GAI Consultants’ (GAI) President and CEO Gary DeJidas, PE joins us as a guest blogger to discuss GAI’s 2016 Employee Engagement Survey, including the process, results, and next steps.

All companies, including GAI, must strive to continuously improve if they expect to retain their quality staff. Because of this, I always want to know what GAI’s employee-owners have to say about how we are doing as a company. GAI has conducted employee opinion surveys since 2011 to hear their thoughts and better understand employee morale, satisfaction, and engagement.

Employee Engagement Survey—The Process and Format

In June of this year a third-party consulting firm conducted a confidential employee survey on behalf of GAI. Through email and a personalized link, the survey asked GAI employees for honest and candid feedback on a wide variety of topics, such as safety, job satisfaction, and communication. The survey asked 56 questions on a scale of one (strongly disagree) to four (strongly agree), and one question that solicited open-ended feedback: “What suggestions(s) would you make to help improve your ability to perform your job effectively or make the company a better place to work?” The questions were organized into 12 categories, including Communication, Compensation and Benefits, Cooperation and Team Work, Growth and Development, Health and Safety, Job Satisfaction, Leadership, Organizational Direction and Vision, Performance Feedback, Supervisor Quality, Work Environment, and Work/Life Balance.

Employee Engagement Survey—General Executive Report Findings

We had a 73% (554 respondents) completion rate—the highest response rate ever at GAI! According to our consulting firm, our overall scores and results were extremely positive when compared to other companies. Year to year, we’re showing improvements in nearly all categories. So what did we learn? What are we doing right? Where do we need to improve? Below are some general findings from the report.

Employee Engagement Survey Results—Most Favorable Areas

The most favorable responses were in the following four categories: Health and Safety, Supervisor Quality, Work Environment, and Leadership. The top four affirming responses were as follows:

• GAI promotes and emphasizes the importance of safety.
• GAI has a safe work environment.
• GAI supervisors operate in an ethical manner.
• GAI supervisors treat staff with trust, dignity, and respect.

Employee Engagement Survey Results—Main Focus Improvement Areas

GAI has some areas of opportunity, and we will work with employees for the remainder of 2016 and 2017 to make improvements. In fact, we’ve already implemented and/or discussed several initiatives to address some items:

• Review the reports in detail with GAI’s Senior Leadership.
• Provide summary presentations to staff.
• Facilitate focus groups.
• Finalize action items and strategies.
• Establish continuous value improvement teams to focus on aspects of the survey—identify opportunities for improvement, develop action plans, communicate actions, and champion implementation.

Employee Engagement Survey—Next Steps

Employee opinions matter, and they influence how our company operates going forward. Having said that, we used the employee survey responses in GAI’s strategic planning meetings last month to ensure that our vision for the company aligns with employee expectations; we will communicate GAI’s upcoming strategic plans to all employees later this year. I will also address companywide action items from the survey feedback at GAI’s biannual State of the Company meeting on October 26, 2016.

Thank you to all GAI employees who took the time to participate in the Employee Engagement Survey. Your opinions matter, and we appreciate your involvement and willingness to improve GAI for everyone. For questions or additional information on GAI’s Employee Engagement Survey, please contact GAI’s Human Resources Department. Visit the Careers section of GAI’s website for information on available job opportunities and company benefits.