Dear fellow King County employee,

In March 2022, two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, 8,300 employees shared their experiences of working at King County in the 2022 Employee Engagement Survey.

Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback. As we work to create a truly welcoming, supportive, and respectful workplace, your responses in the survey are central to realizing this goal.

The last two years have been a period of unprecedented stress, uncertainty, and change. The pandemic has had a huge impact on so many aspects of our personal and professional lives. Organizations across the country are seeing measurable increases in employee burnout and stress and drops in engagement levels – something mirrored in our survey. Our results show that the employee engagement index has dropped five points to 65% in the last 12 months, and the engagement gap between on-site and remote workers has widened.

The results also show that employees are keen for more career development and advancement opportunities. Feelings of burnout are rising, but well-being and belonging – which took a dip in the last 12 months – are trending upwards, a sign that our focus on these two areas has been effective and must be continued.

While we’re not alone in experiencing the impacts of the pandemic, we are committed to addressing them through our action planning process. This year we will bring a focus to engagement and burnout, as well as career growth and development, while continuing our focus on well-being and belonging. I also see a more active role for leadership at all levels in sharing our vision and ensuring our work is aligned to it.

These are just the key takeaways from the survey. You can review all the countywide, department, and division results here on SharePoint. Again, thank you for sharing your honest feedback and please be assured that we will act on what you’ve said.

Sincerely,

Dow Constantine (he/him/his)
King County Executive