Workplace Success Stories
- Best Practices 2003
Maximizing Employee Input in Managerial Decision-Making
| Practice Name:
Let's Hear It! Our Annual Survey |
Workplace
Issues Addressed: |
Description of the practice
This annual workplace climate survey is offered to 1100+
staff in the five departments reporting to the Associate Vice Chancellor/Adminstration.
A continuous process, the survey is followed by the development of
action plans and an intensive cycle of improvement. The following
year's survey serves as a measure of success of those improvement
efforts. A relatively new survey in Adminstration (at the time of
this writing), the department is hoping that this will help shape
the culture to be more inclusive.
Benefits of adopting the practice
The survey has spawned many specific workplace improvements
and process improvements. It has also spawned entire programs to facilitate
staff inclusion and feedback. Because of this survey, there has been
a beneficial cultural shift in the department.
How this practice works
The Let's Hear It! survey is actually a continuous process
-- the administering of the questions each October is
the first step. The survey is followed by an intensive cycle of improvement,
in which staff and management examine the results of the survey and
seek how to improve those conditions identified as most in need of
improving. The following October's survey serves as a measure of the
success of those improvement efforts. Because the same questions are
asked, each subsequent year's results are a direct indicator of the
success of the improvement efforts.
The survey consists of 118 questions plus 10 demographic questions. All 118 questions ask the respondent to rank (on a quantitative scale) their opinion on a particular aspect of their work environment. A free-form space is also provided for the respondent to enter "written comments" of any nature and length. The survey is offered both via the web and in paper form. Translation is provided in five languages for those staff members who desire to take the survey in their native language.
The responses are tabulated and returned to all staff in a combination graphical and table form. The tabulations are segmented by work group and by other criteria. The report containing the tabulations is made available to the public (in abbreviated form) on their Balanced Scorecard web site. The anonymous "written comments" are read by the associate vice chancellor and, if the writer gives permission by checking a box, are also shared with management.
Following the distribution of the reports to all staff, each of the five departmental directors is asked to submit an action plan containing a preliminary analysis of the results from his/her point of view, and a plan for the process by which the staff of his/her department will further analyze the results and craft improvements in areas identified on the survey as most in need of improvement. The directors report quarterly to the leadership team regarding progress of their action plans. This improvement process varies in nature from department-to-department, and continues until the following October, when the Let's Hear It! Survey is given again.
What you need in place to replicate this practice
Firmly held values of upper management, allocation of resources
to make it happen (resources are mainly staff time; cash outlay has
been very little), contributions of many staff throughout the five
departments who served on the original focus group plus the annual
coordinating committees to administer the survey. The key element
needed is the commitment of upper management to translate the survey
results into real improvements in the workplace. This commitment is
absolutely necessary -- without such follow-through the
survey process could lead to increased staff cynicism.
Tangible improvements to the department as a result of adopting
this practice
There have been route changes by Mail Services to improve
efficiency, realignment of job responsibilities in the Human Resources
unit of Physical Plant to better address employee concerns, alterations
of Call Center procedures in Physical Plant, redesign of all-staff
meetings in Environmental Health & Safety, and the hiring of an
additional programmer in Physical Plant to reduce the workload of
an overextended staff member. There has also been the creation of
EH&S's Office Events Team to organize staff recognition and community-building
events, Physical Plant's revamped Suggestion Box program to increase
the ease and impact of staff suggestions, and Mail Services' Bright
Ideas program to turn staff ideas into process improvements and recognize
the originators.
Why this practice was so successful and is worth replicating
The survey encourages specific workplace
and process improvements, and because the same questions are asked
each year, the answers are a direct indicator of the success of the
previous year’s improvement efforts.