In recent months the Roffey Park research team has been privileged to work with AAH Pharmaceuticals and Warner Burke, conducting an employee opinion survey based on the Burke-Litwin model of Organisational Performance and Change.
AAH Pharmaceuticals is one of the leading pharmaceutical suppliers in the UK and has experienced significant growth over the past few years. The organisation continually strives for improvement to ensure ongoing success in a rapidly changing market.
Last year the Roffey Park research team was asked by Simon Day, Organisation Development Manager to help the organisation conduct a survey of all employees based on the Burke-Litwin model of Organisational Performance and Change (see figure 1 below). The aim of the model is to provide a comprehensive understanding of current organisational dynamics in order that strengths and weaknesses can be diagnosed and change interventions targeted to improve organisational performance.
The first part of Roffey Park's role was to ensure the survey was suitable and appropriate for AAH Pharmaceuticals. The existing survey based on the model had been developed by Warner Burke in the United States.
Figure 1: The Burke-Litwin Model of Organisational Performance and Change
Consequently the survey needed to be adjusted not only to reflect the UK setting but also the style, issues and language of AAH. Our role was to ensure that the questions were seen to be relevant and clearly and consistently understood by employees at all levels of the organisation so that the results would be seen to be valid.
Simon comments,“This part of the process was vital.Working in partnership with Roffey Park enabled us to achieve the outstanding response rate”.
The second part of Roffey Park's remit was to conduct the survey across all 3739 employees in 21 locations, ensuring a response rate of at least 80 percent. Getting a high response rate was seen to be critical to give all employees a voice, add weight to the findings and ensure that the results were taken seriously.
The final part of our remit was to analyse the findings in collaboration with AAH and Warner Burke, at the company level and for different subgroups.
A partnership approach involving significant collaboration with AAH employees was seen as key to ensuring the success of the survey. Vision Champions (representatives of staff at all levels from all branches and directorates) were particularly key to the process, playing an active role in helping to identify and address issues that would affect the success of the survey and the participation of employees. They were instrumental in planning and implementing communication processes to ensure all employees were aware of the process and purpose of the survey and motivated to take part; in designing the survey so that it would be attractive and engaging; and in identifying real incentives to encourage employees to participate.
“The impact of the initial session we held was tremendous. I felt the involvement we gained from the two days paid dividends,” Simon adds.
Confidentiality was identified as a potential threat to ensuring a high response rate and consequently was emphasised throughout the process, including through the fact that Roffey Park, an impartial external research provider, would be conducting and analysing the survey.
The commitment of senior management was also felt to be essential if employees were to view participation as worthwhile. This commitment was encouraged through involving them in the questionnaire design to ensure that they felt they would get useful data back and through various processes to ensure their active and visible participation in the survey.
The initial investment in consultation and ensuring an effective process was rewarded with 86% of employees responding to the survey, giving their voice to influence future management decisions. The subsequent analysis focused on identifying particular areas of strengths and weaknesses in the organisation as a whole and in different departments and branches. In addition, the use of the Burke-Litwin model allowed an analysis of organisational dynamics such that areas which had a particular impact on performance could be identified. Key findings have been fed back to all employees through a newsletter, AAH has identified key issues to be addressed at the organisational level and different departments and branches are also in the process of developing action plans to help ensure their future success.
Simon concludes “Involving Roffey Park from the beginning through to the end of the survey process ensured I had the data required to discuss the findings in a systemic way.The links we established by using the model to transfer the results to is a big positive when discussing the output throughout the organisation.”