City of Calgary employee satisfaction is at an all-time high, according to a recent survey, however, there are still concerns about workload and work-life balance.

Highlights of the City of Calgary 2023 Employee Satisfaction Survey were delivered during Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) David Duckworth’s Q3-Q4 update Dec. 6 during the Executive Committee meeting.

According to the survey of roughly 6,900 City of Calgary employees, the Employee Satisfaction Index reached an all-time high of 137 in 2023. That’s up 5.6 points from 2022.  The index is a collection of eight questions related to recognition, involvement, and performance development opportunities, among others.

CAO Duckworth said three questions drove the rise in this year’s index. He said those were employees being meaningfully involved in decisions that affect their jobs, appreciated for their contributions, and sufficiently rewarded for their efforts.

“To be honest, this even surprised me a little bit, given all the changes that have occurred, particularly over the last few years,” Duckworth said.

“A pandemic, an organizational realignment, and new council. So again, even I was surprised.”

The employee engagement index also went up in key areas, Duckworth said. Pride in working for the City went up two points to 82 per cent. Satisfaction with career opportunities went up five points to 65 per cent, acceptance in the workplace up two points to 80 per cent, and recommend the City of Calgary as an employer was up three points to 77 per cent.

“It’s important to me because employee engagement affects every aspect of the business that we provide. Engaged employees are committed, passionate and invested in their work and their employer,” Duckworth said.

“They take pride in their work and they contribute to better business outcomes, including higher service quality.”

Mental health index also rises, with a caveat

The City of Calgary also tracks mental health and well-being scores among employees. This year, Duckworth said they saw modest increases in 12 of the 14 tracked indicators, moving the index score up by 1 point.

Two of the areas that decreased were workload management and work-life balance.

Those that agreed or strongly disagreed that the city was flexible with work arrangements dropped by eight points, Duckworth said. Work life balance agreement dropped by four points.

“While overall I’m incredibly happy that many measures are trending in the right positive direction we can continue to improve, however,” he said.  

“We will be further studying the data from the survey and the corporate employee survey in our departments and business units and actively developing plans to address any challenges in our team cultures.”

Duckworth also talked about the City’s Speaking Up survey, which he said aims to ensure a safer, more engaged and ethical workplace. It looks at employees’ comfort with speaking up about things they don’t believe are right, safe or appropriate.

“The purpose of the project is to better understand and address barriers to speaking up that employees experience and to understand these barriers to speaking up,” he said.

While the score of employees that believe they can report these behaviours without fear of retaliation has risen since first examining the issue in 2019, Duckworth said there’s still work to be done. They wanted to look more into why people don’t feel comfortable reporting.

Forty-three percent of people that didn’t report incidents, didn’t do so for reasons other than it being already handled.  That included their belief it wouldn’t make the situation better, it could hurt job prospects, damage to relationships with leaders, favouritism and that an employee wouldn’t be taken seriously.

“The city has and is working on some tools, programs and resources that can be used to further empower employees to speak up and be heard,” Duckworth said.

Gains from performance

Ward 12 Coun. Evan Spencer said he was encouraged to hear the positive employee satisfaction results. He said obviously when people feel appreciated for what they’re doing that will drive better results.

He was curious, however, about how this index was being measured concerning outcomes for the City of Calgary. Coun. Spencer asked if they tracked it through key performance indicators that come through the annual reporting from the business units.

“Tell us how we’re able to kind of square that with constituents in terms of why it’s important for us to build that kind of culture here at the city,” he said.

Duckworth said that he hopes through building a collaborative environment with the organization’s realignment, the will deliver better services.

“I’m hoping with the realignment, including what you’re seeing in the employee satisfaction survey, our metrics for everything else will also trend up,” he said.

Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp also asked about metrics and how frontline workers in Calgary would see their contributions directly reflected in regular updates.

“I think that it’s great that you stand up here and you tell us about some of the great things you’re working on,” she said.

“But this, this reflection goes right down to the folks working frontline. Those that are serving Calgarians every day. How do they see themselves in the updates? I think that’s really important and is missing from this today.”

Duckworth said in 2024 they will be delivering a people plan and a cultural growth plan that will capture the culture they want to achieve from the frontline to the executive leadership team.