Question of the Week: Team Engagement
A few weeks ago, I launched a new blog series, Question of the Week. The focus is to help leaders react to current events that are shaping the world of work and likely affecting their team's performance. To do this, I'm providing a weekly question or prompt that leaders can ask their teams.
Last week's topic of remote work couldn't have been more timely. Within 24 hours of me publishing the blog, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released their quarterly report on productivity. It was the worst drop since 1947. The main headline? No one is sure why!
This just emphasizes how important it is to have crucial conversations with your team and ask them direct questions. Even though people report being happier and more engaged working remotely, it's important to explore if the team is stronger for it. The latest productivity numbers reinforce the need to ask.
But what can we ask our teams if we want to put our finger on the pulse of employee engagement (how an individual feels) AND team engagement (how they feel about their teammates)? Clearly a balance is required since it's possible that people prefer their work environment on an individual level, yet productivity can still decline. Let's quickly unpack this...
First, the punchline: there is a single question you can ask your team members that will tell you how they feel on an individual level AND how they feel about their teammates. However, the question requires two parts.
As an executive leader in multiple retail brands, I learned about the power of Net Promoter Score. Consumer brands use Net Promoter Score to understand how satisfied and happy customers are about their brand. In essence, there is one “holy grail” question to ask, “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend.” Customers who give you a 9 or 10 are considered promoters, 7 or 8 are considered passives, and 0-6 are detractors.
Promoters are enthusiastic and loyal. Passives are ambivalent … they are the maybes who could become promoters or detractors at any given moment. Detractors are unhappy and they often spread their unhappiness with other potential customers. The scoring scale is -100 to 100, and can be better understood with this primer.
Through time, I learned that the science behind Net Promoter Score could be leveraged internally with my team, as well. On a quarterly basis, I would ask, “Based on your work experience for the last 3 months, how likely are you to recommend our company as a good place to work with your friends and colleagues?”
As I mentioned earlier, there are two parts to this process. The second part would happen within a few days of the Net Promoter Survey question ending. I would launch a second session that asked something like, “Based on everyone’s feedback, I can see we have a score of -22. What’s the ONE thing I could do as a leader that would make your work experience better?“
The most important thing was being honest and transparent about the overall score and taking demonstrable action on the team’s top answer. Sometimes those answers were related to the individual such as, “I’d like a more flexible work schedule,” to something at a team level like, “We don’t have the tools we need to succeed.” That’s the beauty of Net Promoter Score—it can apply to individuals AND teams.
Employee engagement surveys often get in the way of real improvements. Gallup reports that only 8% of employees strongly agree that their employers take action on surveys. Often this is tied to a lack of transparency. But more times than not, it’s because employee engagement surveys are long and result in way too many action items that overwhelm leaders and HR teams. With the Net Promoter question, you can literally administer it in 24-72 hours and produce a single action item that the team focuses on for a quarter. Then, rinse and repeat. Every. Single. Quarter.
If you’re lacking a tool to execute this process and ask an open-ended question with your team, try POPin. There’s a 14-day free trial that will help you host an honest conversation in a psychologically safe and trusted way.
See you next week!
Chris Laping is the best-selling author of People Before Things. He is also the Co-Founder & Managing Partner of People Before Things, LLC., a boutique consultancy that helps leaders galvanize people for change.
