Leadership Climate Diagnostic

Find what is really driving turnover, incidents and disengagement on your floor, before the cost arrives

You can feel a problem on the shop floor long before it lands in the numbers. Good people go quiet, then they go. Near-misses creep up. Knowledge walks out of the door with every retirement. By the time it shows in turnover, scrap or incident figures, it is expensive to fix.

The Leadership Climate Diagnostic finds the leadership and climate causes early, in the words of the people who know the floor best, so you can act before the cost arrives.

Book a free 30-minute Leadership Climate Check

What it is

A research-informed diagnostic that measures fourteen areas of leadership and work climate across your workforce, then shows which of them are driving your real outcomes: engagement, retention, advocacy, job satisfaction and safety behaviour. It is built specifically for manufacturing and industrial teams, not adapted from a generic office survey.

What makes it different

Built for the floor, not the office. It measures shift handovers, the safety-versus-production tension, and recovery between shifts. Generic engagement surveys miss these, and they are where industrial problems live.
Grounded in the research. The items are drawn from the most-cited scales in leadership and organisational climate research, so every question earns its place. The evidence is documented, not asserted.
A servant-leadership lens. It measures the specific, coachable manager behaviours that move climate, the same behaviours EA Consultancy develops in technical managers.
Drivers and outcomes, not just opinions. It shows which weak areas are most strongly linked to your retention, engagement and safety, so you know where to act first. You can test the findings against your own turnover, incident and absence data.
Honest by design. This is a research-informed diagnostic for action, not a black-box test. You get your own baseline and the levers to pull, not a vanity percentile.
It speaks both languages. Engineer and HR. The findings are translated for technical managers and people leaders alike, so the whole leadership team can act on them.

The fourteen areas it measures

Area	What it looks at
Leadership Behaviour	How your direct manager leads day to day, across eight servant-leadership behaviours.
Trust	Trust in the manager across competence, genuine care and integrity.
Communication	Whether the right information reaches people, including across shifts and departments.
Vision and Direction	Whether people know what is expected of them and where the organisation is heading.
Psychological Safety	Whether people feel safe to speak up, admit mistakes and ask for help.
Learning and Growth Culture	Whether the team is set up to learn, improve and develop, not just hit targets.
Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration	Whether knowledge flows, gets hoarded, or walks out of the door.
Conflict and Relationships	Whether disagreements are handled openly or left to fester.
Inclusion and Belonging	Whether people feel they belong and are treated equally.
Safety Climate	How seriously safety is taken in practice, including under production pressure.
Workload and Well-being	The balance of demands, control, recovery and life outside work.
Fairness and Justice	Whether rules and decisions such as shifts and overtime are seen as fair.
Recognition	Whether good work is noticed and valued.
Overall Experience	The outcomes: engagement, intention to stay, advocacy, satisfaction and safety behaviour.

What you get

A confidential survey, administered independently by EA Consultancy, with anonymity protected. No group of fewer than five people is ever reported, so people answer honestly.
A clear scorecard of all fourteen areas, rated red, amber or green, showing your strengths and your priorities at a glance.
A driver analysis that links the climate to your outcomes, and that you can test against your real turnover, incident and absence data.
Breakdowns by role, shift and area, so you can see exactly where an issue sits rather than guessing.
A leadership debrief and an action plan, with a clear route into development and coaching where it is needed.
A re-survey to track whether the actions worked.

Two versions, one instrument

The full diagnostic

Ninety-two questions, about twenty minutes to complete. The complete picture, for a baseline or a deep dive into a specific site or problem.

The core pulse

Thirty-seven questions, about ten minutes. All fourteen areas in a short form, for fast or repeat rounds and for tracking progress between full surveys.

Start with the full diagnostic to set a baseline and understand the drivers. Use the core pulse to keep a light, regular read on the floor without survey fatigue.

How it works

I scope the survey with you and tailor the departments and sites.
I administer it confidentially: on paper, by link or QR code, or at a shared on-site tablet, around your shift patterns.
I analyse the results and run the driver analysis.
I debrief your leadership team in plain language.
We agree the priority actions, with owners and dates.
I support the development work where it is needed.
I re-survey to measure the change.

What it costs to leave it alone

I am not going to quote you an industry statistic, because your site is not an industry average. Do the arithmetic with your own numbers instead. It takes about two minutes on the back of an envelope.

One skilled technician who leaves. Recruitment, the weeks the role sits open, the overtime that covers it, and then six to twelve months before the replacement is genuinely up to speed. Put your own figure on that, for one person.
Multiply by last year's leavers in the roles that are hard to replace. Not your total headcount, just the ones that hurt.
One recordable incident. Lost time, the investigation hours, the insurance position, and the output you did not make that day.
One supervisor firefighting instead of leading for a year, and the decisions that queue behind them.
The knowledge that left with your last retirement and was never written down.

Add those up and hold the total in your head. The real question is not what a diagnostic costs. It is whether that is more or less than another year of the same, and that is a sum you can do without me in the room.

Straight answers to common questions

How long does it take staff to complete?

The full survey is 92 questions and takes most people about 18 to 22 minutes. The core pulse is 37 questions and takes about 10 minutes. I recommend giving people time on shift to do it, rather than expecting them to complete it at home.

How disruptive is it to our operations?

Very little. There is no line stoppage and no kit to install. People answer on paper, by a link or QR code, or at a shared on-site tablet, whichever suits the floor and the office. Fieldwork runs for about ten working days, and you choose the window around your shift patterns.

Is it truly anonymous, and who sees the data?

Yes. EA Consultancy administers the survey independently and holds the data. You never see raw individual responses. Results are reported only for groups of five or more, and I avoid any cross-cut that could identify one person. Protected anonymity is what makes the answers honest and useful, and it is a commitment works councils and employee representatives can hold me to.

Can we run it ourselves?

No. The diagnostic is delivered by EA Consultancy, and that is deliberate. Independent administration is what keeps answers honest, keeps your data in consistent hands, and lets me run the scoring and driver analysis properly. You get the insight without the admin.

How long until we get results?

A typical engagement runs over three to four weeks of activity. Once fieldwork closes, I analyse the data and present the findings to your leadership team in week three or four, followed by an action-planning session.

What if our response rate is low?

I aim for 60 percent or more, and ideally 70. Below about 40 percent I treat the results as indicative and say so plainly, rather than overclaiming. A visible endorsement from a trusted leader, time given on shift, more than one channel and a reminder or two are what reliably lift the rate.

Is our data secure, and is it GDPR-compliant?

Yes. Responses are stored securely and deleted within 90 days of project completion. Personal data is processed only as necessary for the work and in line with the GDPR, and a separate data-processing agreement is available on request.

The honest promise. This diagnostic is research-informed. It combines adapted items from established leadership and organisational-climate research with practical items written for manufacturing contexts. It is intended for internal diagnosis and action-planning, not as a normed psychometric test or a judgement on individuals. That is exactly why leaders can act on it with confidence.