Fall is looming for sure! Before any additional time slips past us, I thought I would provide some feedback around the 2019 Annual Employee Survey. Your feedback is important and I am grateful you took the time to respond to the survey. Not only did we review the data, making comparisons between last year and this year but also took the time to read each and every comment.
As you will recall the survey was completed this summer and we have had time to review the results carefully. We had a 45% return rate on this years survey which is a strong number overall, although down from 57% last year. The return rate of the surveys was reasonably spread thru our various locations. Additionally, FT employees represented 77.5% of the returned surveys while PT employees represented the other 22.5%.
I am happy to report that the overall satisfaction score was at a score of 80 up from 72.5 the previous year. The strengths and positive takeaways remain fairly consistent over the years. Specifically, in 2019 the following were identified:
Positives/Strengths:
- Staff appear connected to the Mission, Vision, Values of FCC (81.25%)
- Staff indicate they are proud to work at FCC (77.22%)
- Flexibility of FCC’s environment seen as a positive (83.3%)
- Staff have an increased understanding of the agency’s strategic plan (81.25%)
- Staff feel appreciated by their supervisor
- Staff seem to like their jobs
- Staff report understanding the expectations for their work (86.25%)
The challenges were identified in the following manner:
- Communication Issues remain relatively Unchanged:
- Desire for an increase in communicating the WHY’s/ HOW’S of decisions. Mostly decisions do not appear to filter to all levels-
- Positives were noted in terms of how to provide input
- Timely Communication- While improvements were noted, there were still comments about a need for improvement.-
- Feeling of being well informed about important issues- comments were limited high neutral (31.25% but a low % of disagrees 17.5%
- While new ideas are encouraged scored positively, comments made suggest there is a lack of implementation. This ties in with whether staff believe their opinion counts. There was a low percentage of disagreement at 11.25% but a high neutral response @ 31.25%.
One of the items noted as we reviewed the survey was that there appeared to be a higher percentage of neutral responses than seen in previous years.
Know that during our review we went over the steps taken from last year’s survey, and took stock of any progress made. I will share that we were true to our plan that included but not limited to extending an invitation to join the weekly senior leadership meeting on two occasions and using the Depot to highlight staff and different FCC programs.
The follow-up/next steps will include addressing communication concerns by being as transparent as possible, being more timely with communication as appropriate and focusing on sharing the hows and whys of communication at all levels. We will be exploring ways to better appreciate our employees addressing ways to introduce more training as we are able, find ways to encourage new ideas from employees and will work at helping staff better understand our Development department efforts.
I am always available for a conversation and welcome your input! Together we are better!