Steering group appointed to oversee development of upcoming employee survey
Development of a comprehensive survey of employee views of the work environment
is intensifying following the conclusion of the recent senior management
off-site and discussions with several focus groups to identify important
workforce issues.
A steering group has been named to develop the survey as well as a path
forward following the survey.
"We’ll be prioritizing the survey’s objectives and sub-objectives
over the next week or two," said Bob Kuckuck, chair of the Survey
Steering Group. Once that is completed, the group will hone those objectives
and help formulate the questions for the survey.
The survey will be given to employees during the spring, most likely in
the late April to late May time frame, said Kuckuck.
The survey is being developed by International Survey Research (ISR),
which conducted the Laboratory’s 1995 diversity survey. The present
plan is to offer the survey both on line and in paper form, and for it
to require less than 30 minutes to complete. The survey will collect data
that will permit trend analyses, benchmark comparisons with other laboratories
and companies, and clarification and prioritization of Lab-specific issues.
"We received a 68 percent return on the diversity survey," explained
Kuckuck. "ISR told us that was extraordinarily high, but for this
survey we would like 68 percent to be extraordinarily low. We would like
all employees to give us their opinions by responding to this survey."
To attract those higher numbers, Kuckuck said the steering group is spending
additional time to design the survey to address as many issues as practicable.
The Lab is also looking into developing supplemental question sets that
will be tailored to specific groups of respondents.
"It’s an intense task to integrate all of the varying objectives
and issues people would like to address with this survey, but we really
want to get it right," said Kuckuck. "This is a prime opportunity
to understand employee views of the work environment, with a goal of enhancing
the Lab’s desirability as a place of employment."
Already a diverse range of focus groups has been interviewed for input
into the survey’s content. These focus groups include employee networking
groups, administrative employees, newly hired scientists and engineers
(S&E), machinists/laborers, postdocs and S&E foreign nationals,
the Laboratory Administrative Committee, the Ombuds Council, technicians,
S&Es from discipline and program organizations, first-line supervisors,
as well as focus groups on ethnic and women’s diversity, safety and
security, and recruitment and retention issues. ADs and other senior managers
have been interviewed for input on survey content and process, and individual
employees have been asked to provide input via a special e-mail address.
Focus groups were designed to gather the widest spectrum of unconstrained
input for the survey. Further groups may be convened and employees are
still encouraged to provide input via e-mail (
workforce2001 [at] llnl.gov (
workforce2001[at]llnl[dot]gov
)
).
Such broad employee involvement is the directive of Lab Director Bruce
Tarter, who called for the survey to measure views from as many employees
as possible. He also asked that the survey attempt to identify employee
priority issues and solutions and, where possible, identify issues specific
to subsets of employeess — issues that may be amenable to localized
resolution.
Finally, Tarter charged that the entire survey must be designed to address
issues and responsive actions in a context consistent with achieving the
Lab’s missions.
"We need to maintain our highly skilled workforce as we prepare for
the future," Tarter said when announcing the survey in the Jan. 12
issue of Newsline. "I want to ensure the Lab is seen as a good place
to work, an ‘employer of choice.’ "
Additional information about the survey and survey process will appear
in upcoming issues of Newsline.