Organisational Health Survey

16/04/2013

A favourable characteristic of J&J is their focus on continual improvement/development in terms of personal and career skills and the acknowledgement of employee feedback on the how the organization is functioning as a whole. This was reflected in our three hour finance team meeting which focused on the results of our organizational health survey at the end of 2012/beginning of 2013, but more importantly identifying the issues or areas that our ‘climate’ at J&J is lacking and developing initiatives/actions which we can take going forwards to improve that.

The organizational health survey involved employees perception of work aspects, asking questions such as ‘do you feel that the quality of your work relationships increases your commitment to a long-term career with J&J?’, ‘do you feel that your opinions are respected and you are comfortable communicating them?’, ‘I feel secure in my job’ and ‘Do you feel that Finance’s leadership is aligned with its employees on the importance of diversity’. The results of this survey showed that in most areas there was a deterioration of opinion in areas like teamwork, communication, manager relations and climate (a large cause of this could be because of the high turnover during the December quarter with many employees leaving before year-end and the high number of contractors hired) and to address these problem areas, our finance team split into two groups to come up with action items to improve.

1      1. Communication

We identified two channels of communication that we could target separately – formal and informal.One of the major areas of deterioration was ‘I believe that communication channels are open so I am informed and can respond adequately.’In order for people to connect and be at ease with each other we figured that the first step is simply to get people to connect and re-introduce ‘get-to-know-each-other’ sessions. For things like getting people to connect and be open with each other we needed to re-introduce simple things like ‘speed-dating’ and ‘learn and lunch’ where there’s an informal environment for people to interact. In my opinion I think it’s more important to know people on a personal level because that is what creates the foundation of effective communication and learning from each other.

2. Team Work/Inclusion

For people to feel part of a team we thought it was essential that people know each other and their defined responsibilities, have job clarity so you know who can help you, have training and induction ceremonies as well as finance wide catch-ups. We thought these initiatives will help people feel more involved and part of the team.

Though I did not partake in this survey it was interesting finding out what others felt about the work environment and it was also nice to know that the organization cared about people’s opinions. The bottom line of this is that what employees think and feel are critical to the operations of a business and regular feedback sessions such as these are vital to the ongoing function of the business and the happiness of employees.