Measuring Employee Engagement

1
Measuring Employee Engagement

• City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska
• Presented by
• Mila Cosgrove, HR Director

2
City and Borough of JuneauAs an Employer

• 910 employees
• 525 employees in target group
• 62 Unionized
• 38 Non Union
• Average years of service 15.2

3
Services Provided

• Police
• Fire
• Wastewater/Water Utilities
• Transit Service
• Planning
• Engineering
• Streets Maintenance
• Parks Recreation
• Library
• Docks Harbors
• Airport
• Ski Area
• Finance
• Administrative Core services HR, Risk Mgt, MIS,
  Emergency Planning

4
CBJs Organization Culture

• We are a good employer
• Emphasis on work/life balance
• Employees are family
• Egalitarian everyone has an equal voice
• Progressive employee relations policies
• Domestic partner recognition
• Broad antidiscrimination policies
• Labor/management cooperation
• In house employee wellness program

5
Organization Climate Survey

• First survey implemented in 2002, yearly
  beginning in 2008.
• Worked with Glasers Associates to devise survey
  tool and analyze results.
• Has been in place over the course of two City
  Manager administrations.
• City-wide performance measure. Target is Overall
  Score of 3.5 or better.

6
Survey Dimensions

• Overall Culture Score dimensions
• Teamwork
• Morale
• Information Flow
• Employee Involvement
• Supervision
• Meetings
• Customer Service
• Working with others in department organization

7
Survey Structure

• Questions are rated on a 5 point scale from
  strongly disagree to strongly agree.
• For each question and dimension, a mean score and
  the standard deviation is provided.
• Employees can provide comments. Comments are
  not distributed beyond the management level.
• Survey is broken down by Department and
  Division/work group if appropriate.

8
Survey Process

• Use Internet based survey tool Survey Monkey.
• Paper surveys are available.
• Designate Survey Champions in each major work
  group.
• Run at the same time each year.
• Data is analyzed in house

9
Follow Through is the Key

• Post results of Citywide results on web page.
• Department and Division results are distributed
  as appropriate.
• Comments are not provided to employees or first
  level supervisors to maintain confidentiality.
• Meet with employees on a work group by work group
  basis to discuss results.

10
Follow Through is the Key

• Identify 2 3 questions to focus on in the
  upcoming year.
• Emphasis on moving from good to excellent.
• Tie survey questions and results into ongoing
  training initiatives and team working sessions.
• Department Directors are evaluated on their
  follow through.

11
Value

• Provides a reality check about the overall
  wellness of the organization.
• Able to easily identify the places in the
  organization that are trouble spots and where
  there is smooth sailing.
• Quantifies the anecdotal.
• If done correctly, helps build trust within the
  organization.

12
Survey Results Over Time
13
Insight Into a Larger Organization
14
Tale of a Troubled Leader
15
Lessons learned

• Executive Support is critical.
• Language in survey should match culture.
• You have to do something with the information, if
  you dont you loose credibility and trust with
  employees.
• Refine your process as needed.
• Make sure your communication networks are
  working.