A survey of Oak Park village employees taken last fall indicated widespread and deep dissatisfaction with both village management and village hall as a place to work.
The results of the survey, which is expected to be repeated again this fall, were obtained by Wednesday Journal through an unofficial source after the village of Oak Park rejected Freedom of Information Act requests for the document.
A total of 278 out of approximately 359 village employees took the survey online last October. Created by the Gallup polling organization, it is called the Q12 Survey and asks a total of 13 questions of participants.
The Oak Park scores were ranked by percentile against the millions of other employees who have participated in the Q12 Survey. The lowest percentile is 1 and the highest is 99.
Overall, Oak Park ranked in the lowest percentile in eight of the 13 questions. The results were even lower when supervisory and management personnel were separated out, with 11 of the non-supervisory personnel responses ranked in the last percentile and the other two rankings a 3 and an 8.
Village Manager Cara Pavlicek could not be reached for comment by press time, but Village President Anan Abu-Taleb said he and other trustees were aware of the survey results.
“I was concerned about the results and I continue to be concerned,” Abu-Taleb said.
Village Trustee Adam Salzman echoed the sentiment, saying in a telephone interview that, “We have a lot of work to do to improve the work environment at village hall.”
Gallup touts the survey as “The only 12 questions you need.” A 13th question (actually the first) asks each employee “How satisfied are you with your organization as a place to work?”
The survey measures several areas of workplace environment, including “workplace expectations” and “supervisory relations.” Employees were asked to answer 12 scored questions, giving one point for the lowest to five points for the highest. Four categories were measured, including basic needs, management support, teamwork and growth.
Gallup breaks down employee respondents into three groups: those who are “engaged,” the “non-engaged” and the “actively disengaged.”
Engaged employees, Gallup states, are passionate and “because they feel a strong connection to the organization, they work hard to innovate and improve.”
Non-engaged employees do their job but no more, and “do not put in extra effort.”
Actively disengaged employees “aren’t just unhappy, but are spreading their unhappiness to other staff.”
In the overall satisfaction rating, even among supervisory personnel, the village ranked only in the fifth percentile.
Besides the overall satisfaction category, the village also ranked in the lowest percentile on “Recognition” (In the last seven days I have received recognition or praise for doing good work); “Opinions Count” (At work my opinions seem to count); “Development” (There is someone at work who encourages my development); and “Cares About Me” (My supervisor, or someone at work seems to care about me as a person).
Workers also ranked the village in the last percentile regarding opportunities to learn and grow, on being talked to about their work progress, opportunities to do one’s best work, being provided with the tools and equipment to do their best job and in fostering a sense of the importance of their work.
The percentiles in the “Tenure,” or length of time employed section indicates that the longer one has worked at the village of Oak Park, the more negative they feel about it. Those with less than a year had 3.74 grand mean (average) with one category in the 1 percentile, and a high percentile of 68.
One to five years had 3.54 grand mean, with two categories at the one percentile and a high of 44. Six to 14 years had 3.09 grand mean, with 10 of 13 categories at the 1 percentile and high of 5.
That improved slightly with employees with 15 and more years employment, with a 3.18 grand mean, nine of 13 categories at 1 percentile and a high of 11.
The village had the option of breaking out participants into groups, which it did to some degree. In particular, the report differentiated between supervisory and non-supervisory employees.
Both Abu-Taleb and Salzman said that after the new village board was elected in 2013, employee dissatisfaction was one of the first topics they addressed in an executive session.
The new board held a goal-setting session, and determined that “one of the goals moving forward was to figure out a way to improve the work environment at village hall,” Salzman said.
“We were all hearing anecdotally from people who worked there that the environment left quite a bit to be desired,” Salzman added.
Both Salzman and Abu-Taleb said the dissatisfaction among employees was something that Pavlicek, who first took the helm as village manager in 2012, and the sitting board inherited from the previous administration.
“We have a village manager that was in office a year before the survey was done,” Abu-Taleb said. “The village manager didn’t select each employee and put them in the position they are in now.”
Abu-Taleb said the village is working to “change the culture” at village hall, not only to improve employee satisfaction but also to improve the quality of service they provide to taxpayers.
“The idea to have a survey done is a step in the right direction,” Abu-Taleb said. “We recognize that our culture needed to change, and I think I’d like to testify that I think our culture is changing.”
Salzman said Pavlicek and supervisors are trying to change that culture at village hall by better recognizing employees for outstanding performance and creating a greater camaraderie in village government.
He said one of the notable results of the survey — a refrain that trustees have heard anecdotally — show that “people had issues with how they were supervised.”
“They didn’t feel good work was being recognized, and some of their performance negatives were being overemphasized,” Salzman said.
Workplace satisfaction ultimately boils down to “how the ultimate manager, Cara, is supervising the supervisors,” Salzman said.
Asked about his opinion of Pavlicek’s performance, Salzman said he could not discuss the specifics of her annual performance evaluation, but added, “I think that I feel comfortable in saying that we feel Cara does a good job and is a good manager.”
Village employees Wednesday Journal spoke with said the results of the Gallup survey were not released to them in report form. Instead, individual employees were given the opportunity to sit down with management staff to see and discuss the final report.
But the village considers the report exempt from public disclosure. On Aug. 20, village attorney Paul Stephanides denied the release of the Gallup report, calling it a “preliminary draft” that is exempt under the Illinois FOIA law.
Stephanides wrote, “The results of the employee survey document is a preliminary draft and recommendation in which opinions are expressed and policies or actions are formulated and exempt from disclosure under Section 7 (1) (f).”
Wednesday Journal has filed its own Freedom of Information Act submission to obtain the report, as well as the cost of the survey and any other services purchased from Gallup.
While Oak Park’s scores were particularly dismal, the village is not the only work place to score poorly on the Q12 Survey.
According to the Gallup website, “Less than one-third (31.5 percent) of U.S. workers were engaged in their jobs in 2014.”
Gallup states that “a majority of employees, 51 percent, were still “not engaged” and 17.5 percent were “actively disengaged” in 2014.
Village Chief Financial Officer Craig Lesner said in an email that the village paid Gallup $5,474 for the 2014 survey and $5,220 for the next round of polls.
