(Time to read this Blog is about 3 minutes)

Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking or smiling:

1. My Biz Quote of the week:  
   “Women can do six things at once. Men think multitasking is peeing in the shower.”
   …Donald Cooper.
    
2. Quick Biz Tip:
   Cooper’s 6 tips for a more engaged, committed & productive workplace:
   1. Flexible hours.
   2. Frequent ‘thanks’ & appreciation…handwritten notes.
   3. Make work more fun. 
   4. Access to the boss.
   5. ‘Free Day Off’ coupons for extraordinary work.
   6. Reward effort as well as success…a trophy for the best idea that didn’t work…yet.
       
3. The math of food production in China. Food insecurity leads to social instability, so China wants to become less dependent on food imports in this age of rising international tensions.  But here’s the math on that one.  China has about 20% of the world’s population but only 9% of the world’s arable land and only 6% of the fresh water. 
    
4. The world’s wealthiest cities. New York City is the world’s wealthiest city, measured by the number of millionaires (340,000 millionaires).  Tokyo came in a #2, California’s Bay Area is #3, London #4 and Singapore #5.
    
   A ‘millionaire’ is defined as someone with investable wealth of $1 million or more…not including the value of their residence.
    
   When it comes to ‘super wealthy’ people (we’re talking billionaires), the Bay Area came in at #1 with 63, followed by New York City with 58, and Beijing with 43.
    
5. Uber finally makes a profit. After accumulating US$31.5 billion in losses since 2014, Uber finally generated a profit in the last quarter.  Higher prices, record ridership, layoffs and other cost-cutting measures contributed to the turnaround.

What’s your plan to improve profitability by the end of 2023?

Now, to this week’s important topic:

24 great questions to ask your staff to improve your employment experience:

Some companies do ‘Exit Interviews’ with departing employees to find out what they could have done to be a better employer. That’s a bit like closing the barn door after the horse has escaped.   Very few companies do ‘Stay Interviews’ on a regular basis to find out what employees love about being there and what could be improved.   Below are 24 great ‘Stay Interview’ questions that you could ask.

The original version of this list below was created by the brilliant Recognition Expert,  Sarah McVanel, at ‘Greatness Magnified’…www.greatnessmagnified.com

1. What factors led to your deciding to join our Team?
2. What makes you stay with us?
3. Who on our Team makes working here better?
4. Which individuals or departments are the ‘unsung heroes’ around here?
5. What does a successful and satisfying day look like for you?
6. What percentage of your day is truly fulfilling? What makes it so?
7. What makes your role less satisfying than it could be?
8. What are the most meaningful parts of your work?
9. If you could change one or two things, what would they be?
10. Thinking about your career and life plans, how long do you think you will stay with us?
11. If you left us earlier than planned, what might contribute to that decision?
12. What are the things that would make you want to stay with us?
13. Have you ever told someone that they should come and work for us? What did you highlight?
14. What are the most desirable aspects of working here?
15. What do we do that shows team members that they’re important?
16. How might we show team members that they matter even more than we do now?
17. What is an easy thing we could tackle to make working here exponentially better?
18. What do we inadvertently do that doesn’t show that our people are our priority?
19. If this was your retirement day, what would you be telling people was the most important reason you stayed with us?
20. What are the top 3 things that are key to work being satisfying and energizing for you?
21. What are the things that stress or deflate you at work?
22. What advice would you give to new team members when they start here?
23. What makes a promotion desirable or undesirable?
24. On a scale of 1 to 10, to what extent would you say this is a great place to work?

Clearly, you wouldn’t sit down with team members and drill them with all of these questions at one time.  But 5 or 6 of these questions, woven into regular discussion will be very insightful.

That’s it for this week…

Live brilliantly!       

Donald Cooper 

Donald Cooper speaks and coaches internationally on management, marketing, and profitability.  He can be reached by email at donald@donaldcooper.com in Toronto, Canada.