Title
Report regarding a resolution approving an agreement with Cooperative Personnel Services (CPS-HR), Inc. for professional services in an amount not to exceed $12,000. (Madeline Popielak, Mock Human Resources Director)
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RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
It is recommended that Council adopt a resolution approving an agreement with Cooperative Personnel Services (CHS-HR) for professional services in an amount not to exceed $12,000 for the second semi-annual employee engagement survey.
Body
In 2023, the City of South San Francisco launched an employee engagement initiative, in order to assess the City’s workforce engagement levels and identify strategies to improve employee retention, wellbeing, motivation and performance. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many public agencies experienced increasing rates of employee burnout and turnover, due in part to the pressures presented for essential workers by the pandemic, as well as limited staffing resources available to budget shortfalls caused by a sharp decline in revenue in 2020-2021. In addition, post-COVID inflation and strong job growth led to high competition to fill vacant positions. Although the City of South San Francisco has historically maintained a low turnover rate, turnover did increase between 2020-2023, particularly in essential services such as public safety and community services, as well as in competitive and highly-skilled positions.
In order to assess the needs of the workforce and develop strategies for employee retention, in fall of 2023, the City contracted with Cooperative Personnel Services to conduct an employee engagement survey of the City’s workforce. By utilizing a third-party survey, individual survey responses were kept confidential and only aggregate results were reported to the City. The results included a breakdown by department, employment status, and other key demographic results. The survey results also included comparisons to local government agency benchmarks in order to better assess the City’s engagement levels compared to similar organizations.
On a City-wide basis, the following areas were identified as key drivers of engagement where the City showed the strongest positive results, as well as areas identified for improvement:
Strengths to be Maintained:
• The City values diversity, equity and inclusion
• Employees have an opportunity to succeed.
• Employees feel a sense of belonging in the workplace.
• Employees feel respected in their workplace.
Focus Areas for Improvement:
• Leadership communication/keeping employees informed.
• Improving trust in the City’s decision-making to ensure fairness.
• Recognizing employees and valuing the work that they do.
After reviewing survey results, an action plan was developed by the City’s leadership team including resuming in-person town hall meetings with various City departments, instituting quarterly meetings for managers as well as administrative staff across departments, increasing management and supervisor training, and enhancing human resources services in key areas to promote better communication and transparency on a variety of key processes. Although some elements of the plan are still in progress, staff recommends continuing the employee engagement survey on a semi-annual basis in order to gauge engagement levels over time, and to assess the impact of the City’s employee engagement strategies. Staff recommends engaging the same vendor for at least the next two survey cycles, in order to evaluate results from the same survey. The target date for the rollout of the survey is January, 2026, as opposed to November, as staff determined that moving the launch date to after the holiday season may result in a higher response rate.
The Professional Services Agreement includes the same consulting services as the original agreement, however, the total cost is approximately $2,000 lower as it does not include work for customizing the survey and breakout reports to South San Francisco. Staff also recommends adding a paper option (with a QR code scan) for some hourly employees who do not routinely use City email. On the last survey, hourly employees had a low response rate, and this change will enable the City to reach more employees and encourage them to complete the survey. The additional cost for the paper option is $1,200.
RELATIONSHIP TO STRATEGIC PLAN
The City’s employee engagement program supports all aspects of the City’s strategic plan, by ensuring that the City is able to build, retain, and motivate and high-performance workforce to carry out the City’s public services, as well as City Council goals and initiatives.
CONCLUSION
It is recommended that Council adopt a resolution approving an agreement with Cooperative Personnel Services (CHS-HR) for professional services in order to continue the City’s employee engagement initiative and assess engagement levels on a semi-annual basis.