Last month, Zayo began a regular process for employee surveys. For those employees who participated, I’d be interested in your feedback. If you’re up for it, send me an email on what you thought about the survey. After reading the results, I thought I’d offer some perspective to employees.
First, I want to thank those of you who responded. The overall response rate was 62%–which I consider good but not great. I’d like to see us get to 80%+. The feedback seemed candid and thoughtful, and I hope this continues with future surveys.
Second, I will offer some context on our approach to the survey. I will comment on survey frequency, survey length, and the level of “sophistication”.
Frequency: I believe in frequent employee surveys, as it provides an ongoing feedback loop to understand what is on the minds of employees. As such, I asked that the survey take place monthly, but only 1/3 of our employees are asked to respond each month. We will look at the results each month, but will tabulate them for each quarter (to address statistical significance). Each employee will have the opportunity to respond quarterly—which gives each of you a voice to tell us whether we are preserving the positives while addressing the shortcomings.
Survey Length: I believe in relatively short surveys, so that employees can complete relatively quickly. My guess is that most employees spent 5 – 10 minutes.
Sophistication: We did not hire a consultant. We did not have an off-site to debate questions. We did not banter around multiple different approaches. Instead, we decided to throw something out there and, after seeing what happens, make course corrections. One question started with “How strong…” and the choices of answers were “So So”, “Not Effective”, “Effective”, and “Very Effective”. This is a small example of how we will modify. More significant improvement ideas came from the employee survey comments, and we will address these as appropriate. My main point is this—it is more important that we are instituting a forum for frequent and candid feedback than that we developed a perfect process.
Next, I want to stress how important it is to take to heart the survey feedback. This burden starts with the heads of each of the business units, as they will see all the results and the written feedback. Each business unit will share the quantitative results with their teams and will also summarize the written comments. My guess is the results will cascade throughout the organization. As you hear the feedback, please keep the following in mind:
- A lot of the results are positive. Let’s focus on these as well as the constructive comments. By calling out the positives, employees are telling us what good things they see and that these are important to them. Let’s not take these for granted but, instead, let’s build on them.
- Many of the comments are constructive. Some of these should be acted upon with a sense of urgency. Others are probably better to put in a “wait-and-see” / “monitor” bucket. Zayo is a very new company, and we will hit speed bumps and pot holes. I know we hit several in 2009; with the benefit of hindsight, we probably could have avoided some of them. At the pace we move, we know we will hit more. The key is how quickly we recognize them and whether or not we learn from them. The survey feedback should help us learn, so long as we reflect on the feedback and interpret it appropriately.
Finally, I want to highlight the profound opportunity we all have to shape the Zayo culture. We are a brand spanking new company. Lots of us have worked together before, but we have done so across many different companies such as Citynet, Onvoy, FiberNet, Level 3, MFS, ICG, etc. Our time together at Zayo is just beginning. As you fill out the survey or as you review the results, ask yourself what you can do to help make Zayo a great place to work. Also, please consider that Zayo is really four autonomous companies. Though Zayo Group as a whole will contribute to each group’s culture, the culture of the business units will diverge. This is healthy and I encourage this. This should be empowering, in that every employee should have a greater influence over the culture that is relevant to them. I encourage each of you to exploit this empowerment by building on the positives and ferreting out the negatives. If we all pitch in, we can make Zayo one of the best places to work in all of telecom.
Remember, at the end of the day, our job is to make a great return for our investors. This is impossible if our customers aren’t enamored with the service we provide them—hence, a “customer first” attitude is entirely consistent with recognizing our responsibility to our shareholders. Finally, and extremely importantly, employees are the key to satisfying both customers and investors. For Zayo to excel, its employees must feel appreciated, respected, fairly compensated, accountable, and empowered. Let’s use the launching of our employee feedback process to reflect on Zayo’s most valuable asset—its employees.
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presenting an eulogy for Terry. I will share the eulogy, as I want people to know what a special person Terry Venezia was—and I hope it helps people live their lives the way Terry lived his. Terry is survived by his lovely wife Renee and his three beautiful children Jason, Jillian, and Ali.
About 7 or 8 years ago, our “fishing trip” was in Aspen Colorado. I made reservations at one of Aspen’s nicest restaurants—and I didn’t hesitate to order several bottles of nice red wine. We decided to play a trick on Mark Everett—one that would set him up to think he had to pay for the entire $3,000 meal. Do you know the game credit card roulette? Everyone’s credit card in put in a basket and the one that the waitress pulls out pays the bill? Well, we rigged the game so that only Mark’s card would be sitting in the basket. And when Mark’s card was pulled, he was in a state of shock. The rest of us couldn’t get enough of this. But not the compassionate one Terry. He felt so bad that he pulled Mark aside and told him it was just a joke. Yes, Terry was compassionate.
Ron would take bike rides in Wisconsin with Terry and, at times, his dad. I understand Mr. Venezia would sometimes put Ron and Terry to shame. Ron recalls how Terry would always say on these bike rides how much he really missed Renee and the kids. And this is the part of Terry I most want to emphasize. More important than anything to Terry was his family. When he talked about Renee, Jason, Jillian, and Ali, he was so proud. He loved them, and he showed this to us without hesitation. As great of a friend he was to us, he was an even better husband and father to his family.
as I want people to know what a special person Terry Venezia was—and I hope it helps people live their lives the way Terry lived his. Terry is survived by his lovely wife Renee and his three beautiful children Jason, Jillian, and Ali.
Julie went to high school with us and knew Terry as long as we did. Here is how Julie thought of Terry: “Terry was never a judgmental person. He treated everyone with respect and was always a good listener. I imagine that he would have made a great judge if he had ever aspired to do so. He was a person you could turn to for advice without ever feeling like you were being judged. And his advice was always something that everyone respected.”
I will share the eulogy, as I want people to know what a special person Terry Venezia was—and I hope it helps people live their lives the way Terry lived his. Terry is survived by his lovely wife Renee and his three beautiful children Jason, Jillian, and Ali.
The third guy and I met a couple of lady friends and Terry and Ron returned back to the camp site. At 2am, I returned to the camp, only to find an empty site where our tent had last been. Evidently, Terry brought a b.b. gun on the trip and decided to pull it out at 1am. The camp ranger kicked Terry out of the camp and left the rest of us to sleep in a car.
ride. Whereas he would usually lead the pack, on that day he would struggle to keep up. As they were coasting toward home and with most guys already splitting their separate ways, Terry was struck by a massive heart attack. Medical help was on the scene almost immediately but was of no help. Terry is survived by his lovely wife Renee and his three beautiful children Jason, Jillian, and Ali.
Yep, Terry always had his act together. I admired this. And I was inspired by this. And as I reflected over this past week, I realized how much I owed Terry for who he was and for being a friend of mine all these years.
