In 2006, we we assessed opportunities to further our Business and Finance goal of “employer of choice”. Employees were surveyed for feedback about satisfaction. After reviewing the results of the employee survey, the overall feeling was we are doing a lot of things right.  The overall scores averaged in the 70s which is statistically very high for an employee satisfaction survey.  Nevertheless, there were areas of particular interest that we felt were some of the most important aspects of the survey results.

Focus Groups were conducted by outside consultants to gain a better understanding of the issues in the employee satisfaction survey. The findings and recommendations from the consultants were presented to employees at a Fin Forum meeting on August 7, 2007. Also presented was the resulting plan for Six Key Finance Action Items, as shown below.

As discussed at the Fin Forum, we need real participation by staff throughout the organization in making this a great place to work. As part of this participation, we will be seeking staff involvement in each of the six action items.

1. Develop a communications strategy and increase organization wide communication on issues.

The goal is really to promote a culture of active and open communication throughout the organization and includes roles for all staff. Based on the issues presented in this report, early communications efforts will have a primary focus on two key areas: (1) maintaining confidentiality of staff and colleagues; (2) communicating the impact of economy on jobs/budget outlook. In order to have an active communication program that supports both employee engagement and open communication as well as supporting communications with our customers, we will hire a communications person for Finance who will identify and create multiple communications approaches to allow improved distribution of leadership messages and organizational initiatives.

2. Focus performance management system on accountability for key needs.

The needs identified in this report for which increased accountability is desired call for strong supervisory criteria, incorporating teamwork as an important element of a successful employee, potentially adding confidentiality (or pairing it with integrity) as a Work Behavior and encourage use of MARS for weak Work Behaviors for which special effort or training needs to be made in the coming year.

3. Expand utilization of 360 Feedback for all supervisory staff.

Input needs to be gathered from Finance staff to identify important elements of 360 feedback for which staff could provide clear feedback on peer and supervisory performance. Feedback will also be sought in designing a process which is considered confidential and sufficiently trustworthy as to elicit real and open responses.

4. Expand focus on organizational and leadership training.

Training opportunities which are also tied to desired outcomes in the performance management system can serve to focus attention on desired performance. This effort includes offering the Conflict Management training for all staff as originally envisaged as well as identifying other training opportunities based on types of issues found in 360 feedback.

5. Identify key facility issues at Wolverine Tower.

Facility issues will fall into two types - issues that must be addressed by Facilities and issues which we could address internally with departmental resources. Staff input will need to be gained to identify and, more importantly, to prioritize unit actions that could be taken. Cross functional input will be required with other Wolverine Tower units. We will need to identify budget implications and create a plan for internal projects. Other infrastructure facility issues will be shared and discussed with Facilities and Operations. Finally, it is important that we communicate plans to staff.

6. Create Finance technology capital plan.

This would be based on standards that we would establish for technology and its operational reliability – determine reasonable plan in context of budget.

If you were unable to attend the Fin Forum, or would like to review the PowerPoint presentation, please feel free to access it here.

If you have any feedback, questions, or input related to the Survey Results or Next Steps, please submit them to AVPF.Employee.Survey@umich.edu.

Copyright ©2006 The Regents of the University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA 734-764-1817