news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Most city employees are satisfied with their jobs, but they aren’t as satisfied with the City Council, according to a survey by the N.C. Employment Security Commission.

The survey of 1,667 employees, about 55% of all city employees, rated workers’ opinions on issues of benefits, training, employee relations, supervision and even elected leaders. The survey was taken from Feb. 16 to March 6.

“These are areas of improvement,” said Sara Williams, the labor market developer who oversaw the survey, which was conducted at no cost to the city. “It doesn’t necessarily mean a failing score.”

The survey came with hundreds of pages of open-ended employee comments suggesting changes the city could make.
The survey included 80 statements and asked workers to rank them from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The results in a particular category reflect the number of positive response to the statements.

Williams said it was difficult to determine from the survey exactly how employees feel. But she said the results give a general gauge of opinion.

The employees gave high marks for the training they receive and the jobs of their supervisors.

Ninety-five percent of the workers surveyed agreed that their jobs were important to the city.

The city received low marks in areas of employee relations, such as dealing with and resolving employee problems, employee pay and management.

Three of the top four statements that got the lowest marks involved the council itself.

Only about 28 percent of employees agreed with the statement that the council cared about the needs and problems of staff.

In the open-ended answers, employees asked that the council stop micromanaging the city staff and allow them to do their jobs. They asked council members to stop infighting and bickering.

City Council members chuckled when they saw the negative results. But the results set off a serious debate about how they should handle what they learned.

“We got a 26, does that mean anything to you?” Councilwoman Goldie Wells said. “I never liked getting bad grades.”

Council members suggested they need to be more respectful of each other when they debate. “We need to take responsibility for our own actions. We need to stand up and be the leaders they need us to be,” Councilwoman Sandra Anderson Groat said.

“If we score so low here, I really wonder how we score with the public. I guess we are going to find out in November.”
Some council members suggested that council members need more interaction with staff to understand their needs better.
Council members asked interim City Manager Bob Morgan to come back to them with suggestions on how to follow-up on the results of the survey.

Contact Amanda Lehmert at 373-7075 or amanda.lehmert@news-record.com