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Employee survey responses will lead to positive
change as ITD moves forward

71 percent of employees participated in survey

ITD employees
Outstanding! That is the best way to describe the response of ITD’s employees to the Organizational Benchmarking Survey conducted earlier this year. “The superb response of employees in sharing their insights, observations, and areas of opportunity for improvement will pay huge dividends” said Director Pam Lowe in her remarks to the department’s administrators.

There were 1,354 of you who responded to the survey, which is 71 percent of all employees. This high level of participation is something to be proud of, and it also gives us confidence that the full spectrum of your opinions, issues, and ideas were voiced. The timing could not have been better.

The insights you shared were being compiled and analyzed by the consultant while results of the work of the American Society of Civil Engineers were being made available to the Legislature. These parallel efforts had mutually beneficial value in gaining insight into opportunities for efficiency and improvements.

At the end of this letter, you will find a link to the survey summary table of responses which was compiled by TJ Brown of Oasis Consulting.

It is clear from the survey results that employees have a desire to be part of the solution and want to engage in dialogue with ITD’s leadership to continuously improve service delivery and quality products.

So now what?

It is time to put action plans in place to achieve results from the survey findings. It takes everyone at ITD to make the changes that will make a difference in the workplace. We all play a valuable and important role in this effort.

To keep the momentum going, the following actions will take place.

First – Workshops will be conducted with supervisors May 26 - 28. These will be geared toward helping participants to reflect on their current supervisory behaviors and to help outline things that they can do individually to take communication and leadership performance to a higher level.

Second - Senior leadership will have discussions with the next level manager to implement any action plans that came out of the survey workshops. The next level of management will meet with their supervisors to create action plans as well. These plans will ensure that the feedback they received results in increasing their supervisory skills long term.

The desired behaviors of leaders that were identified from the survey responses will be added as criteria in the performance evaluation system which is currently being re-designed. Additionally, ITD’s newly published organizational values will be incorporated into the new performance evaluation forms as part of the system re-design.

In order to assure we are hiring the right person for the right job, selection Interviews for supervisory and management positions will focus on selecting for skills and experiences that are the best predictors of future positive performance. The Human Resource Services staff will assist with creating questions that can best identify this skill set. HR currently offers selection services to supervisors.

Third – Training sessions will be provided to help supervisors gain more skills in leadership. A Leadership series of courses will be developed which will incorporate the best management practices that result in a positive work environment. ITD currently offers Introduction to Supervision, Essentials of Management, Hiring the Right Person, Performance Management, Situational Leadership, and two levels of communication courses. Anyone who is a supervisor or manager will be required to take these courses and to take supervisory refresher courses. Those who wish to promote into a supervisory or management role will be required to have communication, supervision and management courses.

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Unit will publish a 12-month calendar of training offerings. These trainings can be held in district offices as well.

Fourth – Department strategic goals will be outlined this year. The department-wide goals will filter into the various work sections and more specific support and performance goals and objectives will be developed and implemented in greater detail within division, sections, districts, and crews

Fifth – An Employee Reward and Recognition team, which is a sub-team of the Investing in Our People Team, has already begun meeting. This team is charged with providing a proposal for a department-wide reward and recognition program for ITD.

Sixth – Director Lowe and Deputy Stokes will continue to visit annually statewide with sections and districts to continue to engage all employees. The leadership team will explore options to reach out to employees through use of technology and other means as identified and feasible.

The above actions are a lot to accomplish but we are committed to doing so. On behalf of the leadership team, I extend our appreciation to all of you who contributed your thoughts to the survey questions. As the senior leadership team we will continue to look for ways to enhance the environment and improve our leaders. The biggest step forward, however; is that each of us in our respective roles offer up ways in which we can all make a difference each and every day.

Again, thank you for your participation.
See summary of survey responses