Top Ten Things You Should Know About Local Government Employee Surveys

The good news is employers can get the answers they need to foster a better workplace by asking the right questions. Employee surveys are the most reliable way to gauge how your employees really feel and identify areas your organization needs to focus on.

Employee surveys have significant potential to help local governments address their biggest workplace challenges. When done right, these assessments can lead to higher retention, engagement, and overall job satisfaction. 

So, these days, more and more local governments are collecting meaningful feedback from their staff. But before you start your own employee survey, you’ll want to see this 30-minute webinar about the Top Ten Things You Should Know About Local Government Employee Surveys. 

Polco Communications Director Angelica Wedell and Director of Account Management Alec Vice have helped hundreds of local government organizations discover engagement and data resources to aid their success. The two discuss how employee surveys can transform job satisfaction, the best ways to conduct them, and what to do with the results.

They also explain how The National Employee Survey (The NES) expertly leverages all these best practices to provide insights that government employers can trust and act on.

1. Employee Surveys Are Bellwethers

What’s a bellwether? Bellwethers can be described as indicators or predictors of the state of their environment. Consider the relationship between white roses and wineries; though both are known for romance and beauty, the roses serve as a bellwether to the wine grapes. Farmers plant roses throughout the vineyard because they show signs of disease and frost before the grapes do. This allows the farmers to protect the grapes before any kind of irreparable damage strikes. Likewise, surveys of any kind–especially employee surveys–are bellwethers to their organizations. They indicate the condition of an issue so you can make smart choices to fix that issue before it becomes a bigger problem. It is best to measure the condition your organization is in, quantify the data, and use the results to address any issues that arise.

2. Include a Variety of Questions

Typically, employee surveys have a lot of questions about job satisfaction, compensation, and performance evaluations. In more than 20 years of conducting employee surveys, Polco has found there are many characteristics of organizational culture that are equally important to measure. Survey questions for these characteristics could ask about development opportunities, the physical work environment, communication, and decision-making (just to name a few).

3. Use 21st-Century Skills

We have migrated from an industrial age to an information one, and local government organizations must change with the times. Today’s employees need 21st-century skills to be productive. These skills can be grouped by the four C’s: Collaboration, Critical thinking, Communication and Creativity. Employee surveys can indicate how well the organization is doing in these areas and where additional training is needed.

4. Consider Normed Questions

Normative (standardized, repeatable) questions unlock the power of benchmarking! Comparing data collected from employee surveys over time brings context to your results. Tracking changes over time allows you to measure the impact of your workplace programs and initiatives.  Also, comparing your results to industry norms allows you to identify what your organization should focus efforts on.

5. Ask Limited Background Questions

Whether you should ask background questions about age, ethnicity, gender, how long an employee has worked there, etc., depends on your intentions with the answers to those questions. The main reason for asking these types of questions is to compare and contextualize the results. For instance, if you want to know about the inclusivity of diversity initiatives, you may want to compare responses by male-to-female or minority-to-majority races. No matter the type of inquiry, don’t ask any questions you don’t need answers to. (If you are painting the kitchen green and absolutely no employee feedback will change this, don’t ask if you should paint the kitchen green on the survey.) 

6. Anonymity Is Key

People are cautious of surveys if they feel their responses may be traced back to them. If employees feel their jobs or reputations could be at risk, they may not be completely honest with their answers. For this reason, it is best to hire an external party to administer annual employee surveys so staff feel comfortable and confident in the anonymity of their answers. When launching the survey, it’s important to communicate to employees that all responses will remain anonymous, from collecting answers to the aggregate reporting of results.

7. Web Is Best for Employee Surveys

Web-based employee surveys are beneficial for several reasons: lower administration costs, timely data return, and guaranteed anonymity. Web surveys require email addresses, and with employee surveys, you likely already have that information.

8. Take the Bad With the Good

Negative perceptions of employee surveys often brew when management hides lower ratings or does nothing with the results. Instead, leadership should see lower ratings as opportunities to demonstrate transparency and focus on areas for improvement. Managers should also share high ratings to highlight where employees feel the organization excels and build on those strengths.

9. Use the Results

One of the worst things an organization can do with an employee survey is conduct it and do nothing with the results. This causes company morale and trust in management to suffer. Instead, use those results to make a plan and share that plan with employees. Better yet, bring staff into the planning process. Consider survey responses to identify a couple of areas to work on. Then organize sub-committees to hash out solutions throughout the year. This empowers employees to take ownership of their part in changing the organization.

10. Trends Exist in Local Government

According to The NES, 87% of local government employees are satisfied with their jobs. Polco has a vast database with this type of information spanning decades to which you can compare your organization’s results. Across all industries, areas like communication, decision-making and employee performance evaluations historically tend to trend low. However, overall job satisfaction and work group performance typically receive higher ratings. Understanding national trends can be helpful when planning for your own workplace.

The National Employee Survey can be a great first step for your organization. After receiving the results, we encourage you to work with your staff on solutions. You can discuss what surprises you, what intrigues you, and where you want to dig deeper. Including all staff in the discussion, you may create sub-committees to focus on areas such as AI usage, group decision-making, and more. This empowers your employees as leaders at every level and makes them stakeholders in building a better workplace.

Ready to engage your local government employees? Polco is happy to help!

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