HCP Associates’ Market Research Team Conducts Pinellas County Employee Voice Study

CLEARWATER, Fla. (November 15, 2017) The HCP market research team developed a plan in conjunction with Pinellas County HR leadership to improve upon an existing biennial employee sentiment survey, renaming it, branding it, clarifying the mission to county employees, and ensuring transparency from beginning to end, to gain heightened employee participation.

HCP rebranded the survey from the generic “Employee Survey” to the “Employee Voice Survey” with an accompanying logo. Doing so established commitment on the part of the county that this is a valued tool they plan to deploy well into the future. It also helped from a messaging standpoint to ensure that when referenced, it had a singular name as opposed to in the past when some called it the Employee Satisfaction Study, Unified Personnel System Survey, Biennial HR Study, etc.

In addition, HCP took the comments from department leaders and designed some promotional materials that highlighted the importance of participating in the survey and referenced the changes deployed by the county following the 2015 results. Promotional flyers were made available electronically and in print form to share with staff. HCP’s videography team also coordinated with the department leaders to write, film, edit and produce a video on the Employee Voice Survey.

Upon survey close, HCP conducted analysis at the County level, department levels and sub-departments to generate 2017 reports as well as trending analyses. HCP collaborated with the HR department to schedule sit-down meetings with senior leaders to help them understand their results, pinpointing areas of major improvement, declines, key categories of workplace engagement, and how to share and act upon the results provided.

Senior Research Director Sarah Lindemuth shared, “The County went about this process in the most transparent way possible, using the survey as an opportunity to build employee trust and confidence in leadership. The results will not sit on a shelf and are already being acted upon through work sessions between HR and the individual departments. It is encouraging to see an organization truly strive to understand and establish action plans in response to employee sentiment research.”

For more information on the study and its findings, please visit: www.pinellascounty.org/hr/employeevoice.