Last week, I had the opportunity to have lunch with a young woman who used to work on one of my HR teams several years ago. It was great to sit down to catch up and share stories about our time working together.
As you would expect, our conversation centered around our current jobs and how things were going for each of us today. Thankfully, we both seem to be happy with our current situations which made for fun lunch time talk. As she shared some details with me about her role and her company, some things really stood out to me about why she loves what she’s doing today.
This is what she said:
- People are friendly and they want to get to know you. They make time to connect.
- They let me do what I do best.
- I have the opportunity to impact what we do and how we do it.
She propped these things up as really refreshing things about her current role. She also felt that this was rare. These things read like questions off of an employee engagement survey, so clearly her employer and/or manager is doing some right. But, there was one thing that she mentioned three times during our lunch so I took it to be the most significant. She shared with me that her management asks her a particular question frequently that really matters to her job satisfaction. Here it is:
- “Are you enjoying your job? Do you like what you are doing?”
And she believes that they really want to know the answer. She knows that it is her responsibility to tell the truth then they ask her this question, but she hasn’t had any real complaints to this point. I’m guessing by the fact that they regularly ask this question that this company probably behaves in a way that helps employees find their way to work that they enjoy, so the questions is more of an affirmation than an inquisition.
It was a reminder of how simple it can be to engage talented people. It’s not always easy, but by just asking the right questions sincerely, you can make a major impact.
great article on Employee issues
I'm playing with the idea of asking myself these questions every 3 months or so.
Thanks for the inspiration!