Ever since its inception KLM has ranked among the top of Dutch enterprises. The continuous improvement of quality has always occupied centre stage in the company's operations. Characteristic of the pioneering role of KLM was the establishment, together with several other internationally operating companies, of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) in 1988.

In the introduction of employee satisfaction surveys on a continuous basis KLM also led the way. Even in 1994 a survey instrument was developed for this in collaboration with MICRA.

In order to be able to compare the KLM results with those of other companies, an EFQM platform Netherlands was set up. This working group comprises representatives of large and medium-sized organisations (with workforces ranging from tens of thousands to several hundreds) from the bank and insurance sectors, the travel branch, chemical industry, public transport, hospitals and government, etc. The purpose is benchmarking: compare one's own results with those of others, in order to assess and improve one's own performance. There are 14 questions that are used for the reciprocal comparison of results. All these questions form part of the MICRA employee survey.

In 1998 the well-known American research agency Gallup set up a large-scale survey with the purpose of finding precisely those questions that might indicate the difference between the best performing organisations and the back markers. This cross-industry survey (involving 2,500 business units and 105,000 respondents) eventually resulted in 12 questions. These questions measure the so-called vital employee opinions that have a direct bearing on top results. Eleven of these questions have since 1997 formed part of the MICRA employee survey.

See also the demonstration of the MICRA Team Monitor that deals with these 'vital questions'.

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