THE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Transcription

1 RRIVLS THE EMPLOYEE ENGGEMENT SURVEY 2014/15 MNGER S GUIDE THE EMPLOYEE ENGGEMENT SURVEY FREQUENTLY SKED QUESTIONS 2015

2 DER COLLEGUE We are an institution that has been providing degree level opportunities in North Staffordshire for one hundred years. We have always been committed to the power of education to transform lives and communities. We have always been delivering programmes that support people in their ambitions and that are relevant to the local and national economy. In doing this, people have always been and will always be our most important asset. Owing to the difficulties in student recruitment, we have some real challenges ahead of us. To manage our way successfully through this difficult period, we need to remain focused on our strengths, which is to deliver excellent programmes that are modern in their approach, relevant in their content and vocationally inspired in that they provide the right opportunities for students to enter business and the professions and that they meet the needs of employers. We are the people who will make our future secure, whilst being smaller than we have been in the most recent past. I took the decision that we should have an Employee Engagement Survey undertaken regularly. The importance of this survey is, first, to ensure that we listen to our colleagues and the views and opinions that they hold. We need to work together coherently to deliver on our mission. Secondly, our ability constructively to listen to the experience of working at this university, to consider feedback from our colleagues and to focus our efforts on building on the positive things that we do and improving those things where there are negative views, are crucially important to our future. The engagement survey provides key information to assist us with improving our performance. It has already done so as we always take action across the university on the basis of the information that the survey provides us. It is really important that we capture as much feedback as possible. I encourage everyone to participate. This year s survey will run from 13 October to 31 October It will again be administered by Best Companies. In: 1. informing your staff about the survey, and encouraging completion to ensure that we maximise our response rates. We would like to see the total number of members of staff completing the survey go up this year across the University. 2. making a commitment that feedback will be listened to and acted upon. We introduced the concept of pledges (action plans) and some really good actions were developed and good progress made in implementing them. It is really important for us to build on this and continue. Managers are central to reviewing their own Faculty/Service data to assess their progress against last year s result, see what is going well/not so well and develop new pledges (actions) which can be subject to review by everyone. This guide has been developed to provide you with information about the survey so that as a manager you can brief your staff. Please use the information which is attached so that you can play your part in the engagement survey for This year for the first time, some parts of the University are piloting the use of the Best Companies MC3 tool, which has recently been introduced. The development tool is designed for managers to reflect on what they are giving back to their teams, engage quality conversations and to help focus managers on the areas that they can work towards, designed to increase levels of engagement. It is intended to pilot the tool this year and, if beneficial, to roll-out to all managers with next year s In addition to this information, we ve publicised the survey this year, with a dedicated web-page and frequently asked questions guide which can be found at : support_depts/personnel. This site will also publicise the University and Faculty/Service results for 2015 when they are announced together with details of your pledges. Professor Michael Gunn Vice-Chancellor s a manager, you are a part of the leadership team vital to our future. I thank you for all that you have done so far and intend to do in the future. You play a really important role in the employee engagement survey in the following ways. THE EMPLOYEE ENGGEMENT SURVEY FREQUENTLY SKED QUESTIONS 2015

3 STEP BY STEP MNGERS GUIDE Here s a quick step by step guide to help you maximise the completion rates in the Engagement Survey STEP 01 STEP 02 STEP 03 STEP 04 UNDERSTND THE FCTS s a manager or supervisor, you have a key role to play in ensuring that the engagement survey 2015 is a success. You can inform and encourage your staff to complete the This leaflet gives you most of the basic information you ll need about the Our wesbite contains more information and FQs at: ac.uk/support_depts/ personnel KEEP YOUR STFF INFORMED Before the survey starts on 13 October 2014, begin to let your staff know about the survey and the importance you are placing on it. Make sure that you give the message that you re taking the survey seriously this is an important opportunity for the leaders of the University to know what staff feel about working here and to work together to improve their experience. Here are some ways you can tell staff about the survey: Talk about it in team meetings Mention it in any regular s/ newsletters you send to staff If you have a team brief, use them to encourage staff to complete the ENBLE YOUR STFF TO COMPLETE THE SURVEY The survey should take around 20 minutes to complete. If you feel that finding time to do this is going to be a particular issue for your staff, here are some ways you can help them: You could finish a team meeting 15 minutes earlier, and ask staff to use this time to complete the If you have a lot of staff who will be completing a paper survey, build 15 minutes into your team brief or team meeting so that they can fill it in then. COMPLETION RTES Once the survey is live you should still use every opportunity to remind staff to take part. In addition, Best Companies will those staff who haven t completed the Best Companies will also provide updates on completion rates on a weekly basis whilst the survey is live. These will be in the form of percentages of staff which have completed the survey and it will be impossible to identify any individual who has/ hasn t completed the This means that completion rates will be available for each Faculty and Service of the University shown as a percentage of staff who have completed the This information will help to identify parts of the University where completion rates are high and low. The VC s blog, all staff , and desktop images will be used to let staff know about the THE EMPLOYEE ENGGEMENT SURVEY FREQUENTLY SKED QUESTIONS 2015

4 Q When will the survey take place? The survey runs from 13 October 2014 to 31 October 2014 Q Who can complete it? ll members of staff will be invited to take part. These are full-time and part-time members of staff who make up the majority of our workforce. Members of staff who joined on or after 1 ugust 2014 will not be included. Q Who is running the survey? The survey is being administered for us by Best Companies. n independent and automotive research company that specialises in workplace engagement. Further details can be found at: Q What are the questions about? The Survey asks a range of questions that are designed to measure the following eight main factors that are known to drive employee engagement: Leadership My Company Personal Growth My Manager My Team Giving Something back Fair Deal Wellbeing Best Companies provide and publish the Best Companies to Work For list to measure and acknowledge Excellence in Workplace Engagement. Each year, hundreds of organisations from a wide range of industries use the Best Companies Survey to measure the engagement levels of their employees. The responses to the survey are collated and analysed to produce an overall score for each organisation. The organisations with the highest levels of engagement qualify for the 100 best Companies List which is published in the Sunday Times. Q Can anyone be identified from the answers? No. No-one here at the University will be able to identify an individual or their responses. They are submitted direct to Best Companies. Results will be provided in groups larger than six individuals to ensure anonymity. Q What will happen on 13 October 2014? On 13 October members of staff with access to a PC/Mac will receive an from Best Companies (not the University) inviting them to complete the Best Companies questionnaire. The address it will come from is: [email protected] Q How long will it take to complete? The survey will take around 20 minutes to complete. Q What if my staff don t use a computer at work? There will be a paper version of the survey for staff who do not use a computer, or have difficulty accessing the online Ensure that you have enough copies, and give staff enough time to complete the survey during their working day. Q Will I be able to see the results? Yes. set of the results, both at University and Faculty/Service level, will be available to all staff early in the New Year, once Executive and the Senior Leadership Team has considered the data. Results will also be available to leaders on a more local level. The results will be published in a similar format to last year with the publication of a Results style newsletter which will detail University and local level pledges. Q What role do I, as a manager, have in reviewing the results and contributing to the development of the pledges (action plans)? s a manager you have an important role to play in your commitment to listen to and act on the feedback received. The survey is an important and integral tool to improving performance and the way we do things across the University. Managers should communicate the results, contributing to the development of the action plans and actively participating in ensuring that they are achieved. THE EMPLOYEE ENGGEMENT SURVEY FREQUENTLY SKED QUESTIONS 2015

5 KEY MESSGES T GLNCE The engagement survey starts on 13 October 2014 Staff who joined the University on, or after, 1 ugust 2014 are not included The survey is being administered by Best Companies. ny information provided by members of staff in completing the survey will be confidential and anonymous. NY QUESTIONS? If you have any questions or concerns about the engagement survey between now and the launch date of Monday 13 October [email protected]. If you or your staff have any queries about completing the online or paper survey between 13 October and 31 October 2014 contact either Paula Cottrell or Wendy Fenton in Personnel Services. Staff with PC access will receive an with a link to the survey so that they can complete it online. Members of staff who do not use a computer and those who find it difficult to access the online survey will be given a paper copy. If this applies to members of your team you should ensure that you have sufficient copies for all members of staff. The survey will take around 20 minutes to complete. The results will be made available on a University and Faculty/Service-wide basis and at a local level. series of pledges will be developed by Executive and each Dean and Director in relation to their own Faculty and Service. This year for the first time we are piloting the Best Companies MC3 tool, which is designed as a development tool for managers. Following evaluation, it is intended to roll out access to all managers with next year s THE EMPLOYEE ENGGEMENT SURVEY FREQUENTLY SKED QUESTIONS 2015 M