Organizational Climate Survey

Assess Your Organization Develop its Full Potential

Intelligent decisions are the key to your institution's success. You are confronted every day with tough issues: Interdepartmental conflict. Inadequate staffing. Low morale. High turnover. To make effective decisions on these issues, you need accurate and timely information on the climate in your organization &emdash;and it has to come from your employees.

What is it?

The Organizational Climate Survey (OCS) is both a product and a process. The product is the survey itself, which measures the expectations and perceptions of every employee in your organization. The process involves consultant activity with all levels of management and an employee focus group, survey implementation, survey reporting at an executive retreat, action planning, and follow-up. The survey delivers information. The consultant process delivers the means for practical application.

Significant features

1. Developed by the Minnesota Hospital Association and used by over 200 hospitals and health systems from Vermont to Arizona.
2. Local administration combined with national norms. The survey is currently conducted in Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia and Delaware by the Maryland Healthcare Education Institute (MHEI)in cooperation with Informed Decisions. Inc., a national company headquartered in Minnesota. Informed Decisions also conducts the survey in regions of the country either on its own or in cooperation with other local organizations.
3. Key hospital personnel adapt survey to specific hospital circumstances.
4. Not a sample &emdash;a true, confidential survey of all hospital personnel.
5. Measures difference between how employees feel things are and how they would like them to be.
6. Provides five kinds of information, including high priority action items.
7. Easy to understand, graphic display of data.
8. Includes cross-validation and evaluation process.
9. Options include a physician survey using OptionFinder, a computer-assisted decision-making process.

Survey Process

The process makes the product work. The Organizational Climate Survey will impact your organization and create expectations of change. It is important that employees understand and have input into the process, and that management be fully committed to both the process and the follow-up action. The Institute process involves appropriate individuals and groups in planning and interpreting the data in such a way as to meet the individual concerns of your health care facility.

• Initial consultation Institute staff meet with three groups for intensive planning and orientation. The first group is the top management team to plan the process and be clear that there is commitment to follow up and act on the results. The second is middle management to explain the process and allay fears. The third is an employee focus group selected by management as a representative group of informal leaders. The focus group is involved in planning the hospital specific questions. Through all these meetings, the process is explained, credibility established, concerns allayed, questions answered and participation encouraged.
• Survey Administration Institute staff conduct employee meetings over a two to five day period for several hours on each shift. Surveys are mailed to every employee who is unable to attend one of the meetings.
• Executive retreat The report is published about a month after the survey administration and the Institute staff conduct a one day, off-site, retreat for the top management team. Staff guides the group in interpreting the data, identifying major hospital-wide issues, and preparing an action and communication plan.
• Follow-up Important hospital follow-up activities include meetings with employees and middle management to communicate results, the development of departmental-specific action plans, and preparation of a governing board report. Follow-up is the hospital responsibility, with guidance and assistance from the Institute staff.

Survey Dimensions

The survey data are constructed from the employee responses to fifty questions or situations. Twenty of the questionsare designed specifically for the individual hospital. The remainder are grouped according to the following dimensions:

• Work Facilitation Extent to which people feel they are trained, given the materials and equipment they need, and provided with information and assistance in getting the job done.
• Concern for People Do staff members show respect for each other, do managers give support, and does administration show interest in the morale and welfare of employees.
• Team Building Do we see planning and coordination within individual work groups, between departments, and between managers and employees.
• Decision-Making Does management make adequate and timely decisions? Do they get employee input? And does administration reveal the reasons for their decisions?
• Participation (Empowerment) Are employees given enough authority to do their jobs? Are they encouraged to make suggestions and decisions, and do they take responsibility for their decisions?
• Communications Is staff given adequate notice of changes? Is important information spread quickly and accurately? And is there good communication between departments?
• Customer Service Do employees show respect for patients and other customers? Are visitors and family members made to feel welcome and comfortable? Do work groups provide quick and efficient service?
• Quality Does the hospital have a good reputation? Are employees proud of working there? Would they feel comfortable having a family member receive treatment in the hospital?
• Staff/Physician Relationships Do physicians comply with the rules, communicate clearly what they expect, and make realistic requests on people's time?
• Compensation Are salary increases determined in a fair and equitable manner? Does the hospital pay well enough to attract and retain competent staff? Do benefits compare favorably with other health organizations?

Survey Benefits

• Demonstrate that you care Employee opinions matter. You care about them &emdash;their suggestions, their criticisms, and their perceptions &emdash;and you are willing to make changes based on those suggestions.
• Assess Progress in Performance Improvement Employees opinions on key perfromance improvement behaviors are assessed, including team building, empowerment, work facilitation, and customer service.
• Pinpoint trouble spots Spot real and potential trouble spots and the nature of the trouble (departments, employee positions, etc.) before it surfaces in grievances, turnover, absenteeism, or negative financial performance.
• Assess management development needs Helps at the full organizational level, within individual departments, and with individual managers in diagnosing developmental needs, while helping to create the readiness to accept and use different behaviors.
• Diagnose systemic problems Managers are often unaware when organizational systems create frustration, and reward inappropriate behavior as well as inefficient and ineffective performance.
• Assist in strategic planning Identify which departments and services can handle experimental and/or expanded activities, and build on your strengths.
• Develop recruitment/retention strategies Why do employees come to your organization? Why do they stay? What would make them leave? The answers to these questions will help you develop rational personnel policies, recruitment/retention strategies, and salary and benefit programs.
• Quantify perceptions and feelings It is difficult and dangerous to take action based on rumor and innuendo. Do you find yourself making decisions based only on the opinions of those who have access to you? Or the "squeaky wheels"? Or those who tell you what you want to hear? Find out, in a measurable and quantifiable form, how the average employee feels, including those who usually don't speak up.

Organizational Climate Survey's are conducted by Paul Martin and Jim Collins. If you would like more information, please call Paul at (410) 379-6200.

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