Using Employee Surveys to Improve Employee & Customer Satisfaction

Hugh E. Grunden,President & CEO,

Easton Utilities

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Overview

• Easton Utilities• Why use a survey • How to conduct the survey• Impact of using survey

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Easton Utilities

• Maryland’s first municipal utility (1914)

• Seven business units• 10,000+ customers• Primarily residential• Inflow of new customers

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Mission

 To enhance the quality of life in our community by providing reliable, competitively-priced utility and communications

services through skilled, safety-oriented and customer-focused

employees.

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Our Employees

• 128 active employees• 2 Customer Service teams• Diverse backgrounds• Members of the community• Low turnover

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Why we use employee surveys• Valuable employee input• Buy-in on change • Improve morale• Forecast weaknesses & threats• Improve effectiveness• Uniform satisfaction metric

The Only Way To Have Satisfied Customers is to Have Satisfied Employees

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Key Management Considerations

• Is management “on board?”• What are the objectives?• How will you share results?• How will you use the information

to improve?

The Employee Survey is a Tool, Not a Report Card

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Key Participant Considerations

• Opinions clearly heard• Appreciation for participation• Management commitment to

improvement

Conducting an employee survey creates employee expectations

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Challenges Easton Utilities Faced

• Confidentiality• Participation• Honesty & Accountability• Having a thick skin

It Takes Courage to Ask Questions that Might Prompt Unpleasant Answers

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Survey Process

• Confidential, mail-in by third-party • 45-day process

• Customize questions• Notify employees survey is coming• Issue 2 mailings 10 days apart• Compile & analyze results• Review results and take actions

• Other tools available (focus groups)

The Key to Every Employee Survey is Communicating Results to Participants

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Issues Identified by Surveys

• Management-staff communications• Cross-departmental communications• Supervisors disenfranchised• Personnel problem

Written Comments Create a Large Pool of Ideas to Improve and Streamline your Business

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Actions Taken as a Result of Survey

• Time in the Field Program• Quarterly Sweeps• Supervisors Lunch• EU Today (Intranet)• Improved computer access for

field staff• Equipment upgrades

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Impact on Employee Satisfaction

• Communications PI improved dramatically first year (+29 points for supervisors)

• Empowered & engaged employees • Sustained Satisfaction PI over 90%

every year

Engaged employees work with passion, feel a profound connection to their company, drive innovation and move the

organization forward

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Impact on Customer Satisfaction• Our Competitive Advantage is customer

satisfaction• Interaction with employees drives

customer satisfaction• Customers rated their satisfaction with:

CSRs 94 PIField Crews 98 PI

• Employees rated themselves 92 PI

Understanding the issues that stimulate or discourage employees, will help develop a high-quality customer satisfaction

culture

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Conclusion

Success Should Not Be Judged On Numerical Results, but Whether the Findings are a Catalyst for Improvement

• Employee Satisfaction is a work in progress

• Acting on employee input is key not just measuring results

• Satisfied employees satisfy customers

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Questions?

Hugh E. GrundenPresident & CEOEaston Utilities201 N. Washington St.Easton, Maryland21601(410) 822-6110hgrunden@eucmail.comwww.eastonutilities.com

Dale R. InkleyPresidentSDS Research420 East South Temple, Suite 390Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 (800) 595-8989www.sdsresearch.com