Are We Making Progress?

How do you know? 

Are your values, vision, mission, and plans 

being deployed? 

Does your leadership team understand them?

Do the members of your workforce understand 

and support them? 

Are your communications effective? 

Is the message being well received? 

Use This Tool to Quickly Assess 

Your Employees’ Perceptions

In today’s environment, if you are standing still, you are falling behind. Making the 

right decisions at the right time is critical. Following through on those decisions is 

challenging: deploying strategy is much more difficult than developing strategy. 

If deployment is so challenging, the questions are, Are you making progress? 

How do you know?

Are We Making Progress? and the companion document for leaders, Are We Making 

Progress as Leaders?, are designed to help you know. These tools show you whether 

your perceptions agree with those of your workforce. They will help you focus your 

improvement and communication efforts on the most critical areas. 

The questionnaires are organized by the seven Baldrige Criteria for Performance 

Excellence® categories, part of the Baldrige Excellence Framework®. These 

questionnaires identify opportunities for improvement and direct you to more 

detailed questions in the Criteria. They also may help you identify some ideas 

for making improvements and recognizing opportunities for innovation.

Ask the members of your workforce their opinions. They will appreciate the 

opportunity—and your organization will benefit from their responses!

Get Started Today!

Download Are We Making Progress?

https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/

self-assessing/improvement-tools/

are-we-making-progress

If necessary, modify the questionnaire 

to address your specific needs 

(e.g., add questions, use language 

specific to your organization).

Distribute the questionnaire to your 

senior leadership team and your 

workforce, including managers, 

supervisors, and volunteers.

Download the companion document, 

Are We Making Progress as Leaders?,

to see if your employees’ perceptions 

agree with those of your leadership.

(Im)Prove Your Performance® Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • www.nist.gov/baldrige
Are We Making Progress?

Your opinion is important to us! 

There are 41 statements below. For each statement, check the box that best matches how you feel (strongly 

disagree, disagree, undecided, agree, strongly agree). How you feel will help us decide where we most need 

to improve or change. We will not be looking at individual responses but will use the information from our 

whole group to make decisions. It should take you about 10 to 15 minutes to complete this questionnaire.

Senior leaders, please fill in the name of organization or unit being discussed.

Note: This refers to what is meant each time the word “organization” is used below

____________________________________________________________________

Are We Making Progress? • www.nist.gov/baldrige

1

1A I know my organization’s mission

(what it wants to accomplish).

1B I know my organization’s vision 

(where it wants to go in the future).

1C My senior (top) leaders are ethical and 

demonstrate our organization’s values. 

1D My senior leaders create a work environment 

that helps me do my job. 

1E My organization’s leaders share information 

about the organization.

1F My organization asks what I think. 

Strongly Strongly

2

2A My organization asks for my ideas 

when preparing for the future.

2B My organization encourages totally new 

ideas (innovation).

2C My organization adopts new technology 

when preparing for the future.

2D I receive information that helps me determine 

whether I am making progress on my work 

group’s part of the organization’s plan.

2E My organization makes changes quickly when 

needed to address sudden disasters or new ideas.

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m	

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m
Are We Making Progress? • www.nist.gov/baldrige

3

Note: Your customers are the people who use the 

 products of your work.

3A My organization treats all customers fairly.

3B I know who my most important customers are.

3C I regularly ask my customers what they need and want. 

 

3D I am allowed to make decisions to satisfy 

 my customers.

3E I also know who my organization’s most 

 important customers are.

Strongly Di

4

4A I know how to measure the quality of my work.

4B I can use this information to make changes that 

 will improve my work.

4C I know how the measures I use in my work fit 

 into the organization’s overall measures 

 of improvement.

4D I get all the important information I need to make 

 changes to my work when my organization 

 makes unplanned changes.

4E I know how my organization as a whole is doing.

m	 m	 m	 m	 m

m	 m	 m	 m	 m

m	 m	 m	 m	 m

m	 m	 m	 m	 m

m	 m	 m	 m	 m

5

5A The people I work with cooperate and 

work as a team.

5B My bosses support, encourage, and enable me to

develop my job skills so I can advance in my caree

5C I am recognized for my work. 

5D I have a safe workplace. 

5E My bosses and my organization care about me.

5F My organization is committed to including and 

embracing people from varying backgrounds and 

treating everyone fairly.

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

 	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

r.

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

m	 m	 m	 m	 m
C6 Operations

6A I can get everything I need to do my job.

6B We have good processes for doing our work.

6C My organization regularly reviews and improves 

its processes.

6D My organization protects important assets (property),

data, and information (security and cybersecurity)

6E We are prepared to handle an emergency.

Strongly Strongly 

 

. 

7

7A My work products meet all requirements. 

7B I know how well my organization is doing financially

7C My organization has the right people and 

skills to do its work. 

7D My organization removes things that get in 

the way of progress.

7E My organization obeys laws and regulations.

7F My organization practices high standards 

and ethics.

7G My organization helps me help my community.

7H My organization is a good place to work for 

all employees.

7I I am committed to my organization’s success.

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

. 	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

	 m	 m	 m	 m	 m

Would you like to give more information about any of your responses? Please include the number of 

the statement (for example, 2A or 7D) you are discussing.

Contact

For information on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program: www.nist.gov/baldrige | 301.975.2036 | baldrige@nist.gov

Are We Making Progress? Revised 2022

Photo credits: ©Tsyhun/Shutterstock

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce