Employee Engagement Survey 2013

Since our first survey was conducted in 2012, the business has undergone some major changes and taken strides to improving both as a service provider and an employer. The results of this year's survey reflected the boost in staff morale and also generated some further suggestions for continuous improvement.

Since the 2012 survey, and as a direct result of staff feedback, a number of changes have been made, including the following:-

• Introduction of an appraisal linked bonus scheme, and a review of staff and salary structures
• Social events providing an opportunity for all staff to come together
• Increased training opportunities such as asbestos awareness, first aid, PA1 & PA6, NEBOSH, safeguarding, customer services and more
• Improved communication in the form of regular team meetings, company briefings and monthly newsletters
• New vehicles and equipment have been purchased with a plan to further invest through 2013

It is pleasing to conclude that 77% of staff are satisfied or very satisfied with their working environment compared to 65% in 2012. This suggests that the decision to move our grounds department from their previous location to our head office at Knutsford Road was a positive change for all involved.

88.46% of staff are satisfied or very satisfied with their levels of interaction and communication with their line manager. The same amount of colleagues feel that their line manager is competent in leading and motivating their teams; this is an accolade to our management teams. This compares to 57% in 2012 and demonstrated that our managers are continually striving to develop their relationships with their teams.

In 2012 57% of staff felt that communication was adequate within their teams. The latest survey reports an increase to 88.46% which is extremely pleasing; this result is likely to be a direct result of the introduction of regular newsletters and also increased team meetings across all departments, clearly a huge step in the right direction.

In 2012 only 28.57% of our employees were satisfied with the training and development opportunities available to them. Since then we have become more proactive in encouraging our staff to take advantage of the opportunities to develop and have offered a number of courses including:- safeguarding, first aid, project management, cleaning and hygiene, NEBOSH, asbestos awareness and many more. This has obviously been recognised by the staff with 46.15% now reporting that they are very satisfied in this area.

Team spirit and interaction is important to Groundlevel, and this is reflected in the opinions of those surveyed with no staff being dissatisfied in this area and 92% reporting that they are very satisfied with their relationships with both colleagues and our valuable clients.

There is a lot of positive feedback to take from the 2013 survey, and some fantastic suggestions for further improvement. We are delighted to report that 88.46% of our staff are satisfied or very satisfied with Groundlevel as an employer (compared to 57.14% in 2012). With the engagement of our colleagues, we are confident that we can further improve upon this in the next twelve months.