ attitudes, opinions, or perceptions on various topics. It quantifies responses to gauge the degree of agreement or disagreement with statements, helping researchers and organizations understand people’s sentiments and preferences (Likert, R. 1979).

The High-Performance Programming Model, on the other hand, is a strategic framework employed by organizations to optimize their performance. It blends multiple interconnected levels, including strategic alignment, leadership, performance measurement, employee engagement, process optimization, innovation, sustainability, continuous learning, risk management, and customer focus. This model emphasizes creating a culture of high performance, aligning with organizational goals, and enhancing efficiency, innovation, and employee development to achieve excellence and competitiveness (Farkas & Hinchliffe, 2013).

Blending the findings from the above models would be an excellent tool to strategize toward becoming a Great Place to Work. For example, if employee sentiments around attitudes, trust, and communication are at a level 1 or 2, with a refined focus on more proactive and high performance, organizations can use this data to strive toward excellence. Aligning a senior leader to own a focus area would be beneficial. The data from the models should help the organization determine where they fall in the Great Place to Work Model and through those data points, leadership can re-connect with their employees, putting a spotlight on the North Star to support the desire for a high-performance culture and business results.

References

Farkas, M. G., & Hinchliffe, L. J. (2013). Library faculty and instructional assessment: Creating a culture of assessment through the high-performance programming model of organizational transformation. Collaborative Librarianship, 5, 177–188.

Burchell, M., & Robin, J. (2011). The great workplace: How to build it, how to keep it, and why it matters. Wiley.