Amey employee survey case study

Amey is a large provider of infrastructure support services, and is part of the wider Ferrovial group with whom ETS have a long-standing partnership. In 2016 Amey appointed ETS to work on an employee engagement survey programme.

Challenge

Amey had previously devised and run its own employee surveys in house. But they needed a more robust and reliable system and the advice of a specialist in the field. Rachel Tolhurst, Senior Internal Communications Manager at Amey, explains:

We see this is the starting point of a new chapter in our history; where we’re seeking to move our business forward. With a new business strategy in place, we want to also run employee surveys with the added value of ETS’ consultancy advice.

Having selected ETS following a tender process, Amey instructed us that they wished to run the survey in October, rolling it out to their 20,000 employees across 500-plus locations.

Solution

Questionnaire

Having previously run their own survey, Amey already had a questionnaire. This gave us a good starting point. Our business psychologists undertook a review of the questions, making recommendations of those to use in the engagement index.

Survey and reporting tools

We created an online survey platform for Amey, where employees could complete the ‘Have your say’ survey. This featured full Amey branding and their language so that it would look and feel familiar for employees. On the technical front, the platform was mobile and tablet compatible to allow easy access for their large number of remotely-based employees.

With over 50% of their employees being ‘offline’, Amey was also keen to retain a paper survey option for those employees preferring to provide their views that way. We were able to build the survey tool to enable paper survey data, provided by a third party, to be quickly uploaded into the tool so it could be included in reports. We were also able to measure the routes people took to complete the survey; finding that 33% used paper.

The powerful reporting tools we included allowed administrators and managers a number of options. This included; viewing snapshot reports online, or creating downloadable versions in PDF or Excel format. Furthermore, users could choose between various demographic and display options, select numbers and comments reports and cut and slice data in a variety of ways.

Smart communications

Amey led a multi-channel internal communications campaign; spanning their company intranet, mobile, telephone, face-to-face and print. This ensured they reached all employees, wherever they’re based. The communications tactics used included emails from the CEO, team briefings, intranet banners and news stories, posters and a mobile app with push notifications and text alerts.

Result

The results, in summary

The reports and additional analysis were useful for action planning and understanding areas of strength, as Rachel Tolhurst, explains:

The key driver analysis has been valuable in helping us understand where to focus the most effort to improve employee engagement.

Also, it was really pleasing for us that the four top-scoring questions above the benchmark included those relating to improving customer experience, supporting communities and safety. These are all priorities for us and where we place a significant amount of effort.

Communicating results to the business

Again, Amey used several channels well here. Firstly, we helped them by creating a short animated video, which gave an overview of the survey results, key themes and told employees about planned next steps. This was published on the company intranet and app, along with a news story. Additionally they created posters for offices and other communal workplace areas.

Communicating results to executives

Our business psychologists conducted a key driver analysis using the survey data, enabling us to identify what drives engagement at Amey, and make specific recommendations based on this. This information was presented back to the executive board, along with comparison to the ETS benchmark and demographic analysis produced using the reporting tool.

Action planning

To support Amey with action planning following their survey, we reviewed and revised an action toolkit they had created for managers. This featured simple steps for devising action plans, a list of frequently-asked questions and a section with suggestions for each question – based on real action plan examples for every question. The toolkit also signposted useful online resources for managers, helping to inform their action plans.

The results also informed the development of a storytelling approach to rolling out the business strategy.

Partnership

Rachel Tolhurst, comments on their experiences of partnering with ETS:

We wanted a survey provider who offered a high quality survey platform, but even more importantly, one with whom we could form a trusting and collaborative relationship with – and that’s exactly what we’ve got from ETS.

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