To win in the marketplace, we must first win in the workplace. To achieve this we give our employees, a voice that directly impacts our people planning each year.
Through the Employee Satisfaction Survey, they provided us with insights on the health of our organisation, their current and future needs and opportunities for improvement.
This year, we received a total of 1,162 responses which represents 83% of our global Schulte Group employee population. This is the highest participation rate reached since the launch of the employee satisfaction survey. The overall employee satisfaction rating has increased to 76.5% in 2019, compared to 75.4% in 2018.
Our aim is to keep growing and improving.
To give you a quick insight, here are our Employee Satisfaction survey highlights.
Action Plan 2020
Meeting Pay and Benefits expectations
‘Pay and Benefits’ had a small improvement in overall satisfaction in 2019 but the final score of 69.83% shows that there is room for further improvement.
One of our focuses towards the end of 2019 was the introduction of the new KPI’s and Objectives. Our goal is to help employees better understand the impact of their role on the overall company strategy. We believe the new approach is more meaningful and it will provide further clarity on how to measure our people’s performance.
We believe that our people also greatly benefit from non-monetary benefits that are more family-oriented. Therefore, we are developing new compensation models across the organisation such as flexible working hours, working from home.
In 2020, we will see the realisation of the One BSM Bonus scheme which specifically created to better meet your remuneration package expectations.
Exceptional employees will be recognised through our redesigned BSM awards. The awards will honour exceptional staff that have contributed to our organisation or organisation’s culture in a substantial way.
Our new performance appraisal system, on Zoho People, enables staff to request and receive frequent feedback from their team and supervisor. This can help employees better track their performance throughout the year. When fully utilised it also provides managers and the HR with supporting data with which they may better judge future job assignments. We encourage staff to take advantage of the new appraisal process.
Addressing the challenges of our Tools and Technology
The category ‘Tools and Technology’ had an overall satisfaction score of 72.42% which is a substantial improvement from the previous year’s results. Staff responded positively to the introduction of new communication tools.
As with 2019, PAL Functional Owners and MariApps will focus on system stability and significant changes will only be made when there is an operational need. Importantly, PAL training will now be conducted by a team of dedicated BSM PAL experts in each location. This will help us create training and refreshers for staff as needed and have a go-to person for induction training. We hope this will better support staff as PAL continues to develop and grow.
In 2020, we will release a Feedback system for training. Trainees will be able to provide instant feedback to their trainers to help identify opportunities for self-development and also training material development. Our goal is to improve the training experience for staff.
To make updates on our digital tools more accessible, we will create an Information Technology Function site on oneHUB, which will be maintained by Group and local IT. On this site, the IT teams will share the latest news and updates on our tools, as well as, other helpful information (e.g. Tips & Tricks, FAQS). To support training on our digital tools we will also create a dedicated ‘technology’ section on iLearn to cover company software.
Tackling Stress and Workload
‘Stress and Workload’ had a small boost in satisfaction this year with an overall score of 73.47%. Our goal is to continue to help our people better manage stress and workload by improving our systems and procedures.
We believe that self-development is also an important part of development. Therefore, our new performance appraisal system enables staff to enter both personal and professional development training requests in an open communication format with their supervisor and HR.
For the Productivity Project, Willie Garbutt- working with group HR, formed a team with members from all offices to study the daily activities of superintendents and fleet managers. The goal is to identify time-consuming or tedious tasks and work on solutions to better manage them or delegate them to another role. This will lead to an increase in productivity, which will in-turn help to reduce stress and workload for superintendents and fleet managers.
An annual Wellness Day will be created, featuring local activities that promote a healthier living and boost creative-solution building and stress release. For example, meditation sessions, healthy cooking and sampling, art classes and discussions with specialists.
The annual Sports Day was a huge success both at sea and shore so it will become a bi-annual event. We want to continue to offer the opportunity for stress-release, team and community building and exercise through organised sport such as jogging, cycling and playing ball.
We plan to launch ‘common interest’ groups on teams and oneHUB local sites, where employees can join their colleagues for discussions and sessions on common interest topics. The groups will be less formal, fun environments that will support community building and sharing.
A trained volunteer counsellor will be appointed in each location to support staff through periods of high stress and anxiety or provide advice where needed. This person will be available for employees who need someone to privately talk with or for consultation on healthy approaches to solving problems.
We believe a key contributor to stress is feeling isolated. Therefore, we will create team-building workshops that will focus on improving in-office relationships. The workshops will focus on cooperation and problem solving and hopefully bring our people closer together through unique bonding experiences.
Enhancing our Learning and Development
The category ‘Learning and Development’ also had a satisfaction improvement in 2019 with an overall satisfaction score of 73.60%. To continue on our path of improvement we have added the following to our 2020 plan.
Equipping staff with soft and technical skills is very important for competing with our challenging and changing industry and new technologies. Therefore, we will add interactive e-Learning courses on iLearn to meet Schulte Group development needs.
We will introduce monthly or quarterly ‘Lunch and Learns’ in more locations to encourage knowledge sharing between teams. The Lunch and Learns will have a volunteer that presents a topic/mini-training during lunch break and staff can openly join with their lunches to watch and learn something new.
To energize our staff, we will host motivational speakers once a year, who will share the experiences and solution-building advice for personal and professional development.
Enabling our staff to succeed
Enablement had an overall satisfaction score of 75.28%, which was slightly lower than last year’s score. To ensure we enable our employees to succeed in their roles we will continue to review our systems and processes in place and take advantage of opportunities to simplify our processes.
This includes improving further our company culture through open and transparent communication and actions. Specifically, our new 360 Feedback system in Zoho People promotes open communication between team members and Supervisors which is key for a healthy work environment.
We will also improve the onboarding process to ensure new joiners adapt quickly to our company culture. This will include new standardised welcome packages, orientation process, and training that is supported by an induction video series that showcases our whole organisational structure.
We will provide more opportunities for staff to diversify their roles through the introduction of project-based work. Project leaders will be able to post a short-term job ad on oneHUB and candidates from sea or shore will be able to apply for a project position, ideally part-time. The aim is to boost development opportunities, encourage an agile workforce and bring cross-department team-building.