Introduction Recap:

In order to truly understand what makes a company a great place to work, it is important to explore, evaluate and improve several different aspects of the employee experience. Best Companies Group manages more than 40 “Best Places to Work”, “Best Employers” or “Best Companies” programs. We use an employee survey that has 8 very distinct areas of evaluation. We call them our “8 Core Focus Areas” of employee engagement and satisfaction. We have created this blog series to explore each of those “8 Core Focus Areas.”

Our goal is to help you understand these focus areas so the next time you conduct a survey or participate in one of BCG’s programs you have a better idea of how we go about identifying the best. This blog is part 5 of our feature series. To read part four, please click here.

This week we will focus on, Relationship with Supervisor

One of the main reason people leave their jobs is because of the relationship they have with their immediate supervisor. Whether it’s trust, authority, communication or just plain being a jerk, the supervisor or immediate manager often holds the key to the levels of engagement achieved, or not achieved, among their staff. From the employees vantage point, the manager is many times synonymous with the employer, they are seen as one in the same. If that’s the case, you can see how much influence that one person can have on their team. And while many great employers figure out how to improve engagement levels on many fronts, the relationship between employee and supervisor will always have the most influence.

So, in this category we capture how well supervisors are relating to their employees, from the employees point of view. Employees are asked to respond to various statements on a 6 option Likert scale (Disagree Strongly through Agree Strongly). Statements in this area include:

• My supervisor treats me fairly
• My supervisor treats me with respect
• My supervisor handles my work-related issues satisfactorily
• My supervisor handles my personal issues satisfactorily
• My supervisor acknowledges when I do my work well
• My supervisor tells me when my work needs improvement
• My supervisor is open to hearing my opinion or feedback
• My supervisor helps me develop to my fullest potential
• I feel I can trust what my supervisor tells me

The percentage below represents the national average percentage Positive Response (Agree or Strongly Agree) in the “Relationship with Supervisor” Core Focus Area for all the winners of our “Best” programs.

In two weeks our blog series will continue with Training, Development and Resources, the sixth of our 8 Core Focus Areas.