Employee Opinion Survey

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Employee Opinion Survey

• Human Resources
• CAUBO Presentation
• June 2007

University of Saskatchewan
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Presentation Overview

• About the University of Saskatchewan
• Why do an Employee Opinion Survey
• HR in High Performing Organizations
• Developing the HR Plan
• The Roles of HR
• Strategic Initiatives
• Moving to a High Performance Culture
• Measuring Cultural Change
• Development of the Survey
• First Year
• Second Year
• Communication Strategy
• Lessons Learned

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About the University of Saskatchewan

• Setting the Context
• Transformative Change
• Integrated Planning Process
• Development of Multi-year Plans
• Review of HR / Transformation
• Development of Planning Themes

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Human Resources in High Performing Organizations

• HR departments need to
• fully link HR strategy and practice to the
  organizations strategic priorities
• ensure the organization has the people capacity
  to execute its strategic priorities
• measure effectiveness of HR strategy
• add value

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Developing the HR Plan

• Critical Assessment of HR Division
• Review of HR Best Practices in High Performing
  Organizations
• Strategic Alignment
• Measuring Progress
• Workplace Assessments
• Employee Opinion Surveys

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The Roles of Human Resources
Master the theory and practice of change
Improve the efficiency of the work
Administrative Expert
Change Agent
Adding Value
Strategic Partner
Resource Champion
Translate business strategy into action
Find the right balance between demand and
resources
Ulrich
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Moving to a High Performance Culture

• Developing integrated processes to promote a high
  performance culture through individual unit and
  organizational performance

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Strategic Initiatives
Recruit
Enabling Culture
Develop
Reward
Stimulate Progress
Preserve the core
The right place for the right people
Engage
Align
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Assessing and Measuring Cultural Change

• More than lip service
• The right place for the right people
• Alignment and commitment
• Open and honest discussions of problems
• Data-based decision making
• Accountability for results
• Return on investment

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Why do an Employee Opinion Survey

• Yes leadership is about vision. But
  leadership is equally about creating a climate
  where the truth is heard and the brutal facts
  confronted. There is a huge difference between
  the opportunity to have your say and the
  opportunity to be heard. The good to great
  leaders understood this distinction creating a
  culture wherein people had a tremendous
  opportunity to be heard ultimately for the truth
  to be heard.
• Jim Collins Good to Great

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Why do an Employee Opinion Survey

• Employee satisfaction is a key indicator of
• organization success (recruitment and retention)
• employee engagement
• Our survey questions measure
• Diversity (Wilson)
• Employee engagement (Buckingham)
• Alignment with values (Izzo)

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Developing the Survey

• Commit to a future described in Renewing the
  Dream
• Survey employees for their opinions on work
  environment issues
• diversity engagement alignment with values
• Confidential web-based process
• Use results to develop and/or improve programs
  and services to support healthy productive and
  diverse workplaces

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First Year

• 1122 responses
• A base line
• Openly shared and broadly communicated
• Full report on web-site
• Identified issues impeding organization progress
• Focus on the importance of effective leadership

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Second Year

• Same questions
• Increased response rate by 30
• Compare results to baseline data
• Develop action plans by unit
• Compare aggregate data across units
• Use outcomes to support planning processes

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Communication Strategy

• Critical to effective people strategies
• Builds credibility
• Key messaging to align with strategy
• HR updates
• Full results of survey
• Communication of action plans

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Lessons Learned

• Dont create a monster just do it!
• Prepare the organization
• Dont hide the truth
• Communicate communicate communicate
• Move to action

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Where do we go from here

• Annual survey
• Results discussed with senior leaders
• Commit to action
• Results used for planning purposes

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Questions