Featured September 19, 2024 Aligning the customer experience, the employee experience and the digital experience for a better government Back to Blog A participatory approach to measuring the employee experience Date November 13, 2024 Authors Priyasmita Roy Tags Employee Engagement, Partnership Insights Recently, the Partnership for Public Service has applied a more inclusive and participatory approach to the way it measures the employee experience. In making this shift, the Partnership learned five key elements to developing employee experience evaluations that reflect the views and perspectives of staff and leadership across the organization. These concepts would benefit any federal agency or organization that seeks to better understand the core needs of their employees and make decisions using input from the full breadth of the workforce. Start by including leadership and staff The Partnership’s Monitoring Evaluation and Learning, or MEL, team engaged leadership and staff before the employee experience survey was distributed. Leaders provided the MEL team with issues they wanted to explore, and staff were invited to provide feedback on the survey once it was drafted. Include both qualitative and quantitative methods In our survey, the quantitative data provided a broad overview of workplace issues and themes. The MEL team used qualitative information to delve deeper into specific areas of interest. Collaboration After the MEL team analyzed the survey data, it worked with others to develop prompts for listening sessions with employees across different career levels. The team then analyzed what it heard during the listening sessions and presented a summary to leadership so it could make informed policy decisions. Strengthen the organization’s ability to understand and use data Over the past two years, the MEL team hosted “Data Talks” that aim to provide employees across the Partnership with a better understanding of statistics, data collection methods, evaluation methodology and other topics. Transparent communication The Partnership used a robust internal communications strategy to inform employees about the survey, the listening sessions and the subsequent employee engagement action plan. All the material was also made available to staff on different platforms. Applying these five strategies requires a heavy investment of time and resources. But the benefits are clear: By including a wide range of perspectives in the development of employee experience surveys, organizations can build a more equitable workplace, cultivate trust between leadership and staff, and promote a culture of continuous learning. Explore our resources for improving federal employee engagement. Priyasmita works towards creating a transparent and replicable strategy to understand program effectiveness through monitoring and evaluating data.
