Croatian media reported an agency news that the new Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob is using his corporate experience to select people who will take on important positions, so all parliamentarians from his party had to answer 12 questions from the Gallup test, which measures employee engagement and their motivation to work in companies.
This was revealed in Ljubljana’s Delo by the President of the Slovenian Parliament Urška Klokočar Zupančič from Golob’s Freedom Movement party. She, like the other forty representatives elected on the list of the strongest party in parliament, answered questions from the Gallup Q12 test, the first of which is ‘Do you know what is expected of you at your workplace?’.
What is the Gallup test actually? The American analytical and consulting company, best known for public opinion research conducted worldwide, developed a set of 12 questions in the 1990s that helps companies assess their employee engagement.
Golob used the Gallup test when selecting his associates at a time when he led the energy company GEN I before entering politics. This method was introduced into Slovenian politics by Prime Minister and President Janez Drnovšek, who was a director of a branch of Ljubljanska Bank and an experienced economist before entering high politics.
Gallup’s 12 questions are still used in corporate human resource management today. But could this method be used in Croatian politics, for example, in assessing the engagement of ministers? The answer is affirmative only in theory. The closest to such an assessment could have been Croatian prime ministers, the so-called techno-managers (Franjo Gregurić, Nikica Valentić, Hrvoje Šarinić, and Zlatko Mateša) in the first decade of independence, had it not been for the struggle for independence, war, and Tuđman’s untouchability. In this century, ‘pure’ politicians in the prime ministerial position (except for the short-lived and non-independent Tihomir Orešković) have distanced themselves from all corporate rules, and ministers are chosen primarily based on their party rating and personal preferences. And these criteria are often in contradiction with abilities.
Therefore, fewer and fewer ministers are chosen based on ability, and no one is dismissed for incompetence. Even Darko Horvat, who did not initiate the reconstruction of Zagreb for two years, did not leave the Ministry of Construction due to inactivity, but resigned only after he was arrested.
Because of all this, the sincere completion of the Q12 test by Croatian ministers would turn out to be tragicomic. Like this example, which is the product of the author’s twisted imagination. Imagine the names of possible ministers who answer Gallup’s questions yourself.
1. Do you know what is expected of you at your workplace?
– Of course I know, it is expected that I unconditionally listen to the Prime Minister and that my potential independent proposals and decisions do not deviate from the Government’s program and the Prime Minister’s domestic and European ambitions.
2. Do you have the materials and equipment to perform your job well?
– I have no problems with that. I am quite satisfied with the car and computer, the printer is fast and quiet, there is enough paper, the air conditioning in the office works, what more do I need!
