Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Department of Administrative Services

TO:	Mike Wildgen, City Manager
FROM:	Frank S. Reeb, Administrative Services Director/City Clerk
CC:	Employee Survey Committee (Debbie Van Saun and Jonathan Douglass, City Manager’s Office; Lori Carnahan and Heidi Nelson, Administrative Services, Personnel; Tammy Bennett, Public Works; Kathy Elkins, Fire/Medical; Kim Brice, Darren Othick, Police) Dave Corliss, Assistant City Manager/Director of Legal Services
Date:	December 15, 2005
RE:	2005 Employee Survey Final Report

In late October and November of this year, the Employee Survey Committee and ETC Institute administered the 2005 Employee Survey.  Approximately 84% of the full time employees (638 of 760 full time employees) completed the survey.  The City-wide results are contained in the accompanying Summary Report.  The Summary Report contains an Executive Summary, Charts and Graphs on overall City-wide results for most questions on the survey, including trend data comparing 2002 and 2005 survey information.  A copy of the survey document is also attached.  In addition, we have included a Gap Analysis (which helps to identify specific factors that may influence employee attitudes about their employment) and a separate Appendix for the overall survey results.

The Executive Summary contains specific information on areas we have made significant improvements in and significant declines in compared to the 2002 survey results.  In addition, the Executive Summary contains an Importance-Agreement Assessment Matrix which highlights, among other things, “Continued Emphasis” and “Opportunities for Improvement” Areas to help us to prioritize and define our future efforts to address the issues identified in the survey results. 

While the Summary Report and related documents represent a great deal of work on the part of the Employee Survey Committee and ETC Institute, in many ways, our work has just begun.  The Management Team/Operations Team will be meeting in January to review the City-wide information and will work toward developing strategies to address the areas identified as City-wide priorities.  In addition, in January and February, ETC Institute will be compiling department specific information and will be meeting separately with all departments to review department specific survey results.  Departments will then work to address issues that are most important to employees in their respective departments.

This project has gone very well to date and is on schedule because of the hard work of the survey committee and the exceptional service we have received from Chris Tatham and Jay Schaefer with ETC Institute.  The committee looks forward to continuing our work with Chris and Jay and expect the next phase of this project to go as well as it has so far.  

Recommended Action:  Receive Summary Report and direct staff to report back to the Commission in 2006 on addressing City-wide and department specific issues identified in the survey results.