Best Practices: SOE TRS Newsletter

Material taken and modified from "Up Front" (June 1998) by Maria Tran. A newsletter for the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.

It's Survey Time Again
Results of the 1998 "Survey of Organizational Excellence"

In February, many of you (199, to be precise) completed a confidential survey on how TRS is doing as an employer. Here's what you said.

Employees say TRS is doing better - across the board. All 20 survey "constructs" (survey-ese for areas that make a difference in how well the agency works) improved since the last time the survey was conducted, in August and September of 1996. The 1998 survey indicates employees feel more satisfied in their jobs and report improved customer service. Seeing this level of improvement in ratings is unusual, and is particularly significant in an agency with as many employees as TRS.

We've still got a way to go. While the level of improvement in many factors is dramatic, some of the same factors are still ranked as "areas of concern." This means TRS is making progress, but employees say more is needed - especially in the areas of empowerment, achieving goals, and offering more competitive salaries.

Enough TRSers responded to give us an accurate picture. Although the response rate from TRS employees lagged the benchmark group (other state agencies of similar size), the number of respondents means the survey offers a realistic snapshot of employee perceptions. In addition, the TRS response rate is about 3% higher than it was during the last survey, which indicates many employees are committed to improving the organization.

This joint is hopping. Forty-five percept of employees responding to the survey reported an increased level of stress. This is a trend among all state agencies, but appears worse at TRS. At the same time, the length of service among responding employees has decreased since 1996. Among those who answered the survey:

Seems as if we're all trying hard to keep up with the workload, while coping with a lot of staff transitions.

Positive change in some areas is phenomenal. Certain survey questions' ratings improved substantially, which is unusual in such a short period of time. The questions with the most change are shown below.

Questions with the Biggest Change in Rating Since 1996
	1996-97 Avg. Score	1998-99 Avg. Score
Alternative work schedules (flex time, compressed work weeks, job sharing) are offered to employees.	2.59	3.83
We work well with our governing bodies (the legislature, the board, etc.).	3.03	3.75
Our goals are consistently met or exceeded.	2.86	3.49
There is a basic trust between employees and management.	2.12	2.70
Training is made available in personal growth and development.	3.42	3.95
Employees feel that their efforts count.	2.57	3.09
Every employee is valued.	2.53	3.03

1.0 - 1.9	2.0 - 2.9	3.0 - 3.9	4.0 - 5.0
Big Trouble	We Can Do Better	Way To Go	Start Bragging

Employees say there's a lot to like about working at TRS. Here are the “areas of strength” (survey-ese for “what thrills us”) identified by UT's Survey Coordinator, Shannon Gilliland, in her summary of 1998 results.

AKA, Customer Service Orientation. Employees say there's widespread agreement about who our customers are, which is a critical strength for us as an organization. These responses indicate TRS consistently applies its resources where they belong - and that employees have a strong understanding of our mission.

AKA, Immediate Work Group. The people we work with closely day-to-day are one of the best things about being here, employees say. High levels of trust, integrity, and performance are reported to be a fundamental part of work teams at TRS. Open communication and a real sense of community exist at the work team level.

AKA, Resources/Physical Accommodations. TRSers say they have the sources they need to do their jobs, including computer resources. And we really like our work space - better than the staff of any other agency with more than 100 employees.

Sample Survey Question: “Employees feel they work in pleasant surroundings.” tree.gif (3347 bytes)

AKA, Benefits. Apparently, to know them is to love them. TRS employees report an excellent understanding of their benefits, and a high level of satisfaction with them.

Sample Survey Question: “Benefits are comparable to those offered in other jobs.”

AKA, Opportunities for Training & Development. Employees say TRS offers them the chance to develop their skills both professionally and personally. In fact, for state agencies employing more than 50 people, TRS had the highest average score on the question shown below. gym.gif (3785 bytes)

Sample Survey Question: “Training is made available to employees so they can do their job better.”

AKA, Understanding of Internal & External Influences. Employees have a good grasp of the “big picture” issues that affect TRS. These issues include a clear understanding of how work in different departments and divisions fits together to fulfill our mission, the sense that TRS draws on people from different areas to solve problems, and employee involvement in planning. Employees feel TRS does a good job of keeping them informed of broad issues, including local, state, and national developments of importance to the agency.

Sample Survey Question: “We routinely use different people from different parts of the organization to solve problems.”

AKA, Alternative Work Schedules. The availability of alternative work schedules, such as compressed work weeks or flex-time, is an area of significant change since the last survey. (TRS's Agency Work Hours policy was revised in early 1997 to include more alternative schedules at the discretion of department managers.) Nearly 73% of employees say alternative schedules are available to them.

AKA, Reward & Recognition Practices. Most state-supported organizations (survey-ese for “agencies”) struggle to adequately reward and recognize their employees. While TRS is no exception, it seems we're doing a better job of this than our peers. Employees generally feel that, at TRS, raises and promotions are based on performance.

Survey Question: “Raises and promotions are designed to ensure workers are rewarded solely for their performance.”

AKA, Integrity. Employees say people at TRS are guided by a strong sense of integrity, and they are confident ethical issues that arise will be handled properly. Honesty - both at the personal level and as an organization - is a fundamental part of the TRS culture.

AKA, Empowerment. Employees say things are improving in terms of their having some control over their work and the results they get. But better than bad still ain't good. Even though the '96 rating for the bureaucracy question (shown below) was only 2.19, employees see bureaucracy at TRS as getting worse. Shannon Gilliland says this year's results suggest agency activities are “formalized” (meaning lots of rules and regulations), so employees may not feel they have the authority to do what it takes to get their jobs done efficiently.

Sample Survey Question: “Assess the level of bureaucracy in this organization.”

AKA, Goal Achievement and Effectiveness. TRS staff express tremendous concern about achieving goals, from the work group level up to the organizational level. This commitment to getting it done is one of our greatest strengths and it also has a “mirror image.” When goals aren't met, people around here really worry. The agency has many objective goals that are set very high, but employees believe efficiency and productivity at TRS could be improved on.

AKA, Perceptions of External Relations. Most employees report they are proud to be associated with TRS. Still, many are concerned that the general public and other stakeholders have a poor perception of the agency. Shannon Gilliland notes that employees' strong identification with members and their concern about whether TRS meets members' needs may have an impact on these ratings. At the same time, there appears to be a disconnect between TRSers' desire to serve customers and their ability to live up to the service standards they think are important.

AKA, Burnout. Nearly half the people who filled out the survey said their level of stress and burnout is getting worse. TRS is a fast-paced work environment, and employees say they spend much of their time putting out fires. The fast pace and lack of empowerment to accomplish things may be contributing to burnout at TRS.

Sample Survey Question: “Assess the level of stress and burnout that is experienced in this organization.”

AKA, Salaries. Guess what? Very few people around here think they make enough money. Lack of competitive salaries is an issue for all state employees, including those of us at TRS. The agency is also concerned about offering competitive salaries in order to retain employees with the expertise required for many essential jobs.

Survey Question: “Salaries are competitive with similar jobs in the community.”

AKA, Internal Communication. “It's getting better all the time,” but still has room for improvement, particularly in a couple of areas. One is supervisory feedback on performance. Employees also say that while information-sharing is open and candid at TRS, it isn't always as timely as they'd like.

On the plus side, employees' average rating for the question, “The right information gets to the right people at the right time,” increased to 2.78 this year, up from 2.55 in '96. And the '96 score on the question shown below was only 2.75 - so we're definitely making some progress. Still, the bottom-line message is, employees want supervisors to talk with them more about their work performance. And everybody wants news to get passed along sooner.

Sample Survey Question: “Employees are given accurate feedback about their performance.”

AKA, Turnover. In the demographics section of the survey, employees are asked whether they plan to be working for TRS in two years. This time, 19% said “no.” That rating is down from 21% in 1996, but is much higher than the statewide average of 12%. Either employees are concerned their jobs won't be here in two years, or they'd rather be somewhere else by then. Ouch!

The big question is, what are we going to do to keep what's great about TRS and make the not-so-great things better? And the emphasis is on “we.” Last time TRS passed along survey results, employees were asked to make suggestions about how to strengthen the organization -both from a management perspective and as individuals. A number of the suggestions you offered have since been put in place. We'd like to think that's one reason so many of the marks on this report card went up.

Now it's time to tell us - and one another - what more can be done to make TRS a better provider of retirement benefits and a better place to work. Options for making suggestions include:

· Work group sessions to discuss survey results and consider changes (see the next section for details).

· Written feedback to the TRS Survey Coordinator, Kathy Brandner (use e-mail or inter- department mail to submit suggestions).

Now that TRS has participated twice in the survey and has two cycles of information, departments may want to look at the results specifically for their area. This will allow the work group to identify things that are going well and things that need attention.

Survey information has been collected according to the following TRS work areas (some areas had to be combined to provide a valid sample size and protect employee confidentiality):

· Benefit Services (includes Administration, Group Health Benefits, and Member Data Services)

· Financial (includes Administration, Controller, Accounting & Control, Benefit Accounting, and Investment Accounting)

· Executive (includes Administration, Governmental Relations, Human Resources, Information Services, Internal Audit, and Legal Services)

Schedule permitting, UT survey coordinator Shannon Gilliland is willing to facilitate discussion and answer questions about survey results for TRS work groups. Managers, you can contact Kathy Brandner to request Shannon's participation in one of your staff meetings. (If Shannon is unavailable, you can arrange to have one of the Human Resources staff who has worked on the survey project help with the meeting.) Employees, let your manager know if you're interested in hearing more about the survey.

Look for an update on survey activity in a future issue of the Chalkboard. Meanwhile, pass along your suggestions. TRS is committed to administering a retirement system that is outstanding in every way. To do that, this agency needs to be the kind of place where people can't wait to come to work - now, two years from now, and twenty years from now.

'98 Survey Timeline
Surveys distributed to TRS employees	February

	March
March 13th: Deadline to return surveys
UT compiled data	April

Raw data to TRS on April 23rd	May
UT analyzed data
UT's key findings to TRS on June 3rd	June
Key findings presented to EC on June 15th
UpFront written and printed
June 30th: A.M.- Findings to Management team P.M. - UpFront distributed to all employees