Evidence shows that employees who are more engaged with their work have lower turnover rates, higher levels of performance, and overall higher individual wellbeing. Despite this, a 2016 report of Illinois state and local government employees revealed that only 26% felt engaged, 56% reported they were not engaged, and 19% were actively disengaged. The City of Chicago does not have a mechanism to measure city employee engagement, resulting in missed opportunities to easily identify areas of improvement as an institution, across departments, and in leadership and support for staff. To that end, an employee engagement survey can be a powerful tool to give city employees an anonymous and confidential forum to voice how they perceive their workplace culture and allow city leadership to strengthen critical organizational health and employee performance outcomes.
To implement an employee engagement survey for all 31,000+ City of Chicago (City) employees, leadership must first determine who owns its development, implementation, and analysis. The survey itself can be modeled in-house, with input from departmental leaders, or can be developed and implemented using third party expertise. City employees operate with varying degrees of digital access across departments and roles which will require the survey to be completed confidentially through multiple avenues. Considering risk of FOIA requests, questions should remain general and individually non-identifiable like “Does leadership create a positive work culture?” while still identifying department for area-specific analysis. Once ownership and the survey design are determined, leaders across the city’s departments must buy into the power of an anonymous survey and encourage, but not require, that every employee participates and provides authentic feedback.
From survey result analysis, City leadership must reflect and target key areas of strength and growth to operationalize strategy and inform the creation of supportive programs and resources or capitalize on best practices. Cities like Dallas and San Antonio have successfully implemented new employee initiatives and programs which resulted from targeted questions and metrics focused on culture, recognition and appreciation, training and development, and wellness. The City can employ similar strategies including leadership and mentoring opportunities, transparent and clear communication of all benefits and programs, and targeted professional development opportunities.
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