Task 1:  Survey Process Kick-off and Informing Employees About the Survey. 

 

ETC Institute will meet with officials from the City of Lawrence upon being selected for the project in order to discuss goals and objectives for the project, the employee satisfaction survey schedule, and survey logistics.

 

In order to have a high percentage of City’s employees participate in the survey, it will be important to implement an effective Pre-Survey Communication Plan.  ETC Institute will assist the City with the following components:

 

·        Introduction Letter: We recommend that the City send a letter from the City Manager be sent to each employee to explain the importance of the employee survey. 

 

·        Establish a phone input line: ETC Institute will maintain a phone line that employees can call if they have questions about the survey.  This number will be published and will serve as a means of allowing employees to express ideas and concerns about the survey.       

 

·        Newsletter article:  ETC Institute recommends that an article be published about the survey in an internal city employee newsletter or other publication.

 

·        Website link: ETC Institute will establish a dedicated e-mail address will allow employees to provide input to the survey development process via the Internet.  The weblink will allow employees to get more detailed information about the survey as the study progresses.

 

·        Employee committee:  Establishing an employee committee or key employee group to work with ETC Institute on the employee satisfaction survey will be an effective means of informing employees about the survey and building confidence and trust in the process.

 

Deliverable Task 1:  A technical memorandum that describes the pre-communication tasks that were completed.

 

 

Task 2: Designing the Survey Instrument.  ETC Institute will meet with City staff (or the employee committee) to begin developing the content of the survey.  As part of the survey development process, over a two day period the following interviews and meetings will take place. 

 

·        OPTIONAL Interviews with Senior City Staff.  ETC Institute would conduct interviews with senior City department managers. These interviews will be designed to identify the expectations that senior managers have for the employee survey and the types of action senior managers are willing to take based on the results of the survey.  These interviews will be designed to ensure that senior leaders have ownership of both the survey instrument and the results of the survey.  The interviews will help set the tone for the dissemination of information to employees.  This will minimize the confusion and misinformation about the survey that otherwise may occur.

 

·        OPTIONAL Focus groups with employees.  ETC Institute will conduct up to three (3) focus groups with randomly selected groups of employees.  The purpose of the focus groups will be to involve employees at all levels of the organization in the employee survey process. In addition to being a good source of input for the design of the survey, the focus groups will help develop trust in the process and increase the overall response rate to the survey because employees who attend are very likely to encourage other employees to complete the survey.  The City will assume responsibility for recruiting employees and providing a meeting room for the focus groups.

 

Conducting a Pilot Test.  ETC Institute will meet with City Staff to discuss the content of the survey and make modifications as needed.  A revised draft of the survey will then be submitted. The survey instrument will then be “pilot tested” with a random sample of at least 20 employees. ETC Institute will modify the survey as appropriate based on input from the participants.  The final draft of the survey will then be submitted for City approval.

 

Deliverable Task 2:  A final copy of the survey instrument.

 

 

Task 3: Administering the Survey.   ETC Institute will provide the City with bundles of survey packets for each City department.  The surveys will then be distributed to all employees via normal internal distribution channels at the work unit level.  Employees should be given time to complete the surveys at work if desired.  Employees can then return the surveys to ETC Institute via regular mail in the postage-paid return envelops that will be provided in each packet.  This will ensure the confidentiality of the responses by allowing employees the option of completing the surveys outside of the work environment.

 

After the surveys have been distributed, ETC Institute will call work units to confirm receipt of survey packets. ETC Institute will also assign an interviewer to answer the phone input line so the survey can be administered orally to employees who do not read English.  The phone line will be staffed until 9:00 p.m. to allow employees to call from home or a pay phone to protect the confidentiality of their responses.  ETC Institute has employees who are fluent in Spanish and other languages to allow non-English speaking employees to participate in the survey as well.

 

Conducting Data Entry and Analysis.  Double data entry will be completed for all surveys.  The data from all surveys will be entered into two independent databases by different people.  The two data bases will then be merged.  The process will identify all records that do not match.  All discrepancies will be corrected.  The double data entry method ensures that survey data is 99.99% accurate.   

 

Deliverable Task 3:  ETC Institute will provide a copy of the overall results to each question on the survey.

 

 

Task 4:  Analysis, Final Report, and Presentations.  Upon completion of data entry operations, ETC Institute will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the data including the following:

 

Crosstabular Analysis of the data that will involve a review of the data for specific subgroups within the sample. 

 

This analysis may involve a review of one or more of the following variables:

 

·        age of respondent

·        years of service

·        job type/classification

·        work unit/department/division

·        gender

·        level of education

·        other variables as needed

 

 

Addressing Potential Areas of Importance and Concern  The results from the employee satisfaction survey are of key importance to City of Lawrence officials, particularly as relates to addressing potential areas of importance and concern.  Over the years, ETC Institute has developed a number of highly effective and powerful research tools to assist local governmental decision makers in addressing these and other issues and building consensus for meaningful actions.

 

The analysis tools found on the following pages will be conducted by ETC Institute as part of the employee satisfaction survey process. 

 

Importance-Satisfaction Analysis is a unique tool that allows managers to use employee survey data as a decision making tool. Importance-Satisfaction analysis is based on the concept that an organization will maximize overall employee satisfaction by emphasizing improvements in areas where the level of satisfaction is relatively low and the perceived importance of the item is relatively high.

 

ETC Institute will develop an Importance-Satisfaction Matrix to display the perceived importance of workplace characteristics against the perceived quality of their workplace experience. The two axes on the matrix will represent Satisfaction and relative Importance.

 

The I-S (Importance-Satisfaction) matrix allows managers to analyze the survey data as described below.  A sample matrix is provided below.

 

·        Meeting Priorities (above average importance and above average satisfaction).  This area shows where the organization is meeting employee expectations.  Items in this area have a significant impact on the employees’ overall level of satisfaction.  The organization should maintain (or slightly increase) emphasis on items in this area.

Importance-Satisfaction analysis is based on the concept that an organization will maximize overall employee satisfaction by emphasizing improvements in areas where the level of satisfaction is relatively low and the perceived importance of the item is relatively high.
 
 


·        Exceeding Expectations (below average importance and above average satisfaction).   This area shows where the organization is performing significantly better than employees expect the organization to perform.  Items in this area do not significantly impact the employees’ overall level of satisfaction.  The organization should maintain (or slightly decrease) emphasis on items in this area.

 

·        Areas of Concern (above average importance and below average satisfaction).  This area shows where the organization is not performing as well as employees expect the organization to perform. 

This area has a significant impact on employee satisfaction.  The organization should DEFINITELY increase emphasis on items in this area.

 

·        Less Important (below average importance and below average satisfaction).  This area shows where the organization is not performing well relative to the organization’s performance in other areas; however, this area is generally considered to be less important to employees. This area does not significantly impact the employees’ overall level of satisfaction because the items rated are less important to employees.  The organization should maintain current levels of emphasis on items in this area.

 

 

ETC Institute began using Importance-Satisfaction analysis in the 1980’s to allow governmental organizations the ability to assess the quality of service delivery.  In the 1990’s ETC Institute began incorporating the analysis into employee surveys for state and local governments.  ETC Institute has continued refining the analysis to maximize its usefulness as a decision-making tool. 

 

Importance-Agreement (I-A) Rating.  In addition to the matrix analysis, ETC Institute has developed an Importance-Agreement Rating (Agreement with statements is used in lieu of Satisfaction).  This I-A rating allows organizations to quantitatively assess the relative importance that should be placed on areas for organizational improvement.  The methodology for calculating the Importance-Agreement Rating will be provided if ETC Institute is selected for this study.  A sample of the rating that was developed by ETC Institute for the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida (an organization of 2400 employees) is provided below.

 

 

 

Benchmarking Analysis In 1996, ETC Institute began conducting a national survey of governmental employees.  This national survey, which is administered every two years by ETC Institute, provides a benchmark for interpreting employee survey results. 

 

Text Box: Without comparative data, it is often difficult to interpret the significance of survey findings, which makes it even more difficult to make meaningful recommendations. For example, employees in most governmental organizations rate the quality of communication within their organization significantly lower than other areas, such as the level of respect that is shown among coworkers. If you asked governmental employees in the United States how well their employer keeps them informed, they are likely to give you a significantly lower rating.  Since the mean rating on employee surveys for communication is often 20 percent lower than the ratings for other employee issues, organizations that do not incorporate appropriate benchmarks may mistakenly identify communication as a top priority when the organizations real deficiencies are in other areas. 

 

A sample of ETC Institute’s employee survey benchmarks are provided on the following page.

 

 

 

Draft and Final Reports.  ETC Institute will submit a draft report to City of Lawrence officials.  After a review of the report with City officials, 10 copies of a final report will be prepared.  This report will include but not be limited to the following items:

 

 

 

 

 

Presentations of Survey Results. 

 

ETC Institute will make a formal presentation to The City of Lawrence City Commission and report results to the Management Team.  ETC Institute will provide an electronic copy of the presentation highlighting the results.

 

ETC Institute will additionally report the results at the department level including making each departments results available to the Department Director and employees.  The presentations will be designed to ensure that all employees are familiar with the results and understand the direction that the City will take as a result of the survey.  

 

A video tape can be made of each presentation so that employees who are not present on the day of the presentation can watch the presentation at a later date.

 

Deliverable Task 4: ETC Institute will prepare and submit 10 copies of the draft and final report.  ETC Institute will also make a formal presentation to The City of Lawrence and provide an electronic copy of the presentation highlighting the results.  ETC Institute will make an electronic copy of the final report results for the City of Lawrence.

 

 

 

 

Project Schedule for the Employee Survey

 

September 2005

·        Initial meeting to discuss survey goals & objectives; key issues for survey are developed

·        Interviews with senior City department managers and employee focus groups

·        ETC Institute provides the City with a draft survey

·        City Staff review the content of the draft survey and provide feedback to ETC Institute

·        ETC Institute revises the survey based on input from staff/survey committee

·        Pre Survey Communication plan is initiated

 

October 2005

·        ETC Institute conducts a pre-test of the survey

·        Results of the pre-test are reported to the City

·        The City approves the survey instrument

·        Employee communication initiatives issued

·        Surveys printed

·        Surveys distributed to work units

·        Surveys completed by employees

·        Follow-up phone calls conducted by ETC Institute

·        Status report delivered to the City

 

November 2005

·        Survey Administration is completed

·        First line tabular results provided to the City

·        Draft report submitted

 

December 2005

·        Final Report delivered

·        Presentation of the survey results to the City Commission

·        On site visit to present the results to the Management Team and Departments