You might be turning over millions of dollars a year, but the question still stands: How well is your company really doing?
I ask the question because yesterday I and a previous work colleague, who happens to have just started working with on the team with me again at Stink Digital, PASSED another ex-colleague in the street. All the more odd because we had been talking about how little we had bumped into EX’s despite plenty being in the vicinity of work or home.
Anyhow, in the process of my thoughts this morning, it occurred to me: “How many of your employees would likely stay in touch if they all split the company today?”
Sure we have Facebook and the like which makes it super easy to stay in touch, but does that really mean they would stay properly in touch or just stay in the back of the mind on some deserted friends list or limited profile?
The fact that I have stayed in touch with my good friend Zen, a spiffy flash developer, and encouraged him to start working for Stink Digital proves that the friendship is more than merely superficial, which I can’t say for all my ex-colleagues that I am connected to on Facebook or other social networks.
So on that basis, wouldn’t the question: “How many current work colleagues would you stay in touch with if you left the company tomorrow?” acts as a pretty simple, quick and easy-to-take straw poll as a barometer of the state of personal relationships within your company.
Let’s take an average as a percentage of your company’s workforce and what does that tell you? How much do you employees value each other? Do they really like working together? How much productivity are you actually getting out of them? Can it be improved with better people skills? All great questions which could be answered relatively well by your so-called “Relationship Score”.
((Retained Relationships / Workforce)*100) = Relationship Score
Interesting thought no? So let me ask you again: how well is your company actually doing?
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I am, for want of a better word, a web developer. Practising since '96 and
focused on front and back-end work with a slant for optimisation.
I love music, art, and helping people, traits which I hope are borne out here.
Read more about me and this blog on the 
Office Relationships – How To Strive for the Best Office Environment Mar 9, 2010
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