They think the work they do is important and fulfilling, but they’re less on keen management or their chances of moving up the career ladder.
Maybe that describes a lot of people’s jobs, but it was the overwhelming message that came back from a survey of Colorado state employees.
Gov. John Hickenlooper’s administration spent more than $200,000 to send the surveys to close to 100,000 workers listed on the payroll at any given time, including full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees throughout multiple branches of government, state agencies and higher education institutions.
Employees were sent e-mails and letters with links to the online survey, hosted by New York-based OrgVitality.
The state received 20,466 responses. Employees remained anonymous in the survey.
According to the survey, 93 percent agreed the work they do is important, and 83 percent agreed they are held accountable for the work they do. Another 79 percent said their work gives them a feeling of personal accomplishment.
Those are good indicators, as is one that showed 78 percent agreed their supervisors treat them with respect.
But the responses were less positive when asked whether workers have the “capacity to act on innovative ideas,” with 46 percent disagreeing and only 30 percent agreeing.
Asked whether they were satisfied with opportunities for growth and advancement, 45 percent disagreed and only 35 percent agreed.
Do leaders give a clear picture of direction? Only 35 percent said yes, while 35 percent said no and 30 percent remained neutral.
And while 43 percent said they had confidence in leaders, 35 percent disagreed with that statement.
State workers, who are poised to enter a fourth year with no pay raises, were asked to make open-ended comments on how to improve things.
“State employee morale is very low right now in my opinion,” one wrote. “When I started here almost 10 years ago this was a great place to work and there were actually benefits to being a state employee. Those benefits have all but disappeared.
“You see a lot of employees who just don’t care about what they are doing or supporting the state,” the employee continued, “Meanwhile there are those of us out there working our tails off to put forth a good face to the public and our customers. It is very frustrating.”
Another offered: “We at least need a cost-of-living raise because instead of getting raises we keep losing money and the cost of living goes up but our pay never does.”
“Empower supervisors to discipline/terminate employees as needed despite the fear of grievances, being sued etc.,” another state employee wrote. “Terminations take too long with ineffective employees and supervisors fear they will not be supported in the decision.”
At least one employee found the survey itself to be a problem.
“What a joke of a survey!!! This is all fake, stupid, warm and fuzzy questions,” the worker wrote. “You do not care what really goes on, do you? Provide people with better benefits and pay increases. People do the work of 3-4 people at once. Open your eyes, blind directors. We are understaffed, overworked, and severely underpaid.”
Hickenlooper spokesman Eric Brown said of the results: “We were very encouraged that so many state employees participated in the survey. … Employees weren’t shy about telling us about what’s working and what isn’t. We look forward to the next step of engaging employees to talk about the results and to helping create a better workplace for everyone.”
Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626 or thoover@denverpost.com
