Situation: A company has done a number of things to build company morale. Participation is variable depending on the activity. The CEO wants to build a system to measure employee morale. What metrics do you use to measure changes in your culture over time?

Advice from the CEOs:

• The Gallup Organization has focused on this issue perhaps more than any other organization in the world. They find that regularly conducting surveys allows you to measure and improve your culture over time. Their surveys focus on 12 questions that they have found most critical to employee morale within a company.

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who is interested in and encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company inspire me make me feel that my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend or mentor at work?
11. In the last six months, has anyone at work given me a review or talked to me about my performance/progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

• Notice that not one of these has to do with compensation or benefits. Rather they focus on employee perception of how they are managed, whether they have to do the tools to do their job, and feeling that others at work care about them.
• Another measure to watch is employee retention – particularly of your best employees.

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