In one of its biggest polls, Gallup asked more than one million employees from a broad range of industries a series of questions designed to uncover the answer to the question, "What do talented employees need from their workplace?" The answer -- that talented employees need great managers -- led to the second research effort, which attempted to determine how the best managers find, focus, and keep talented employees. The chief outcome of these studies is a performance "measuring stick" that evaluates human capital, which, the authors argue, is increasingly seen on an equal footing with more traditional metrics, such as assets and profits. Using just 12 questions, "The Measuring Stick" captures those elements critical to finding, engaging, and retaining the most talented employees.
