Engaging the People

Great Communication Leads the Way to Improved Survey Results

It’s a fact that U.S. companies experienced a 2-to-1 drop in employee engagement, according to researchers at Quantum Workplace; however, Crothall Services Group saw an increase of 3 points in overall employee engagement in our second annual company-wide survey, which drew a response from 55% of our 17,000 employees. And if anyone doubted that information gleaned from the Employee Engagement survey would be used to improve things, the high participation and a 6-point increase on the question “I am confident that positive action will be taken as a result of this survey” indicates that the company listens to the feedback of its people and acts on it.

Last year’s survey showed that a primary concern centered on information sharing, yet this year’s results show the biggest increases in that very area. According to CEO Bobby Kutteh, “almost 90% of those surveyed responded favorably on their perception of our Information Sharing. This is a result of much hard work and a focus on more effective communication throughout the company.”

To boost company efforts in this area, the company performed a separate communications survey of our employees. The management team committed resources necessary to improving communication to the entire company, including

• Email accounts for Supervisors
• A web-based Intranet resource called “MyCrothall” to communicate important news, share documents, and highlight success stories
• Connections, the company’s internal newsletter, in English and Spanish
• Quarterly Service Line Updates, written by divisional senior leadership to communicate the state of the business to all employees
• A Quarterly Video Update by Bobby Kutteh

Hourly employees also benefited from

• CHAT: Standardized Monthly In-Services presented in an easy-to-use scripted presentation format
• Regional Communication Representatives, reporting stories about hourly as well as management associates

These measures also had a positive impact on perception of Leadership, Company Strategy and Delivery, Market Focus, Job Quality, and Engagement, of which 80% or more of respondents had a favorable perception.