In honor of the upcoming Presidential Election, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon.

The marketing research bandwagon, that is. Namely, I’d like to dedicate this article to a singular man named George Gallup and his marketing strategies.

You’ve probably heard of him before with his most famous “invention” – the Gallup poll. While the common public is familiar with the Gallup poll through public opinion measurements (always especially relevant during a presidential campaign), those in the business world have encountered the implications of a Gallup poll in the office.

The Gallup poll is used to determine the structure and efficiency of your workplace. Think that your business is too small or too target specific to be able to apply a Gallup poll to your office? Think again. Gallup polls are ideal for all sizes of working environments, from one employee to 50,000. Your business can always be run more efficiently, whether it is through more precise communications between employees or a method of business transaction. Successful business people know this rule – your business can always be run just a little bit better. Always.

Now, how can you access the method of efficiency and the higher profit margin in conjunction with the Gallup poll?

Listen to your employees.

Force them to re-evaluate what you presently do and may have always done. A formal or more casual approach to the Gallup poll will satisfy this concept. Especially if you don’t have the current finances to fund an outside company to come in and perform a systems analysis, the words of your employees are an invaluable source to improvement within both your company and your industry in general.

The core to a Gallup poll is a sampling of how your employees feel about a particular situation. But the smaller your business is, the more likely you can pass out a questionnaire to every employee and receive his or her feedback.

Seem like a silly idea? You would be surprised, especially if you kept the questionnaires anonymous.

Many times, employees have distinct feelings about their workplace that are never expressed – for many different reasons. While many probably feel a generally positive sentiment to their job, everyone will have a suggestion for improvement. Even an intern can spot different ways to perform the same old function in a more efficient manner.

Consult your employees’ public opinion. How do they feel about certain aspects of their job? Frequently, activities that employees resent are activities that can be changed or restructured. A grumpy employee does not have the same level of productivity that a satisfied one does. That is a simple rule of human nature.