Posted by Dan Caruso
November 10, 2009
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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