Pinellas County launched a Unified Personnel System (UPS) survey. The survey’s initial launch was successful but experienced steep year-over-year declines in employee participation. HCP Associates was called upon to engage Pinellas County employees and manage the UPS survey.

Pinellas County Administration and the Human Resource leadership team expressed interest in revamping the survey. Changes were made, such as modifying survey topics, reporting on employee demographics and tenure, and conducting outreach to encourage employees to respond.

HCP Associates created a series of videos with senior leadership officials with Pinellas County imploring their employees to participate in the survey. HCP Associates also visited each department to inform them about the survey.

Employees were asked to offer Pinellas County ratings in general as an employer and rate their department, workgroup, supervisor, and Appointing Authority on a series of metrics. The metrics each reflected one of the dimensions from The Great Place to Work® TrustIndex©, an industry tool used to assess and rate workplace culture through an employee perspective: credibility, respect, pride, camaraderie, fairness.

With the results, County leadership engaged in activities that boosted comradery, communication and involved employees more through elements such as staff retreats, team-building exercises, and employee workshops.

Throughout our tenure, the participation rate rose from 58% to 84%. Effective promotion and third-party administration are critical to earning employee buy-in. Employee surveys are vital to give leadership insight into employee satisfaction, opportunity, culture, communication, retention, and more.