Employee Satisfaction

This past Friday I attended a division-wide meeting where we discussed issues of employee satisfaction. It reminded me of the AHRD program because there had been some tension in some offices and the division put together a team to figure out how to make some changes. The team put together a "pulse check" survey that they sent out to all of the employees within the division- they wanted to gather feedback on the current state of things so they could create a baseline. At the organizational level, this allowed for everyone to give anonymous feedback (increasing the likelihood of real, honest feedback) and contributed to why there was a 90% feedback response amongst the division. At the meeting on Friday, they asked for additional feedback but broke down 3 main categories that they found important from the original survey. They did these in groups which was great for brainstorming purposes, but difficult in other ways. For example, we got to spend some time talking about career development and what support/programs would help us feel like we had more options. Some of the newer staff members wanted to shadow more seasoned staff members, whereas some of the folks who had been around longer wanted more options to move up/receive promotions. The new staff want to see what the options are, while the older staff want to actually start making moves in their career. It was a really helpful session, but I think the most important part of it will be the follow-through from the feedback they received. I think there's a huge opportunity to make the staff feel like they can trust management if the suggestions are executed well.