On Monday, Sept. 26, the 2016 King County Employee Survey will launch, giving the County an opportunity to hear from employees about how we can better serve our customers and make King County a better place to work.

In 2015, more than 7,500 employees participated in the employee survey. Since then, more than 230 action plans have been created to address the issues you raised and the major themes that emerged:

1. Growth and development

• Launched an Employee Resource Center to provide resources like resume building, mock interviews and training plans to meet your goals
• Advertised all Special Duty Opportunities wherever possible
• Revamped the Bridge Fellowship Program
• Developed a new Mentoring Program to launch at the end of 2016.

2. Senior leadership visibility

• Executive Constantine has begun regular visits to employees in their worksites and department all-hands meetings
• The Executive has used video to expand his communications with employees
• More than 30 department and division leaders have made increasing their visibility the focus of their action plan.

3. On the job

• Almost 40 action plans addressed work-life balance, respect and workplace safety
• Multiple departments worked to improve communications channels and understanding of division and department priorities
• A new lunch and learn series on workplace safety is launching in the Fall of 2016.

The online survey will open on Monday, Sept. 26, running until Friday, Oct. 21, and paper surveys will be available from Monday, Sept. 19, and also close on October 21. Survey responses are confidential and results are anonymous.

Tell us how we can make King County better for you. We’re listening. Find out more at www.kingcounty.gov/employeesurvey.

View the video below about what’s happened since last year and what you can expect this year.

Top ideas from the 9/15 training:

• Discuss w/team the goals of the survey and its ability to create change incrementally.
• Schedule a time for work group to take the survey. Serve food and beverages
  • Paper survey – work site meeting time.
  • Online – outlook calendar meeting.
• Be clear about using work time.

These were not the top scoring ideas from the training, but interesting enough to share:

• Explain to the employee how important the survey is, share results from last year and the timeline of how involved the county is in gathering this data.
• Set up kiosks/work stations in places where employees aren’t always on computers to allow electronic option.
• Free puppy/kittens for each completed survey.
• Personal testimony from the division leader on what he/she has changed as a results of last year’s survey.
• Mobile survey bus with laptops and treats.
• Medals for units with most participation – gold, silver, bronze.

Here are some  ideas for engagement from the 9/8 training:

1. Give staff lunch on me (supervisor) if work group has 100% participation
2. Raffle Prizes
3. Incentivize them with a special raffle prize every week for those who have completed the survey. The earlier you do it, the more chances you have to win.

Engaging employees to address team needs often results in more meaningful solutions.

It’s important for employees to have a strong work-life balance. Doing so can reduce stress and significantly decrease other health risks in a person’s life. It also allows employees to get more satisfaction out of doing their job, making the work more meaningful and effective.

With this in mind, one section in the Department of Executive Services decided to use the results from the 2015 Employee Survey as a turning point to tackle an ongoing issue –  telecommuting. Carmel Call, the Director of the Business Resource Center (BRC), explains that the topic had previously come up multiple times, but had not been addressed in a thorough, more direct manner.

“We had ad-hoc telecommuting in place, but the feedback we received was staff felt nervous about asking for it,” she said. “There was apprehension and tension around the subject.”

After a series of briefing sessions with the full BRC team, staff decided to make telecommuting a reality. Using the resources available to supervisors and managers, an advisory team was organized that would devise an action plan to suit everyone. Building in check points throughout the plan allowed the advisory team to take items back to their teams for feedback and input. Eventually, this became a three month pilot to test policies and procedures developed for telecommuting.

“To make it successful we encouraged communication and inclusion,” said Carmel. “All employees were engaged in providing feedback.”

“We called it our Fair and Equitable Telecommuting Pilot.”

With the title featuring the terms “fair and equitable,” staff felt more confident this pilot would be successful, and would take into account different work styles and situations. Throughout the three months, Carmel and her team noticed work quality and productivity did not suffer or lag. Staff continued to be just as effective as before, the only change being their work site.

“People were more conscious of each other and communicated better,” said Carmel. “All that’s changed is their work location.”

Carmel adds that the real issue had been building trust and understanding of every employee’s situation.

“Trusting staff to do the right thing is really appreciated,” she said. “We’re trusting staff to get the work done, and as highly professional, mature adults with IT expertise, they are.”

The pilot has been a huge success. After the three month test period, from May to July, it is now in full effect. Carmel and her team have worked through the challenges and look forward to how this new work-life balance opportunity will benefit staff. The team also continues to improve the process, building their own tips and tricks to optimize use of communications technology and access.

“We wanted to include staff in designing the solution to make it work and to achieve a fair and equitable adoption and sharing of telecommute days,” she said. “We picked this as our one thing since it received the highest number of votes that we heard staff wanted to work on.”

“By prioritizing our objectives and agreeing as a group on terms for this pilot project, we were able to get good results. Work-life balance is huge, and now each member of our team has a day that they can work from home.”