12 questions to measure job satisfaction

When asked what is the most valuable asset of your organization? Most managers will surely respond "Our People" without thinking. But is it reality?

Companies, their managers and their strategic plans generally have a preconceived discourse, one in which they exalt "their people" and "their culture" as their most valuable assets, but it is rare to find a company in which they really give people the importance they deserve.

Few are the firms where employees are really comfortable and see their jobs as a source of joy and satisfaction that drives them to give their maximum for the good of the organization. The speech is still merely rhetorical and to a large extent ironic because the employee's common denominator is complaint and dissatisfaction. They feel wasted, undervalued, unmotivated and logically do not develop feelings that lead them to give their all for the organization.

Although it is not the exclusive task of the human talent area of the company, it does bear a lot of responsibility for the carelessness in which the employees remain. Human resources departments or sections refer to tasks such as payroll management or industrial security, which despite being very important, do not have the potential to create an exciting job site.

The idea is to take human talent management further, it is to get to know each person, what they expect from the company, how they think they could improve their work, how they could help improve business performance, how well at ease he meets what he does, he feels satisfied in the firm, there is a work commitment on his part…

It is very difficult to find a business in which they know how to take advantage of the strengths of their people

The work of the human talent manager is to ensure that all the people who work in the company are committed to it, but here a problem arises, how to get my people to commit if I do not even know how many are committed and satisfied or how many are uncommitted and dissatisfied?

Well, Marcus Buckingham, the author of "First break all the rules" and "Now, discover your strengths", developed, through an extensive study that involves more than a million surveys of firm workers around the world, a 12-point questionnaire that allows identifying the needs of employees, their general behaviors and their level of work commitment. By applying this questionnaire, it is possible to know the number of committed employees (loyal and productive), non-committed (they simply tick the clock) and actively non-committed (dissatisfied and spreading their discontent).

The questionnaire is as follows:

Do I know what is expected of me at work? Do I have the necessary materials and equipment to do my job well? At work: Do I have the opportunity to do what I know best? In the last seven days: Have I received recognition or encouragement for doing a good job? Is my supervisor or someone at work interested in me as a person? Is there someone who encourages my development where I work? Are my opinions important at work? Does my company make me feel that Is my job important? Are my coworkers committed to doing quality work? Do I have a good friend at work? During the past six months at work: Has anyone mentioned my progress? Have I had an opportunity to learn and grow over the past year?

Organizational culture is built on individual strengths

There are questions of all kinds, one might think that it is not very new or that these questions are not related to personal and corporate performance, but this test has been applied in several international companies that have allowed their people to respond openly and in this way. In this way they have been able to improve their performance, be it in sales, profits, customer satisfaction or staff turnover.

Although it seems that there is nothing exceptional in the questionnaire, it becomes an extraordinary starting point to meet people, the most valuable asset of the company, what you should do is identify weaknesses and strengths, you should not try to change to the people, the best thing is to let it be as it is, it is not necessary to standardize their behavior, rather it is necessary to try to take advantage of what they have inside and let it flow. Talent is scarce and trying to normalize it is an unforgivable mistake.

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