While there are signs things are improving, the 2018 employee engagement survey at Greater Sudbury resulted in a 58 per cent engagement score among municipal staff.
That result is below the average benchmark among all municipalities taking part in the survey, a recent report to city council said.
The survey was taken during the second quarter of 2018, by TalentMap, a company with “expertise in organizational measurement and employee engagement.”
City staff take part in the survey anonymously, and the percentage of employees who took part increased from 53 per cent in 2016 to 59 per cent this year.
“This six percentage point increase is a significant, positive change that can likely be attributed to a number of factors, including an active team of survey champions across the organization as well as high levels of engagement from areas with previously low participation rates,” a staff report on the survey said.
The highest rate of response were workers in the CAO and mayor's office – 78 per cent of staff took part – while the lowest rate was in the community safety department. Of the 1,652 workers who took part, 179 didn't want to say where they worked or left the question blank.
“Engagement” is defined as the amount of emotional and intellectual connection workers have to their jobs. Employees who are more engaged are more likely to “apply additional discretionary effort” to their work, the report says. Which is a bureaucratic way of saying work really hard.
The survey focused on 13 areas – rational and emotional — that research has shown impacts employee engagement.
“For example, 'rational' factors reflect the employee’s perspective about how his/her skills, background values and career aspirations align with the workplace,” the report said.
“'Emotional' factors reflect the employee’s perspective about his/her commitment to the organization’s mission, coworkers and their overall well-being.
“Together, the combination of rational and emotional factors influence behaviour that, for engaged employees, translates to greater commitment and personal effort.”
The city's engagement score of 58 per cent is below average, but far from the worst, the report said.
“For context, the range of engagement scores in TalentMap’s municipal database is a low of 47 per cent and a high of 86 per cent,” the report said, with the median score at 72 per cent.
“However, TalentMap noted that 25 per cent of respondents (in Greater Sudbury) indicated a 'neutral' engagement score,” the report said. “This shows opportunities exist to further strengthen engagement and continue the positive change the corporation has been making.”
