The Civil Service Engagement Survey (CSES) is one of the many examples of how we are working together to create the world-class Civil Service that the Deputy Governor, Franz Manderson, has envisioned.
The CSES involved over 3,000 electronic surveys and 500 plus paper surveys being distributed to core civil servants. The net result was that 61 percent of the Civil Service took part in year one of this annual survey.
Led by the Strategic & Corporate HR Unit in the Portfolio of the Civil Service (POCS), running the survey required collaboration with the Management Support Unit (MSU) and other sections of POCS, the Internal Communication & Engagement Unit in the Cabinet Office, Government Information Services (GIS), and the Cayman Islands Postal Service (CIPS).
To begin the project, MSU procured an outside vendor, ORC International, to administer the survey, ensuring civil servants had anonymity. Throughout the three weeks the survey was open, regular updates were provided to HR teams and Chief Officers on progress being made in terms of participation rates among government entities. The communications team also kept civil servants informed directly using the Hub, posters that were distributed to all government offices, and other news items and graphics. As the deadline for responses approached, some employees working in the Government Administration Building also received random notes on their computers overnight encouraging them to take part, and local HR teams across the Civil Service also got creative with their promotions. The Cayman Islands Postal Services handled the collection and shipment of all paper surveys to ORC in the UK.
Manager of Strategic & Corporate HR, Cara Anderson-Linwood said, “Everyone worked so well together that I did not worry. It was a remarkable achievement for year one of the survey, and dynamic collaboration produced the result of 61% participation. This couldn’t have happened otherwise. ”
About two months before the survey went live, MSU’s Graeme Jackson laid the foundational work with the CIPS. He contacted Deputy Postmaster General for Operations and HR, Melissa Martinez-Ebanks, to establish what service, if any, CIPS had to return over 500 paper surveys to ORC International in the UK. The CIPS used Business Reply Mail to meet this objective, which involved predetermined criteria such as the specially designed envelopes.
The specially designed envelopes made it easy for Postal Services staff – at any of the 15 post offices within the Cayman Islands – to identify and send completed surveys to the Senior Postal Officer, Outgoing Letter Mail, Evelyn Mendoza. Ms Mendoza then batched CSES paper surveys and mailed them to ORC in the United Kingdom with a tracking number.
With this important contribution from the CIPS, civil servants completing paper surveys were assured their responses went straight to ORC International for processing. Even though paper survey respondents had only two weeks to complete the survey, just over half of paper surveys were completed and mailed.
Ms Martinez Ebanks said, “We were pleased to do our part. CIPS has an extensive network, and in this case, we were able to leverage the system, and make minor tweaks to accommodate the customer’s needs