Speaker 1: For years, employers have asked me how they can better motivate and engage their employees. My first response has always been, have you asked your employees that question? Fact is, the greatest source of information about what inspires, motivates, and engages your employees is your employees. One of the best ways to tap into employee engagement is a survey. There are a variety of ways to conduct a survey. You can use Gallup's survey tool, create your own in an online program like SurveyMonkey, or take a pen and paper approach. You can even have a direct conversation with each employee. But most important are the questions you ask. I like taking a simple approach where we find out what's going right and what can go even better. Rather than focusing on the negative, ask questions about relevant factors that affect engagement like, how well are they being managed? What career opportunities are available? Are their ideas being solicited and respected? Is their compensation fair? Do they like the work environment? How would they describe the company culture? And very important, you want to ask, how likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or acquaintance? Think about the relevant factors that drive engagement at your company. Then design questions that are specific to your management and employee objectives. And whatever you ask, be sure to provide room for comments. You'll be surprised what you can learn when you give people a place to share their ideas. Now when it comes to conducting a survey, I'd like to challenge you to make the survey a requirement for all employees, 100% participation, because knowing who completed the survey allows you to follow up on responses. If employees are afraid of retribution or retaliation for speaking the truth in a respectful manner, then don't do the survey, and work on fixing the management team first. Whatever method you use, keep in mind that surveying employees is a process, not an event. After doing an initial survey, you can follow up with monthly surveys or even weekly micro-surveys. Most importantly, after every survey, make sure to promptly thank employees for responding. And be transparent. Let them know the good, bad, and ugly of what you've learned, and the top three things you'll be focused on doing something about. Then be inclusive, and invite your employees to be part of the solution. When we survey employees, we don't have to guess at what drives their engagement. Surveys give us information directly from the source, information we can use to make better decisions so our employees and our company will be the model of engagement.