An interjurisdictional initiative to building stronger public services

by the Employee Engagement Interjurisdictional Team

Ensuring that employees are provided with the kind of work environment that inspires them is becoming increasingly important to municipal, provincial and federal governments.

Building a workforce of satisfied and fulfilled employees motivated to do their best is a keystone of human resource management on which governments continue to sharpen their focus. It is not sufficient to simply dedicate significant resources to attracting new employees; they need to be engaged and retained.

Two years ago, public service commissioners from the federal, provincial, and territorial governments concluded that because they have similar viewpoints about the importance of engaged employees, more could be achieved by working together and sharing best practices.

An agreement to collaborate was first discussed at the annual public service commissioner’s conference in Halifax in September 2004. The Employee Engagement Interjurisdictional Initiative was born.

Although several jurisdictions already had tools in place to gauge employee engagement, what was missing was an understanding of how their survey results compare to similar organizations.

Other public and private sector organizations use similar, but not identical, questions in their surveys, meaning there is no way to determine with certainty whether result variances are due to differences in the level of employee engagement or in how questions are worded. Add the fact that many current employee survey data banks are heavily weighted with private sector data, and it leaves the question of how survey results from one public sector jurisdiction compare to others – a question that public service commissioners wanted to answer.

Six jurisdictions agreed to take part in the initiative when it was launched – British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and the federal government. Yukon and Northwest Territories have since joined as the seventh and eighth partners, and no one has looked back.

“Employee engagement is important for public service organizations across the country because we all rely on engaged employees to provide the high-quality programs and services that our citizens expect and deserve. Public service commissioners felt we could make great gains in employee engagement by sharing best practices and having accurate information about what’s working well, ” says Alberta Public Service Commissioner Shirley Howe.

“Asking employees about their work environment is important, because it’s key to building a modern public service,” adds Ontario Deputy Minister and Associate Secretary to Cabinet, Michelle DiEmanuele.

“The reason for this initiative is simple,” agrees British Columbia Commissioner and Deputy Minister James Gorman. “At the end of the day, we all have a common objective – a more engaged workforce to improve outcomes for citizens.”

Getting started
The project, being guided by a working team of members from each of the eight jurisdictions, started with the development of a common employee engagement model and survey questions.

Team members set out to build a model that would accurately but succinctly portray employee engagement.

“In developing the model, we relied on the past experiences of each jurisdiction, as well as relevant research in the area of employee engagement,” explains working team member Kathy Cox-Brown from Nova Scotia.

What they came up with was the ‘Double E’. On the left side of the model is a list of factors that have an impact on employee engagement. The diagram then shows how these factors foster characteristics of a fully engaged employee, and lead to a government able to achieve its goals through high levels of organizational performance.

The second task that working team members had to tackle before putting a common survey out to the field was deciding what questions needed to be asked to arrive at a sound measure of employee engagement.

Coming to a consensus on the wording of each question was just one step in the process. Further enhancing the ability to compare survey results meant the partners had to see eye-to-eye on the sample sizes to ensure a minimum confidence level with results and reporting based on a five-point rating scale, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

It wasn’t always easy for jurisdictions that had been heading down separate paths to arrive at a common crossroads.

“Balancing the individual needs and desires of different jurisdictions is a challenge in any intergovernmental initiative,” says working team member Tracee Schmidt of British Columbia.

“One of the most significant tests we faced was arriving at a common model and questions because of the plethora of approaches in the public and private sectors,” adds team member Nicholas Prychodko from Ontario. “Every jurisdiction brought its own experiences and perspectives to the table and integrating them was a challenge.”

A challenge, but not impossible. Public service commissioners gave the green light to fielding common questions in 2005-2006.

Common questions were identified to measure each of the factors that contribute to employee engagement (the first “E”) and for the identified outcomes of having engaged employees, such as whether they are satisfied with and feel pride working for their organization, whether they intend to stay, and whether they would recommend working for their organization to others (the second “E”).

Measurement to action
Results from common questions were compiled and presented to public service commissioners during their annual conference in Fredericton in September 2006.

To get there, the working team developed a data sharing protocol to define how data would be shared and reported.

The partners shared the average percentage of their respondents who agreed or strongly agreed with the questions, as well as the spread between the highest and lowest agreement and the average scores across jurisdictions. Public service commissioners have instructed the working team to continue fine-tuning the common survey instrument and report the results at future public service commissioner’s conferences. There is also talk about how to evaluate, validate, and enhance the engagement model and associated common questions.

The participants are also now giving thought to how they can take the results from the worksheet to the workplace to help build more engaged workforces.

“The real benefit of this project goes beyond sharing numbers,” says Yukon Public Service Commissioner Patricia Daws. “It’s in the sharing of best practices and identifying areas for collaboration where we will all gain from being involved.”

“The opportunity to share information about survey methods and outcomes has been helpful to us,” says Saskatchewan Public Service Commission Chair Clare Isman. “The benchmarking and potential application of best practices will make a real difference in each of our organizations.”

Cooperation and collaboration
The working team recently developed terms of reference formally outlining its purpose, objectives, operation, membership, accountabilities and key deliverables, including a continued commitment to a consensus-building, decision-making approach. Working team members believe the benefits of such an approach far outweigh the drawbacks.

“Several of the jurisdictions already had employee engagement models and survey instruments in place. So being a participant in this initiative meant coming to the table willing to create something entirely new that could work for everyone,” says working team member Jody Nisbet from Alberta.

“It ensured that everyone had an equal voice and it forced us to debate sticky points until they were resolved,” agrees Schmidt. “What we came up with is a better and more widely accepted product than if one jurisdiction would have created a survey for the rest to use.”

“The adoption of a common employee engagement model for the public service is an international breakthrough,” notes DiEmanuele.

The public service commissioners point out that the journey has been as important as the destination. Two years of work not only spawned a model for employee engagement, but a model for interjurisdictional collaboration and knowledge sharing that can be applied in areas outside of human resource management.

“One of the most impressive things that came from this initiative is the cooperative spirit,” says Isman. “When everybody comes to the table to work for the common good, everybody wins.”

Thinking outside of their geographical borders has paved the way for the governments involved in the initiative to take their first steps together toward achieving an objective they all share – building a more engaged workforce positioned to do its best work for and on behalf of Canadians.

“Putting our differences aside and working together has confirmed that collaboration leads to success and the sum is greater than the parts,” concludes Howe. “It’s an excellent example of the cutting-edge work that public services in our country do."

The Province of Manitoba and other public service jurisdictions that have learned about the work done over the last two years have already said they are interested in joining. These jurisdictions and others are welcome to join and benefit from participating in this project.

For further information, contact the working team at eeit@gov.ab.ca.