And the survey said…
 

Participation, positive responses on the rise for You Count! in 2005

 

Participation was up again this year in UTMB’s annual You Count! employee satisfaction survey. Participation increased to 44 percent in fiscal year 2005 compared to 38 percent the previous year. An increase in participation is always welcome; the philosophy is that the higher the participation, the more accurate a reflection of true employee attitudes, perceptions and ideas.

 

As the participation rate increased, the overall satisfaction rating remained very similar to the results in fiscal year 2004, at a respectable 66 percent.

 

There was an increase in the satisfaction rating in response to the question “My supervisor treats me with respect”—67 percent of employees agreed with the statement. Additionally, there was an increase in positive responses to questions such as “my supervisor holds me accountable,” “my supervisor shows compassion toward me” and “my supervisor exhibits integrity and honesty in action and word.”

 

“These increases are encouraging and a direct response to management’s focus of time, attention and resources on issues we’ve heard about in past surveys,” said Kathy Shingleton, UTMB’s chief human resources officer. “The challenge now, several years into You Count!, is to keep people interested and engaged, to keep the feedback coming. We want to continue to make positive changes, and we need our employees to continue to let us know how we’re doing.”

 

UTMB also showed improvement in how employees view our patient care. Ratings increased across the board by 3 percentage points on questions involving quality of service to patients, customer service, nursing care, medical care, patient education and accurate billing.

 

Areas where we already had notable positive responses saw additional improvements: there was an increase to 79 percent of respondents agreeing that UTMB values individuals of diverse backgrounds. In addition, 78 percent found UTMB does a good job of providing competitive retirement benefits. And, when it comes to being proud to work for UTMB, results increased to 81 percent from 80 percent the previous year.

 

In several areas where past surveys have told us UTMB could use improvement, the most recent You Count! suggests the institution is making progress. There were improvements related to ease of access to care, the accuracy of patient billing and the promotion of qualified individuals. We still struggle as an organization with the way we manage poor performers, and with a need to provide more regular updates on department and individual performance goals. Human Resources and many others continue to work with employees and managers to address these issues.

 

This season, there’s been an adjustment in our survey schedule since in the last few months there have been two hurricanes, one evacuation and several small surveys.  The next You Count! survey (the first one of fiscal year 2006) will be sent all employees at once and is scheduled for April 2006. Watch your email and inbox for more news.