Monday, February 3, 2014

A comic look at workplace surveys ...

Everywhere I've worked, there's been some form of workplace survey, often title as "best places to work".  It's where you answer a series of questions and answer how well (or otherwise) you find the company, your team and the people you report to weigh up.

It's easy to feel pretty much feel defeatist about them, feeling your opinion doesn't matter, and shrug off why you should bother ...


What difference does your opinion make right?  Actually the last two places I've been, it's made a big difference.  Remember when I talked about personal 360 reviews, I said that their benefit was to allow you to find areas you do well, and target one or two areas that need work?  Well this time this is your chance to do the same for where you work.

The last couple of places have worked hard to address those weak points.  But you need the feedback to know what those weak points are.  The first step in tackling a problem is knowing it exists, and we testers should know that better than any!

This year, I've been looking through some of the standard questions - which often come up for misinterpretation.  And I'm interested in giving them a bit of a TestSheepNZ workover.

So I give you, for entertainment purposes, my ideal "best places to work" survey, with pictorial clarification!  Enjoy ...

Each day I come into work knowing what's expected of me ...


I have all the tools I need to do my job well ...


I receive recognition when I do a good job ...


I feel that I have the opportunity to do my best ...


I am encouraged to develop myself and my abilities ...


At work I feel that people listen to me when I express myself ...


I feel my team is committed to delivering our promises ...


I believe we are innovating and pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved in technology ...


I work alongside people who I feel care about me ...


I work alongside someone I can trust and confide in, and who I can ask for help from ...


I understand and respect the goals of our organisation ...
 


I can honestly say I enjoy my work ...

2 comments:

  1. I think these surveys are a fig-leaf. They just so conveniently fit the process driven world of big corp. Any and every personal connection is drained out to make it as neutered global as possible. But I saw something a few days back about how to tackle the same issues in school and thought there needs to be a way to translate this to big corp. Have a read and see if that inspires something that is more likely to happen than Xmas and focuses on the continual change in the workplace.

    http://momastery.com/blog/2014/01/30/share-schools/

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    Replies
    1. Ooh - thanks for the link, interesting reading.

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