We want all our people to have a voice so that we can better understand how colleagues feel about working here. The more people that participate in our annual employee survey, the better we are able to understand how people are feeling at work and also identify the key areas we should be focusing on, both as an organisation and at the local team level.
The employee survey is important for 3 key reasons.
Measurement
You can only improve things if you start by measuring them and employee engagement is no different. Running an employee survey allows the council to see how people feel about working here and helps us to identify any potential hotspots. For example, if people answer largely negatively to a question on feeling valued and recognised, we know we need to take action in that area.
Employee voice
The survey acts as a touchpoint in time that allows everyone to have a voice about how they feel in their place of work. These types of surveys are usually run anonymously so that people feel safe and able to answer the questions honestly. But the survey only gives high level quantifiable data and points to potential issues. What it doesn't do is give real insights as to what is causing the issues - that's why follow-up conversations within teams are critical.
To make improvements
There is very little point is asking employees how they feel whilst at work if there is no intention to take action afterwards. The survey is the starting point, the real work comes next, from team discussions about the results through to taking action to improve. We additionally run department-specific and organisation engagement forums to explore what the results are telling us and to inform our organisation action plan which prioritises the top 3 key areas for us to work on and improve each year.
For more information on how we are improving employee engagement, please email employee.engagement@derbyshire.gov.uk