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ETC Institute’s growth during the past five years is largely the result of our ability to help our clients achieve their goals and objectives.In order to help many of our governmental clients achieve their strategic objectives, ETC Institute developed and has continually refined an internal organizational survey that assesses customer satisfaction with internal organizational performance.Clients for whom internal surveys have been conducted by ETC Institute during the past three years include:

ETC Institute administered an organizational assessment survey of 2,400 employees for the City of during May and June 2002.The purpose of the survey was to gather input from employees about a wide range of issues in order to identify opportunities to improve the organization. The results of the survey will provide a baseline for objectively assessing change in organizational performance over time.Some of the major topics that were addressed in the survey included:

- Overall satisfaction with employment at the City

- Availability of work related resources

- Quality of the City’s work environment

- Effectiveness of internal communication

- Perceptions of managers and supervisors

- Understanding of the City’s compensation and benefits programs

- Perceived adequacy of rewards and recognition for employees

Although the survey was distributed to all employees, participation in the survey was voluntary.Employees were allowed to complete the survey during works hours or in the privacy of their home.In order to protect confidentiality, employees were given a postage-paid envelope so they could return their survey directly to ETC Institute.The sample was statistically valid for all major departments, and the overall results have a 95% level of confidence with a precision of at least +/- 2.4%.

Prior to the survey, the City was experiencing major problems with three employee unions.At one point during the survey process, one of the survey unions threatened to file a civil lawsuit against the City to prevent the survey from being administered.As a result of the superior facilitation skills of ETC Institute’s project manager, all unions agreed to participate in the survey.The data has subsequently helped the City of move forward on a number of initiatives that will help the City save money and enhance the organization’s overall effectiveness.

The Partnership Project is a top to bottom review of KDOT that was initiated by the Secretary of Transportation as part of the Governor’s BEST Process to evaluate how government functions. The Partnership Project will be used to identify ways that KDOT can continually improve the way it serves .

During the first phase of the project, ETC Institute conducted one-on-one interviews with senior KDOT managers, one-on-one interviews with persons outside KDOT who influence transportation decisions in the State of , nine focus groups with KDOT employees, and focus groups with transportation stakeholders in each of KDOT’s six districts. This phase was used to identify more than 150 issues and concerns that internal and external partners thought the Agency should address during this project. Consensus building sessions were conducted with senior KDOT managers and members of the Internal/External Advisory Group in July 2003 to finalize the process for evaluating the priority that should be placed on issues that that were identified during this phase of the project.

During the second phase of the project, ETC Institute administered two surveys. One survey was administered to a random sample of Kansas residents. The other was administered to transportation stakeholders across the State. The surveys were designed to help KDOT objectively assess the relative importance of the issues that were identified in Phase One. The primary objective of this phase was to narrow the list of issues that were identified during Phase One to a maximum of ten Priority Issues. Consensus building sessions were conducted with senior KDOT managers and members of the Internal/External Advisory Group during late September 2003 to finalize the Priority Issues.

Beginning in the Fall of 2000, ETC Institute began administering an annual external customer survey and a biennial internal employee survey a survey for the City of . The City has a population of more than 110,000 people and an annual budget of approximately $200 million dollars. The purpose of the two surveys was to (1) objectively measure employee perceptions about a wide range of internal performance related issues and to (2) gather objective data from residents and civic leaders in the community. The data from both surveys is transformed into strategic performance measures that are used by the City to set capital and operating budget priorities each year and to assess the City’s progress towards the implementation of the City’s strategic plan.

Employee survey. The employee survey gathers internal customer data about the following:

- overall assessments of the City's working environment

- improvements that employees think would allow them to perform their jobs better

- satisfaction with the Purchasing Division

- satisfaction with the Human Resources Department

- satisfaction with Vehicle Maintenance

- satisfaction with the Information Technology Services

- strengths and weaknesses of specific departments and divisions

Employees are also asked to rate the perceived value of various organizational improve strategies that are being considered. Strategies that are widely supported are then easily implemented.

External Survey.ETC Institute provides on-going customer satisfaction research services to the City of and its Municipal Services Department. Annual surveys are conducted on strategic and budgetary related issues for the City as a whole. Quarterly surveys are conducted for the Municipal Services Department to objectively assess the organization’s performance on a quarterly basis.

Before the survey was developed, ETC Institute worked with City staff to identify the goals and objectives for both surveys. This was done to ensure that the survey would meet the organization’s needs for information in more than fifty areas of service delivery. As part of the survey development process, ETC Institute conducted a series of focus groups and stakeholder interviews with current customers to ensure that the needs and expectations of customers would be fully captured in the survey data.

Three methods of survey administration are used to ensure that the survey results are representative of residents, businesses, and special interest groups in the community. One survey is administered by phone; another is administered by a combination of mail and phone, the third survey is accessible via a secured site on the Internet. The survey is administered to approximately 200-400 customers per quarter. The survey is administered during the second month of each quarter and the results are presented to the City during the third month of the quarter. The annual survey results are presented prior to the Mayor’s State of the City Address in January. The data from the annual survey is used to set budget priorities for the upcoming year. The results from the surveys are used to generate performance indices for each Department in more than fifty areas of service delivery. These indices are used by the City in two ways.

- First, the indices are monitored by departmental managers on an on-going basis to assess the impact that new programs have on customer satisfaction and to identify areas of concern before they become problems.

- Second, the indices are integrated into the Department’s activity-based-costing performance model. ETC Institute worked directly with the Department’s performance measurement consultant to ensure that the data from the survey could feed the Department’s performance measurement model.

ETC Institute administered a survey to of faculty and staff in September 2003. The purpose of the survey was to gather input from associates regarding a wide range of issues in order to identify opportunities to improve the organization. The results of the survey will provide a baseline for assessing change in the attitudes and perceptions of faculty and staff over time.

The nine major topics that were addressed in the survey included:

- Overall satisfaction with the work environment

- Compensation and Benefits

- Internal communication

- Professional development opportunities

- Perceptions of managers and supervisors

- The University’s involvement in the community

- The strategic direction of The University

- The University’s mission

- The University’s core values

The survey was distributed to all UHS faculty and staff, however, participation was voluntary.Associates were allowed to complete the survey during work hours or in the privacy of their home.In order to protect confidentiality, associates were given a postage-paid envelope so they could return their survey directly to ETC Institute.

At the 95% confidence level, the Staff Survey results have a precision of at least +/- 4% and the Faculty Survey results have a precision of at least +/- 8%.

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Kansas Department of Transportation
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City of Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department
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Sprint Corporation
Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce