Children’s Trust Conducts First Gallup Employee Engagement Survey

Press release from Children’s Trust of Alachua County

The Children’s Trust of Alachua County received the results of its first Gallup Employee Engagement Survey. The survey consists of 12 questions that, according to Gallup, measure what employees need most to perform at their best.  

Overall, answers to the survey resulted in an engagement mean of 3.67 on of scale of 1 to 5, with 1=Strongly Disagree and 5=Strongly Agree. 

The new Chair of the Children’s Trust, Dr. Maggie Labarta, explained, “Self-awareness is a sign of a young organization dedicated to improvement in the service of children.”

Murphy said that the survey was voluntary and anonymous, and 7 of 9 employees completed the questionnaire. The results showed that employees gave high marks to the statements “The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel like my job is important” (4.50) and “In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work” (4.33).

“If I could only pick two questions where I would want to be sure we were doing well, those would be it,” said Murphy. “The team here is motivated by this organization’s mission and its importance to our community, and everyone here knows how much they are appreciated for doing a great job.”

In an article recently released by Gallup, annual U.S. employee engagement had dropped for the first time in more than a decade. Author, Jim Harter, encourages employers to “focus on the basics”, as results show the biggest declines are in employees knowing what is expected of them and having the opportunity to do what they do best.

Bonnie Wagner, the Trust’s Research, Planning, and Evaluation Coordinator, said, “Our results show two things. First, staff here is mission-driven, committed, and value each other. Second, our lowest scores are on questions that measure clarity in our organizational and collaborative expectations. That is not surprising given the fact we are new and still finding our way.”

“Working in the middle of a pandemic has been a challenge for the entire workforce,” said Children’s Trust Executive Director Colin Murphy. “We’ve only had a full staff for a few months, and I wanted to know as soon as possible how employees felt about working together. You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” 

Murphy also said that starting a new organization during a pandemic, bringing an entirely new group of people together, developing roles and responsibilities, being responsive to the board and the public, and just having the time to get to know each other are some of the challenges the new organization has faced. 

“The Gallup Survey is a great tool for employees and supervisors to have conversations that will continue the team building necessary for a young organization,” said Daniel J. Douglas, Ed.D. (Organizational Leadership). Douglas is the Communications Manager for the Children’s Trust and previously served as the Assistant Commissioner for the New Jersey Department of Personnel.

Update: A previous version of this article said that Children’s Trust had not responded to our public records request. They have provided us with a screenshot showing a response within 24 hours of our request, which somehow did not reach us. The Gallup’s Q12 Employee Engagement Survey costs $15 per participant. They purchased the survey for nine participants at a cost of $135.