Survey Says... We're Engaged!
2018 Employee Engagement Survey Results Now Available
During late summer 2018 we launched our second HDAE Employee Engagement Survey. We believe that checking in with all employees with a survey helps us to grow as an organization and to be a place where employees can thrive. We continued to use McLean & Company, a Human Resources company that created the questions and administered the survey. Through McLean, we are able to benchmark our results with how we were doing two years ago. A traditional definition of employee engagement is: the degree to which employees feel passionate about their work, are committed to the organization, and put extra effort into their jobs. Employee engagement is high when organizations are also engaged with their employees, when feedback and ideas are solicited, when there are learning and development opportunities, when there exists a culture of respect for people and the work we do, and when there are clear and shared values.
This time around, we had a higher response rate (418 responses out of 583 employees, for a 70% return rate). Some areas saw improvement, while other areas slipped a bit, indicating where we should continue to do good work, as well as where we need to concentrate on improving.
Here is a snapshot of some numbers and statistics:
(*Please note—we are including the “benchmark” data of other nonprofits and educational organizations. A benchmark is used for general comparison in the field.)
• Our percentage of engaged employees is 72.4% (2016 engagement was 74.2%)
• Our ratio of engaged employees to disengaged employees is 11.6:1 (Benchmark is 4.7:1)
• 92% of respondents regularly offer to help their colleagues at work (Benchmark is 88%)
• 92% are very proud of the work that they do (Benchmark 86%)
• Taking everything into account, 85% of you like working for this organization (Benchmark 69%)
Interestingly, although we increased in the area of “The unit’s leadership team acts on employee feedback” (2018: 58% vs. 2016: 52%), this is still an area with room for improvement and will be one of the areas we will work on in the upcoming year.
Here are some quotes gleaned from the survey:
If you could change one thing to make this organization better, what would it be and how would you do it?
• “More communication with staff.”
• “Better all around communication and collaboration.”
What does this organization do particularly well that should be continued?
• “The collaboration from all directly involved is key to success.”
• “Just evolving and always leaving room for change.”
• “Providing outstanding customer service to all students, staff and faculty.” (This was a common theme that was repeated across all units.)
Each area will have their own focus for follow up, but overall McLean recommended that we
• Continue to concentrate on increased communication,
• Increase opportunities for feedback and input,
• Continue/increase our learning and development opportunities.
THANK YOU to all who took the time and effort to participate, and thank you to everyone who helps make this a great place to work for employees with a focus on students and top-notch service for all of our customers.