Measuring Employee Engagement at Paubox

What did we do?

Over the course of February, I met with 37 Paubox employees (100% of our non-leadership employees) to check in on morale. Like many companies, Paubox made the difficult decision to conduct a round of layoffs, impacting 14 people. As a result, I wanted to give the remaining employees the opportunity to express their feelings about Paubox and to ask questions. I used the Gallup Q12 as a starting point, adding in key follow up questions to gain an understanding of steps we as a company could take to improve the employee experience.

What is the Gallup Q12?

The Gallup Q12  is a set of 12 questions designed by Gallup, Inc., a research-based consulting company, to measure employee engagement in the workplace. The questions are based on extensive research into what drives employee engagement and are designed to identify the key factors that contribute to high levels of employee engagement. While I used the Gallup Q12 as a starting point, I did make some slight edits to questions to make them more natural to ask in person rather than in writing. The Gallup Q12 questions are set up to answer on a scale of 1-5, in order to provide a numeric score for measurement, with a total score of 60 being the highest.

These questions are designed to measure the level of engagement an employee has with their work, their coworkers, and their organization. A high score on the Gallup Q12 indicates that an employee is engaged, motivated, and committed to their job and their organization, while a low score may indicate that an employee is disengaged, unproductive, and may be at risk of leaving the organization. Companies can use the results of the Gallup Q12 to identify areas where they need to improve in order to increase employee engagement and overall performance.

The Paubox Approach

When deciding to host these as stay interviews, rather than an anonymous survey, the most important thing here is for the interviewer to treat every employee as a person first, and an employee second. These calls should be conducted from a place of genuine curiosity and a desire to improve not only engagement but the overall employee experience. 

Calls were scheduled to be 1 hour 

During the vast majority of calls, my questions were complete around the 40 minute mark, allowing for about 20 minutes of open discussion and employee questions. Some calls only lasted 30 minutes, and some went a bit longer than the time allotted. This is very much dependent on how much the employee wants to share, I did have to remind myself that these are not job interviews and while pushing to gather data is important, not pushing too far is crucial to maintaining comfort and trust.

Employees should expect anonymity

While I did take notes for each call, using a google form for ease and repeatability, no names or titles are included. I did note team and direct manager, enabling me to provide guidance to our leaders as well as a company-wide level.

No question is mandatory

If an employee didn’t have an answer to a question, or was at all uncomfortable answering, I chose to move on and not push or pry. 

Additional questions 

I asked follow up questions when it made sense, allowing the conversation to flow easily whenever possible. Not every question necessitates a follow up

Employee questions

I made sure to give time at the end for employees to provide any other information that they'd like and ask questions, answering with as much honesty and transparency as possible. 

The Questions

The Gallup Q12 questions are asked on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being lowest and 5 being highest, all others are open ended. 

1. (Gallup Q12.1) Do you know what is expected of you on an average workday to be successful in your role at Paubox?
1. When you don't know what is expected of you, where do you go to find guidance?
2. (Gallup Q12.2) Do you have the materials, equipment, and resources you need to do your work correctly and efficiently?
1. What could be provided to improve this from your perspective
3. (Gallup Q12.3) Do you have the opportunity to use your professional skills and talents on a regular basis?
1. What skills or talents are you not using in your current role that you wish you could?
4. (Gallup Q12.4) Do you receive regular recognition, praise, or acknowledgement for doing good work?
1. Is this a motivating factor for you in your day to day?
5. (Gallup Q12.5) Does your supervisor seem to care about you as a person?
1. How does your supervisor show you their support?
2. Are there any additional ways that you'd like your manager to support you?
6. (Gallup Q12.6) Is there someone at Paubox who encourages you to develop new skills?
1. Are you working on anything specific at the moment? What prompted this?
7. (Gallup Q12.7) At Paubox, do your opinions seem to count?
1. Do you have an example you'd be comfortable sharing
8. (Gallup Q12.8) How connected do you feel to the Paubox Mission of being the market leader in HIPAA compliant communication?
9. (Gallup Q12.9) From your perspective, do you feel like your coworkers are committed and working toward the same goals?
10. (Gallup Q12.10) Do you feel connected to any of your colleagues on a personal level?
11. (Gallup Q12.11) Do you receive regular feedback on your performance at Paubox? 
1. Who provides this feedback, and when do you receive it?
12. (Gallup Q12.12) How well does Paubox provide you with opportunities to learn and grow?
13. What is it about Paubox that keeps you here?
14. What factor(s) could make you consider leaving Paubox?

So what’s next?

Now that the interviews are complete, I’ll be sitting down with each of our leaders to provide them a summarized version of their team’s feedback, including a score for each of the 1-5 questions. During these calls we’ll identify opportunities to increase employee engagement and address any concerns. I’ll also be providing a full-company outlook to the full leadership team to gauge those same items at a company level. 

The data will be used to establish the People Operations Team roadmap for the next couple of quarters, ensuring that employee feedback is the driving force behind People Ops initiatives. 

Future feedback will likely be gathered in an anonymous survey, using the same questions, on a regular basis as part of People Operations’ ongoing efforts to keep Paubox an amazing place to work.

Curious about who we are and what we do? Here at Paubox, our mission is to become the market leader for HIPAA compliant communication.

Author: Becky Hathaway, Director of People Operations