Employee Surveys - Invaluable Feedback from Your Most Valuable Assets

Electric cooperatives routinely conduct member surveys to gain feedback about the quality of service they are receiving.  These surveys provide crucial input for strategic planning, new products and service offerings, as well as gaining knowledge of issues that are important to the member/owners.  While member surveys provide cooperatives with valuable insights into improving the quality of service for their customers, there is another key group of people who can provide significant feedback for improving service – cooperative employees.

While many cooperatives have employee meetings, annual reviews, and perhaps even a suggestion box for gathering employee input, employee surveys supplement these efforts and provide additional insight into issues that employees feel are important in helping them to better serve their members.  Electric cooperatives are also facing an aging work force and attrition is becoming an increasing concern for cooperative management.  The knowledge base and experience of these employees provides a wealth of information for identifying future skill sets and staffing needs.

EnerVision recently conducted an employee survey for Tri-County EMC in Gray, GA.  The surveys were mailed to each employee’s home and the results were compiled and analyzed by EnerVision.  “It was important for us to have an independent party conduct the survey for us”, said Hill Bentley, President and General Manager of Tri-County EMC.  “We wanted candid feedback and encouraged our employees to specifically address any concerns they had without fear of repercussion or retribution.  Our management team and Board of Directors wanted to better understand our employees' concerns and we specifically wanted feedback on how we could improve and better serve our members.”  Some employees may be reluctant to respond to internal surveys or provide candid feedback during annual performance reviews.  According to Hill, “We were very pleased with the response to our survey and have shared the results with our employees and board.  As a result of the survey, we have formed employee teams to address specific issues identified in the survey results.”  The survey has also allowed us to establish benchmarks for employee satisfaction and we plan to conduct future surveys to track our performance against those benchmarks.”

As a result of the survey, Tri-County EMC formed an Employee Advisory Team to address specific issues identified in the survey results.  According to Hill, “the employee team was elected by our employees and will remain in place for 12 months.  They will provide input for our strategic planning process, help us with employee-related issues, and will serve as an advisory committee for our management team.”   While the team won’t set policies, their input will be considered by our Board of Directors.”  Hill also offers the following advice: “Don’t do an employee survey just for the sake of doing a survey.  It’s very important for management to follow through on the survey suggestions and communicate action plans with employees.”

EnerVision has also completed several employee surveys for cooperatives with new General Managers.  According to Robert Duval, EnerVision Vice President, “In many cases, new Managers want to get the “pulse” of the employees and use that information to develop specific goals and objectives for employee development.  For example, employees may suggest that additional training is needed in specific areas and these can be incorporated into a personal development program.  We have also found that employee morale is improved when they feel that management is listening and values their input.”

For more information, please contact Robert Duval at (888) 999-8840, or e-mail him at robert.duval@enervision-inc.com.