Inside ASI-AP

Following on from our recent results of making the top 50 great places to work in Australia (previous posts here, here and here), this article is the first in a series on the actual results for the survey questions that everyone completed towards the end of 2008.

The questions were divided into 5 major areas - credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie. For each article I am going to cover off one of these areas, and then over the remainder of the year there will be continued discussion on individual points as we work to make ASI an even better place to work.

As you will recall the surveys were anonymous and we are only looking at the aggregated results. We of course would like to learn more about why some answers are what they are and to ask for individual feedback to help better understand.

CREDIBILITY

The first major area I am going to report on is Credibility. Of all the 5 major areas, this one actually had the overall lowest average score, so it is probably a good place to start. My plan in these articles is to provide the survey results and then make my own comments. If you have your own comments to add please login and post a comment against this blog post.

The average across all questions was 79% so you can see which points are below the average and which are above the average as you look at the results for the credibility questions here:

Management keeps me informed about important issues and changes - 68%
Management makes its expectations clear - 57%
I can ask management any reasonable question and get a straight answer - 79%
Management is approachable, easy to talk with - 79%
Management is competent at running the business - 79%
Management does a good job of assigning and coordinating people - 46%
Management trusts people to do a good job without watching over their shoulders - 96%
People here are given a lot of responsibility - 75%
Management has a clear view of where the organization is going and how to get there - 79%
Management delivers on its promises - 45%
Management's actions match its words - 59%
I believe management would lay people off only as a last resort - 93%
Management is honest and ethical in its business practices - 97%

Credibility Average - 73%

Firstly on the positive results - management being honest and ethical is something that can be taken for granted and I am glad that we don't. Over the years the non-profit sector has seen its share of scams and that ASI is able to be an upstanding citizen in the non-profit community is vitally important to us all.

The second highest score was for trusting people doing a good job without watching over their shoulders, which I know is something I believe in and try to practice as much as possible. Of course there are times when tasks and jobs have to be closely looked at or monitored but generally this is a reflection on making sure we are doing the right things as a company rather than any person's job performance (unless of course you are under formal performance monitoring which is very clear to you if it happens).

The next highest score was for the question on lay offs and I think you are seeing that in practice this year as we work hard to cut expenses, and we still have more work to do over the rest of the year.

Questions on management being competent, approachable, getting straight answers, and having a clear view on the business were all answered in line with the average, which is good but there is definitely room for improvement across everyone on the management team on these points.

The not-so-good points are disappointing for me personally to read as they really are my job. And I think the lower numbers on these 4 or so questions probably kept us out of the top 25. The points are management delivering on its promises, management action matching words, management doing a good job of assigning people, and management making it's expectations clear. The good news is that most of these we can work on pretty easily and that is going to be a focus of Julie and I starting in July. We will need to ask you for some more detailed feedback on a one-on-one basis and I hope that you can help me make some progress. And indeed all managers need to have a good look at their own management responsibilities as well, but for now it is going to start with me.

As I said earlier feedback is welcome and encouraged. We all want to be able to work at a great place and help our customers do great things.