Using Employee Surveys to Improve Employee & Customer Satisfaction
Hugh E. Grunden,President & CEO,
Easton Utilities
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Overview
• Easton Utilities• Why use a survey • How to conduct the survey• Impact of using survey
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Easton Utilities
• Maryland’s first municipal utility (1914)
• Seven business units• 10,000+ customers• Primarily residential• Inflow of new customers
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Mission
To enhance the quality of life in our community by providing reliable, competitively-priced utility and communications
services through skilled, safety-oriented and customer-focused
employees.
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Our Employees
• 128 active employees• 2 Customer Service teams• Diverse backgrounds• Members of the community• Low turnover
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Why we use employee surveys• Valuable employee input• Buy-in on change • Improve morale• Forecast weaknesses & threats• Improve effectiveness• Uniform satisfaction metric
The Only Way To Have Satisfied Customers is to Have Satisfied Employees
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Key Management Considerations
• Is management “on board?”• What are the objectives?• How will you share results?• How will you use the information
to improve?
The Employee Survey is a Tool, Not a Report Card
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Key Participant Considerations
• Opinions clearly heard• Appreciation for participation• Management commitment to
improvement
Conducting an employee survey creates employee expectations
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Challenges Easton Utilities Faced
• Confidentiality• Participation• Honesty & Accountability• Having a thick skin
It Takes Courage to Ask Questions that Might Prompt Unpleasant Answers
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Survey Process
• Confidential, mail-in by third-party • 45-day process
• Customize questions• Notify employees survey is coming• Issue 2 mailings 10 days apart• Compile & analyze results• Review results and take actions
• Other tools available (focus groups)
The Key to Every Employee Survey is Communicating Results to Participants
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Issues Identified by Surveys
• Management-staff communications• Cross-departmental communications• Supervisors disenfranchised• Personnel problem
Written Comments Create a Large Pool of Ideas to Improve and Streamline your Business
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Actions Taken as a Result of Survey
• Time in the Field Program• Quarterly Sweeps• Supervisors Lunch• EU Today (Intranet)• Improved computer access for
field staff• Equipment upgrades
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Impact on Employee Satisfaction
• Communications PI improved dramatically first year (+29 points for supervisors)
• Empowered & engaged employees • Sustained Satisfaction PI over 90%
every year
Engaged employees work with passion, feel a profound connection to their company, drive innovation and move the
organization forward
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Impact on Customer Satisfaction• Our Competitive Advantage is customer
satisfaction• Interaction with employees drives
customer satisfaction• Customers rated their satisfaction with:
CSRs 94 PIField Crews 98 PI
• Employees rated themselves 92 PI
Understanding the issues that stimulate or discourage employees, will help develop a high-quality customer satisfaction
culture
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Conclusion
Success Should Not Be Judged On Numerical Results, but Whether the Findings are a Catalyst for Improvement
• Employee Satisfaction is a work in progress
• Acting on employee input is key not just measuring results
• Satisfied employees satisfy customers
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Questions?
Hugh E. GrundenPresident & CEOEaston Utilities201 N. Washington St.Easton, Maryland21601(410) [email protected]
Dale R. InkleyPresidentSDS Research420 East South Temple, Suite 390Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 (800) 595-8989www.sdsresearch.com