The City of El Paso recently launched an employee opinion survey that was administered online with an external company. This is the first all employee survey that the City has conducted. You may be wondering why employee surveys are given and what purpose they serve.

The primary reason employers survey employees is to get feedback on how people feel about their organizations. Many organizations take the feedback and attempt to address major areas of concerns that employees raise in the survey. Identifying core issues or major areas of concern is critical to the success of future survey work. Employees should see evidence of an employer’s efforts to improve the workplace.

 

Measuring the alignment that employees have with the goals of an organization is another reason for administering employee surveys. Employees that understand how their efforts contribute to the mission of their workgroup or department tend to perform at a higher level. The City is very interested in helping employees perform at the highest level possible while at the same time, providing meaningful work.

 

A final reason for surveying is benchmarking responses year-over-year or comparing to other employers in a particular labor market. Generally speaking larger employers try to “compete” for bragging rights as a best employer. Other employers have decided to work on relevant core issues identified in surveys to help make their organization a better place to work.