Questions for Measuring Software Team Engagement

Engagement is a powerful determinant of team performance. If you lead a software team, then consider measuring its degree of engagement. Measuring engagement will help you to improve it.

This article recommends language to use in carefully selected questions for the measurement of engagement of your software team.

Gallup has been collecting business metrics for decades; the company has been able to authoritatively deduce which survey questions best measure engagement. They have tuned a 12-item questionnaire (called The Gallup Q12) to measure it. The Gallup Q12 has become the industry’s gold standard for engagement.

In 2016, Gallup posted a pertinent summary of its meta-analysis of employee engagement, including the text for the 12 questions. I won’t repeat the key 12 questions here. Please see that post before continuing.

Here, I explain how to better phrase those 12 survey questions for your software team.

The Term “At Work” Is Now Ambiguous

The phrase “at work” is used frequently in the Q12, but in the new world of work, the term is ambiguous.

In the new world of work, work is not done uniquely for one company, nor is it done uniquely at the office.

Does “at work” refer to activities done solely at the office (where an employee is “at work”)? What about company activities done “at home”? Can one be both “at work” and “at home”?

The new work environment includes gigs and side hustles. If I work on my side hustle while at the office, is that what we are asking about with the phrase “at work”? Perhaps I have two jobs; does the phrase “at work” refer to both?

Because of societal changes, language changes in the survey questions are required. The phrase “at work” must be revisited in each case.

Q01

In this question about role clarity, the phrase “at work” is now ambiguous.

We must make sure that the survey question delivers information about only the respondent’s organizational affiliation for which you want to gather engagement information.

My suggested new phrasing is:

I know what ${companyName} expects of me.

Q02

In this question, the concept of “materials” does not apply to software teams. The analogue for material, in the context of software teams, is information - credentials, access, permissions. Subscriptions to software-as-a-service are often required for software team members to do their jobs.

I recommend splitting this question into 3 different questions in order to collect the relevant data:

I have the equipment that I need to do my ${companyName} work properly.

I have the credentials, access, and permissions that I need to do my ${companyName} work properly.

I have the software licenses and service subscriptions that I need to do my ${companyName} work properly.

Q03

In this question, the phrase “at work” again yields ambiguity. Must the “doing” occur at the office? What if “what I do best” is done at the office, but the company didn’t actually want me doing that work?

Here is a phrasing that corrects the ambiguity that has arisen due to changing context - work-from-home, side hustles, and millenial work habits:

For ${companyName}, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.

Q04

This question leaves open an opportunity for improvement - making it about the company or organization. My suggested phrasing:

In the last week, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work for ${companyName}.

The unmodified phrasing from Gallup allows for the possibility that the respondent is giving information unrelated to the company or organization, which my phrasing avoids.

Q05

This question could be more terse, and should avoid the “at work” phrasing mentioned above.

Note that the phrase “seems to care” cannot be replaced with “cares”. Besides the fact that it deviates too much from the well-measured Q12, it would require the respondent to have tremendous faith in their own ability to judge caring. The “seems to care” phrasing allows more doubt on the respondent’s behalf.

My suggested alternative phrasing:

Someone from ${companyName} seems to care about me as a person.

Q06

In this question about opportunity to develop, the Gallup-standard “at work” phrasing should be removed for the reasons discussed above. I suggest:

Someone from ${companyName} encourages my development.

Q07

In this question about opinions counting, we again should avoid “at work” phrasing. My alternative:

In ${companyName}, my opinions seem to count.

Q08

In this question, the phrase “my company” is ambiguous. Do you mean the respondent’s side hustle business? Even if not, does the respondent even consider ${companyName} to be “their company”? We must remove the ambiguity.

Also, the phrase “my job” would have been interpreted differently in prior years than more recently. In prior years, it is more likely that respondents interpreted “my job” to mean “me in the job that I have with ${companyName}”. Now, it is more likely that respondents interpret “my job” to mean “the role that I now occupy but which might at some other time be occupied by someone else”. We must change the phrasing to achieve the interpretation of the the respondents of prior years. I suggest “my work for ${companyName}”.

My suggestions give rise to this new phrasing:

The mission or purpose of ${companyName} makes me feel that my work for ${companyName} is important.

Q09

The phrase “my associates or fellow employees” gives rise to so much ambiguity, I am surprised that it persists in the Q12. Is the respondent being asked whether associates and fellow employees generally are committed to doing quality work? Or, is the respondent being asked whether one group or the other is generally committed to doing quality work? What if the fellow employees are divided into “associated” and “non-associated” groups, then what is the response to be if only one group is committed to doing quality work?

Due to the ambiguity about “work”, we also wonder whether respondents might answer when thinking about their fellow employee’s work on their side hustles, and not about work done for the company.

My suggested alternative phrasing:

My fellow ${companyName} workers are committed to doing quality work for ${companyName}.

Q10

Change “at work” like so:

I have a best friend at ${comanyName}.

Q11

Change “at work” as above, and also clarify that it is the respondent’s progress on company-related matters that is significant:

In the last 6 months, someone in ${companyName} has talked to me about my progress at ${companyName}.

Q12

Change “at work” to specify that we are interested in the context of activities done for the company:

This last year, I have had opportunities to learn and grow due to ${companyName}.

Caveat

This is my best effort to update the Q12 for the modern work environment.

While the Gallup Q12 are very well tested phrasings, my slightly altered suggested phrasings, above, are untested.