Employee Voice Survey FAQs
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Why is the City of Madison conducting this survey?
The City of Madison wants to know more about employees’ experiences and opinions regarding the City’s overall culture and work environment. Your assessments of the City’s performance in critical work culture areas such as engagement, employee development, respect and equity will all provide vital input for us to understand existing issues. Your answers will help us determine solutions that will create a better workplace for all employees.
We urge every employee who receives a survey invitation to fill it out. The City needs people from all backgrounds to feel engaged with our mission and to help set up our organization for ongoing and future success. Please help us to understand our organization from all perspectives, identities, and backgrounds by contributing your voice.
How do I access the survey?
The survey is administered online and can be completed at home, at work, or wherever there is a computer with an internet connection. City employees with an City email address will also be sent several email invitations and reminders; these emails will each contain a unique link to the survey. The survey can be completed by accessing your email, locating your invitation message from Polco, and clicking on the individualized link. Please only fill out the survey once. Do not forward email invitations to others or share in any way; this is a unique link, and only one submission is allowed. Sharing this link with others will allow others to respond on your behalf.
What if I don’t have access to a computer/internet?
If you do not have access to a computer, the City will make one available to you. Simply contact Kara Kratowicz at PE@cityofmadison.com.
How long will it take me to fill out the survey?
We find that it generally takes an average of 10-15 minutes to complete.
Who is conducting this survey?
Polco is an external, independent firm that has been contracted to conduct this employee survey on behalf of the City of Madison. Polco specializes in research and evaluation to assist government and nonprofit-sector clients. Polco was designed to be a safe and civil place to provide input and feedback to community leaders. A cornerstone of that vision is keeping personal information safe. Much like the privacy afforded to votes you cast during elections, Polco believes you should not have to associate your name or any personally identifiable information with the feedback you provide. When you participate on Polco, your personally identifiable information will be safe, never shared, and never associated with the feedback or input you provide. Polco’s entire privacy policy can be viewed here.
What kinds of questions are being asked on this survey?
The survey covers many dimensions of the employee experience and workplace environment, including whether you feel respected at work, have development opportunities and access to resources, feel like you are treated fairly and like you belong at the City, and feel engaged in your work and want to stay at our organization. Most of the questions are posed as agreement scale (or “Likert scale”) questions, where you are asked to indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with a statement, or to rate quality or performance (e.g., on an Excellent/Good/Fair/Poor scale).
We also ask a series of demographic questions at the end of the survey to help us understand patterns across the organization. For more information about why these are vitally important for us to collect, please see the question about demographics further down in this FAQ.
When will I be able to fill out the Employee Voice Survey?
The Employee Voice Survey will begin on TBD and will close on TBD.
Will the survey be anonymous?
Conducting the survey through Polco, an external and independent firm, ensures that your responses will remain completely anonymous to the City. In no case will information be reported in such a way that a person’s identity could be known. The City will never receive the full data table from Polco; data will only be reported in aggregate. We encourage you to read more about survey results online.
What if I don’t have a city email?
The survey will be available electronically to fill out at a computer or on a smart phone, and by paper. Paper surveys will be available with self-addressed stamped envelope. When you get done taking the survey you can simply put it in the mail.
What will happen with the results?
All of the results will be compiled by the company and given back to the Performance Excellence Leadership Team. The Leadership Team will identify the issues that we need to address citywide. Departments will also get results and have to put a plan to maintain high scoring areas and enhance low scoring areas.