[Spooky23]

You never want to ask direct questions about the company that will be bullshitted away -- you're wasting everyone's time in a little ceremony where both parties say nothing. People will usually talk about how they feel, and if they don't, the way that they do not answer the question is useful as well. It's also good way to make a personal connection with people.

Adapted from: "First, Break All the Rules". Gallup found that these questions were correlated against organizational and personal performance across industries, from fast food to the army to law firms. These were intended to be answered on a 1-5 "strongly agree/agree/neutral/disagree/strongly disagree" scale and need to be tailored to the situatino.

1. Do you know what is expected of you? (If the employee answers with a four or a five, this self-score would indicate that he or she knows the goal, how it is measured, and how he or she plans to reach the goal. An answer of one indicates that the employee does not know the goal or objective or how it is measured and has no idea how to reach it.)

2. Do you have the right materials and equipment to do your work right?

3. At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?

4. In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?

5. Does you supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?

6. Is there someone at work who encourages your development?

7. At work, do your opinions seem to count?

8. Does the mission/purpose of the company make me feel that your job is important?

9. Are your co-workers committed to doing quality work?

10. Do you have a best friend at work?

11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?

12. This last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

[christophilus]

That’s a great list. I also like to ask:

- When did you last miss supper / a personal event because you were working late?

- Think of the last person you know who left the company. Why did they leave?

- When was your last vacation, and how long was it?

These are essentially a way of asking, how’s the work life balance? In a way that avoids the BS answer, “great!”

[saudioger]

>Think of the last person you know who left the company. Why did they leave?

I don't think you'll get an honest answer for this a lot of the time, often team members might not even directly know why someone was laid off

>When was your last vacation, and how long was it?

This is a bit tough too, it's very subjective. I personally like working, and while I encourage my employees to use all of their vacation time, I rarely do so myself (I spread my time around as individual days rather than large chunks).

Also depends on your audience. Parents will answer this much differently than individuals.

[christophilus]

It does depend on your audience, but I've gotten good mileage out of these questions, so personally vouch for them. I got them from the book "Switch"[0], which has better phrasing than I jotted down in my comment. I highly recommend the book.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/038...

[haloux]

I'd argue against asking questions that have a clearly negative predicted response. Whenever a question is clearly skewed in one direction, the subject has a tendency to become suspicious and will often try to give the unintended answer. This is why tests like the MMPI use validity indicators and repeat questions.

[saudioger]

Very good list.

One I ask personally: in the past year, what work are you most proud of doing?

[jonathansorum]

This THE list of questions to ask any team or employee to get a health check. Great book, by the way.

[kylegalbraith]

This is a fantastic list. Thank you.