Comments on: Surveying Satisfaction in Software

By: Malcolm Ryder

Malcolm Ryder — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 16:01:55 +0000

A hugely timely retrospection, Jonathan! With a double-wave of new-generation workers coming into the workforce between now, 2016 (the last crest of today’s education/training styles) , and 2019 (the first crest of the new education/training styles), there could hardly be anything more challenging than to begin showing the connections between their way of assessing things, their way of positioning themselves for manager expectations, and their way of identifying whether they are allowed to do their best work as a result.

By: Carolyn Brock

Carolyn Brock — Tue, 28 May 2013 14:54:46 +0000

I can relate to the Pepsi detail! When I was managing developers I learned how powerful small gestures can be. We all worked remotely, but in the same city, so I arranged for group lunches once each month, I learned so much during those lunches; they were relaxed enough to share what issues they were facing and to ask for my support in removing barriers. Lunch isn’t always a viable option, so another idea is to copy employees on occasional emails to your peers and managers, commending them on a job well done. Little gestures go a long way in building and maintaining morale and loyalty.

By: David Swanson

David Swanson — Tue, 28 May 2013 07:21:11 +0000

As one of those “HR people” wanted to comment on this excellent thought provoking piece by Jonathan. As Markus Buckingham of Gallop and Do You Best At Work fame often said, “people don’t leave companies, they leave managers.” I would venture that it was Jonathan’s leadership that kept them around.

Surveys are a point in time event. There is some reallly interesting work being done on discrtionary effort as the key element of people in successful companies not job satisfaction or even employee engagement.

People who do “above and beyond” effort are doing so not because it is expected or even for career advancement reasons. They do it because they are fully into what they are doing. Part of it is that they have a feeling of self accomplishment, part is that they are working on topics that are both of interest to them and to the businesses they work at.

Mostly though as leaders it is our responsibility to help our people know what they are good at, what they have a passion for, and what needs to be done in the workplace. If we can enable that then get out of their way, as I have seen Jonathan do, then they will top the discretionary effort scales.

By: Christopher Powell

Christopher Powell — Mon, 27 May 2013 21:38:59 +0000

Agree with trending over time. Also – as you point out, many factors impact the results – sometimes as unpredictable as the choice of beverages in the cafeteria. While there are some instances where a mass exodus should impact a performance bonus, as noted by your HR VP, there are plenty of situations outside of an indivual managers ability to address. It is right to use these kinds of surveys to direct positive change, it is dangerous to use them to assume poor management.

Is buying Pepsi pandering to your employees?

By: Jens Hartmann (@marginalien)

Jens Hartmann (@marginalien) — Mon, 27 May 2013 15:45:09 +0000

confusion could have also been avoided with regard to the methodology they applied…. asking single-item questions always gets you a lot of noise in your data. often, it remains unclear what is actually measured. job satisfaction certainly has many different dimensions. seriously: management by single-item questions isn’t management by figures, it’s really management by noise. survey methodology – validity and reliability of scales and items – is crucial.

By: Zoy Chiang (@ZoyChiang)

Zoy Chiang (@ZoyChiang) — Mon, 27 May 2013 03:16:43 +0000

Hello Jonathan,

Thank you for sharing the strategic decision power of Pepsi. 🙂
Your article reminds me of my previous VP, he often asked me to score the happy feeling of working with him, from 1 to 10.

And the question of ” “How does your satisfaction with your job compare with how it was 3 months ago?” did inspire me to check with my direct reports, to further understand if we are providing a growing environment for people development .

By: Alan Tek, Halifax - United Kingdom

Alan Tek, Halifax - United Kingdom — Mon, 27 May 2013 02:42:34 +0000

Reblogged this on Alan Tek, Halifax - United Kingdom England.