Sask - Employee Survey

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Hay Group Insight

Saskatchewan Public Service2005 Employee Survey

Government-wide ResultsFebruary 2006

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Hay Group Insight

Table of Contents

I. Background & Response Rate

II. Overall Results

III. Total SPS Results by Question

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Hay Group Insight

The key reasons for conducting the employee opinion survey were to:

Identify key strengths and areas for improvement for the Saskatchewan public service and Departments.

Identify issues that are important to employees’ retention, development and contribution.

Benchmark employee opinion using an external comparison.

Provide an update to the 2003 baseline and measure change.

Survey Objectives

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Hay Group Insight

This is the second government-wide survey of broad employee opinion.

All employees were given the opportunity to participate in the survey in mid November to mid December 2005.

All employees were asked the same questions.

The survey was developed based on input from the PSC and Departments, the corporate human resource plan, and key elementsof Hay’s employee engagement model.

Of the 83 survey questions, 49 questions can be compared to the Hay benchmark and 34 questions are custom questions. 76 questions can be compared to the same questions asked in 2003.

This report provides a high level overview of Overall and Demographic results.

Background

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Hay Group Insight

The 83 survey questions were assigned to 18 different survey ‘factors’ or areas of study. 12 of the factors can be compared to other organizations (Normative Factors) and six are custom factors:

Normative Factors Custom FactorsLeadership/Values Leadership and Direction Strategic Goals Supervision Service/Quality Focus

Organizational Values and Behaviours Workplace Values

Workforce Diversity/Equity CommunicationQuality of Work Value of Work and ContributionPersonal Values Personal Values

Enabling Environment Enabling EnvironmentUnion-Management Relations

Future OpportunityPerformance Improvement and Feedback

Career Advancement Opportunities

Work/Life Balance Work/Life BalanceOverall Commitment Employee Satisfaction Reasons for Leaving

Attraction/Retention

Areas of Focus for the Survey

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Hay Group Insight# of Resp.

2005 2003

TOTAL SASKATCHEWAN PUBLIC SERVICE 49% 6812 7477

Department:Agriculture & Food 50% 546 656Community Resources & Employment 38% 949 1352Corrections & Public Safety 44% 926 819Culture, Youth & Recreation 89% 85 53Environment 36% 733 849Executive Council – Office of the DM to the Premier 71% 24 26Finance 56% 286 261First Nations & Metis Relations 40% 10 19Government Relations 73% 124 112Health 65% 463 398Highways & Transportation 41% 616 685Industry & Resources 57% 182 258Information Technology Office 80% 120 14Justice 70% 628 599Labour 57% 108 120Learning 61% 380 430Northern Affairs 78% 25 19Public Service Commission 80% 101 94Rural Development 81% 42 ---Saskatchewan Property Management 46% 415 427

% of Resp.2005

Response Rate

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Hay Group Insight

# of Resp.2005 2003

TOTAL SASKATCHEWAN PUBLIC SERVICE 49% 6812 7477

Job Category:Program Support/ Administrative 1489 1620Human Services 1063 1194Program Consultation/ Instruction 314 278Technical/ Scientific/ Inspection & Regulatory 1078 1030General Service & Operations/ Building & Shop Trades 507 567Finance & Revenue 324 272Professional (MCP 4 to MCP 8)* 479 637Managers MCP 4 to MCP 8) * 499 425Senior Managers (MCP 9 & above)* 262 311Other 659 698

Tenure:Less than 1 year 438 3381 – 2 years 400 5443 – 5 years 885 10736 – 9 years 949 79210 – 14 years 743 98115 – 20 years 1025 1048Over 20 years 2272 2347

% of Resp.2005

Response Rate

* NB: Not directly comparable due to class plan changes

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Hay Group Insight

Overall Results

The overall response rate of 49% is very close to the 53% in 2003 and provides an accurate reflection of employee opinion across the Saskatchewan Public Service and for individual Departments.

The Saskatchewan Public Service has remained very stable over the two years and is right on the Public Sector organizations in the Hay database, though it is 7% less favourable when compared to the overall Hay Databank of over 500 organizations.

There are signs of slow progress with 47% of the questions improving and 21% staying the same.

Key strengths include Work/Life Balance which is significantly more favourable than the Public Sector comparison and slightly above the overall norm; and Employee Satisfaction, which is above the Public Sector comparison. This indicates a strong overall level of commitment, despite specific areas of concern.

Areas for further focus include Leadership & Direction and Enabling Environment, which fall below both overall and Public Sector norms.

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Hay Group Insight

Overall Results (Continued)

Job Level ResultsIn comparison with respective peer group norms in the Hay database, overall results are slightly above the norm for Senior Managers and Managers (Both groups have improved). Program Support/Administrative, Professional are within a percentage point of what we would typically expect to find in other organizations.Several groups show significantly less favourable comparisons to their peer group norms; Human Services, Program Consultation/Instruction, and Technical/Scientific/Inspection & Regulatory.

Tenure ResultsSimilar to what we typically find in other organizations, newly tenured employees (particularly those with less than 1 year of tenure) show very high levels of satisfaction. This tends to decline with advancing tenure, as found in the Saskatchewan Public Service. This year we do see the expected increased satisfaction among the higher levels of tenure (e.g. more than 10 years).

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Hay Group Insight

Profile Charts

The overview section provides a graphical summary of the results in overview or “profile” charts.

It is highly recommended that the whole report be reviewed in order to understand what information is being communicated. This includes the profile charts, detail bar charts, and the written comments.

Norms and the Hay Databank: Throughout the survey you will find a term called a “norm”. The norm represents the percentage of employees who responded favourably in other organizations on the same questions in their surveys. These “normed” questions are compiled in Hay’s databank.

Here are some features of the HayGroup’s current databank: it is comprised of a cross-section of North American Organizations (public and private) who have responded to many of the same questions asked in our survey. The Hay Databank consists of 500 other organizations and the data is weighted towards the most recent year. Norms are also provided for different job groups, e.g., executives, managers, supervisors, etc.

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Hay Group Insight

Profile Charts (Continued)

How to Read the Profile Charts: On all profile charts the middle line (0 line) is the Hay Norm. Scores above the norm or 0 line indicate more favourable perceptions and scores below the norm line indicate less favourable perceptions.

As a general guideline, results 7% above or below the norm line are considered to be significantly different from other organizations. This means that any factors that are +7 and above are significantly better than other organizations and any factors that are -7 and below are significantly less favourable than other organizations.

On the vertical axis of the profile chart is a scale labeled “percent deviation”. This indicates how your organization’s results compare with the Hay Databank. Therefore, the deviation line shows the difference between Saskatchewan Public Service results and the Hay Databank results. It shows the difference between the percentage of employees who responded favourably and the average percentage favourable obtained in organizations elsewhere.

Remember that each factor is made up of individual survey questions and that the factor result is the average of these individual questions. Therefore the factor profile charts should be interpreted cautiously since there can be significant differences among questions within factors. The bar charts provide the necessary back-up detail to identify consistencies or inconsistencies within factors.

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Hay Group Insight

Factor Definitions

The following definitions indicate the questions included in each of the factors on the profile chart:Leadership and Direction -- Employee perceptions of the extent to which Departments are well-managed, have clear strategic goals and will act on issues identified by the survey (Q11, 61, 82, 83).Supervision -- Extent to which immediate managers help resolve job-related problems, deal fairly with employees, take action on problems or complaints and listen to what employees have to say (Q67, 70, 72, 74). Organizational Values and Behaviours -- Treating employees with respect, applying work rules fairly for all employees and being committed to a healthy and safe workplace (Q.50, 52, 54). Workforce Diversity/Equity -- Saskatchewan Public Service’s commitment to ensuring equal opportunities, understanding and appreciating differences among employees, treating employees fairly and the extent to which the workplace is free of sexual harassment (Q36, 37, 38, 40). Communication --The extent to which employees are kept informed, the quality of communications from higher in the Department and opportunities to communicate to levels higher within the Department (Q49, 63, 64).Value of Work and Contribution -- Employees’ chance of having ideas adopted, extent to which contributions are recognized, perceptions that work makes a difference, employee understanding of the relationship between their jobs and the Department’s goals and whether jobs make good use of skills and abilities (Q7, 10, 13, 14, 31).

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Hay Group Insight

Factor Definitions (Continued)

Enabling Environment -- Provision of training required to handle current jobs and resources to do a good job, adequacy of staffing and having a cooperative atmosphere (Q52, 59, 60, 62). Performance Improvement and Feedback -- Opportunities to learn new skills and develop talents, employee understanding of expected results, having necessary information, tolerance for poor employee performance, provision of regular feedback (Q.5, 28, 30, 34, 76). Career Advancement Opportunities -- Understanding of what is required for advancement, provision of training and experiences required for advancement and counseling in career development (Q32, 53, 78). Work/Life Balance -- Job-related and workgroup stress levels, sensitivity to work-personal life balance, flexibility of immediate managers in accommodating personal matters (Q26, 27, 65, 66). Employee Satisfaction -- Overall ratings of organization and Department as a place to work, employee pride, expected tenure and whether employees would recommend the organization as an employer (Q1, 2, 3, 17, 18, 79, 80). Attraction/Retention -- Ability of organization to attract and retain high quality staff (Q56, 57).

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Hay Group Insight

Total Saskatchewan Public Service 2005 2003

Per

cent

Dev

iatio

n

30

20

10

0

-10

-20

-30

Saskatchewan Public Service

Leadership & Direction

Supervision

Organizational Values & Behaviours

Performance Improvement & Feedback

Communication

Workforce Diversity/Equity

Work/Life Balance

Enabling Environment

Value of Work & Contribution


Employee Satisfaction

Attraction/ Retention

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Hay Group Insight

Total Saskatchewan Public Service Public Sector Norm

Per

cent

Dev

iatio

n

30

20

10

0

-10

-20

-30

Saskatchewan Public Service


Supervision



Communication


Work/Life Balance






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Hay Group Insight

Professional Managers Senior Managers Finance & Revenue

Per

cent

Dev

iatio

n

30

20

10

0

-10

-20

-30

Job Category


Supervision



Communication


Work/Life Balance






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Hay Group Insight

Prog. Support/Admin. Human ServicesProg. Consultation/Instruction Tech./Scientific/Inspection & Reg.General Srvc & Ops/Bldg. & Shop Trades

Per

cent

Dev

iatio

n

30

20

10

0

-10

-20

-30

Job Category


Supervision



Communication


Work/Life Balance






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Hay Group Insight

Less than 1 year 1 to 2 years 3 to 5 years 6 to 9 years

10 to 14 years 15 to 20 years Over 20 years

Per

cent

Dev

iatio

n

30

20

10

0

-10

-20

-30

Tenure


Supervision



Communication


Work/Life Balance






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Hay Group Insight

Up to 29 years of age 30 to 39 40 to 49 50 to 54 55 years of age & above

Per

cent

Dev

iatio

n

30

20

10

0

-10

-20

-30

Age Group


Supervision



Communication


Work/Life Balance






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Hay Group Insight

Aboriginal person Person with a disability Visible minority person Total SPS 2005

Per

cent

Dev

iatio

n

30

20

10

0

-10

-20

-30

Equity Group


Supervision



Communication


Work/Life Balance






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Hay Group Insight

The following charts summarizes the results for Questions 41-48 in the survey. Employees were asked to indicate each value.

Nearly 70% of employees feel values are clearly demonstrated in their organization. This is indicates a slight overall improvement.

Workplace Values

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Hay Group Insight

Workplace Values

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Hay Group Insight

The following charts summarizes the results for Question 9 in the survey. Employees were asked to indicate which 8 out of 18 items were important to them.

Employees were most likely to indicate the importance of:

• Being treated with respect and consideration• Their pay or salary• Working for a manager they respect• Having the opportunity to balance work & personal life• Employee benefits• A chance to get daily enjoyment from the job• A chance to do challenging and interesting work

All other items were chosen by less than half the employees.

Personal Values

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Hay Group Insight

6966 65

5755

52 5248 47

44 4442 42

32 31

25

17

7

70

6562

5356

51 5248

51

43 4442

44

3430

24

17

9

Total SPS 2005 Total SPS 2003

Per

cent

Circ

ling

100

80

60

40

20

0

Personal Values

Q.9: Of the items listed below, please select the eight that are most important to you.

A chance to get daily enjoyment from your job

A chance to do challenging &

interesting work

Having the opportunity to

balance work & personal life

A chance to learn new skills & develop your

talents

Your pay or salary

The opportunity to experience a

sense of personal accomplishment

Working with people you like

Having good physical working

conditionsOpportunity for advancement

The authority to make decisions about how to do

your job

Job security

Being treated with respect & consideration

Working for a manager you respect Your benefits

A chance to have your ideas adopted & put

into use

A chance to make a

difference in the province

The opportunity to work for a respected

organization

The opportunity to work in a diverse & representative

workplace

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Hay Group Insight

The following charts summarizes the results for Question 81 in the survey. Employees with possible intentions to leave within the next 2 years were asked to indicate which 3 out of 14 items were most likely to play a role in their decision to leave the Saskatchewan Public Service. (Only 9% indicated they would leave shortly).

Employees were most likely to indicate the following reasons:

• Finding a better career opportunity elsewhere• Personal reasons (e.g. education, transfer of spouse, etc.)• The management at the Saskatchewan Public Service• “Other” reasons• Base pay• The job itself• Obstacles to getting the job done

All other items were chosen by less than 20% of employees.

Reasons for Leaving

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Hay Group Insight

31 3025

22 21 21 2117 15 13 12

84

1

3134

23 22 20 20 18 18 17

1114

7 52

Total SPS 2005 Total SPS 2003

Per

cent

Circ

ling

100

80

60

40

20

0

Reasons for Leaving the Saskatchewan Public Service

Base pay

Obstacles to getting the work done

Job itself

Lack of confidence in the SPS’ future

directionBetter career opportunity

Lack of individual ability to impact results

Harassment on the job

BenefitsLack of recognition of my contribution

Lack of future job security

WorkloadPersonal

Management

Other

Q.81: If you think you might leave the Saskatchewan public service within the next year or two, indicate which one of these factors would probably be the most important in your decision to leave.

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Hay Group Insight

Question by Question Results

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Hay Group Insight

Strategic Goals

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Leadership and Direction

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Supervision

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Service/Quality Focus

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Workplace Values

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Organizational Values and Behaviours

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Communication

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Value of Work and Contribution

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Union-Management Relations

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Hay Group Insight

Performance Improvement and Feedback

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Work/Life Balance

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Attraction/Retention

Documents

Sask - Employee Survey