Hi Barbara

If you want to do any work around discretional effort, and what really has an impact (as opposed to what people imagine to have an impact), IMO you can't beat the 12 Gallop questions. If you haven't come across these before, you will find them in First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman.

As there are only 12 of them, it's not difficult to construct a survey with the 12 questions which have yes/no answers plus some additional questions with free-form space for staff to comment. Then you can produce a statistical analysis from the 12 questions.

You can use the free-form answers to gather qualitative data and and address those answers. In this section, I don't think you need to use an evidence-based questionnaire and can just ask for thoughts and opinions. If you want to uncover brakes and blocks, you could ask staff what 3 things they would change to make their working lives better. You could ask them the best thing about working for your organisation and the worst thing - you are only limited by your imagination.

BTW, 50 is not a large group, but I think it would still be worth producing a statistical analysis of the Y/N questions even though 1 person is 2% of your total population and probably an even higher percentage of your respondents.

This is an area where there is a lot of robust research available and yet I still come across consultants and organisations selling tools which are not supported by evidence. I have more than once contacted suppliers to ask the basis for e.g. survey questions and been told that they have drawn on their experience or intuition. You have an opportunity here to carry out a really solid piece of work that will be of real value to your organisation.

It also occurs to me that this would make a great project for a management report. You might be able to get a student to take this on.

In reply to Elizabeth Divver:

Hi Elizabeth

This is fantastic advice thank you and it gives me a good stear on where to start. I will keep you posted.

In reply to Barbara Wootton:

You’re welcome! And I hope you will find time to come back. It will make interesting reading.

In reply to Elizabeth Divver:

I have spoken with my MD and he thinks the Gallup questions are great so I am going to circulate these plus a few additional ones of our own. However, what he would like to know, and I am not really sure how to articulate, is some of our staff down tools at 5.30pm. Not a bad thing unless there are projects to get over the line, deadlines to meet and it's all hands to the pump. Our MD is very conscious of this and in essence wants to find out what would change this? What would make staff go the extra mile and stay to meet deadlines. He mentioned the staff having pride in their work but sadly due what our company has and is going through, I am not sure how to phrase this in a questionnaire. Your thoughts and advice would be appreciated.

In reply to Barbara Wootton:

Hi Barbara,
The approach that you could take when sending out the survey is to say that you are seeking honest feedback on what staff think about the company and you welcome suggestions for how to make the company a great place to work. You can then ask questions along the lines of "What suggestions do you have more making the company a great place to work?" - or something similar...

In reply to Barbara Wootton:

You might also want to think about setting up a working group made up of various members of staff who then meet with senior managers regularly (perhaps monthly) to raise any areas of concern and where they think change needs to be made.

In reply to Daron:

Thanks Daron good advice.