A few weeks ago, Paul Hebert wrote about the ‘The 1 Question That Will Blow up Your Employee Engagement Scores’ on Fistful of Talent. While I may or may not agree with including that question (it’s a conversation for a different time), I do think there are 2 other questions that you definitely need to include.
& the questions are <drum roll>
Q1: How much do you trust your manager?
Q2: How much does your manager trust you?
These two questions alone will show you how engaged your workforce is. As organizations, we tend to undermine the power of trust. If you set a high hiring bar and ensure you have get fantastic people into the company, there is no reason for you to not trust them and empower them. The wonderful part is that every manager can work to build the trust within the team irrespective of how the larger organization functions.
Imagine yourself in an environment where you are trusted and trust the people you work with. Compare your productivity in that environment to one where you operate with minimal trust. Now tell me, would you really wish to continue in scenario 2?
Build these questions into your survey today & see how they change the way you viewed your engagement scores.
Work on pulling up your socks in that 1 parameter and I guarantee, you’ll see your engagement scores soar.
The HR Business Partner Story 
Love this. I would suggest that at the core of control is trust so that makes trust a prerequisite for giving and receiving control. All part of the equation. Ultimately it boils down to treating people like grown ups.
I agree Paul. Thank you for stopping by.