Engagement Survey 2023 Results
In 2013, DHR implemented the first annual statewide survey assessing employee engagement in an effort to address the goal of developing workforce excellence using meaningful performance targets and measures. This survey process allows us to measure how employees feel about their daily work and about the State of Vermont as an employer, and to establish goals for improved engagement.
Analysis of State of Vermont Employee Engagement Survey Results - 2023 (UPDATED) (pdf)
Appendix B – Cross Tabulation of Inclusive Workplace Responses by Job Type (xlsx)
Appendix C - Employee Engagement Items 2021 - 2023 (UPDATED) (xlsx)
2023 Survey Results Dashboard
Survey results are also available on an interactive dashboard with visualizations. It is powered by a tool called Power BI.
Go to Survey Results Dashboard!
Brief instructions.
- Some pages have filters on the upper righthand side of the screen, which defaults to statewide data for Classified and Exempt employees.
- Click on the down arrow in the dropdown boxes for Department, Division, and/or Employee Type to change the selection of data displayed in the visuals on that page.
- The pages within the dashboard are not “connected” so you will need to use the dropdown boxes to select Department, Division and/or Employee Type on each page.
- Hover over a visual to see additional information.
- Click on any data element to update all visuals on that page. All visuals will then reflect the answers of respondents who also answered the selected data element.
- Navigate to other pages via the blue buttons at the bottom of the screen, or with the left and right arrows underneath them.
Summary of 2023 Results
The 2023 employee engagement survey occurred in late May through early June of 2023. There was an overall response rate of 64.8% including a response rate of 24.8% for temporary employees. This was the first year that the survey was distributed to temporary employees.
- Engagement as measured by seven different components - Alignment, Communication, Satisfaction, Peers, Supervisor, Growth, Balance - found the highest level of agreement on items assessing Alignment (understanding the link between one's job and the organization's mission) at 91.9% as well as Peers (positive relationships in the workplace) at 80.1%.
- The lowest levels of agreement were on items assessing engagement components were for Communication (value employee voices, ideas, opinions) at 65.5% and Balance (work life integration) at 65.7%.
- The 2023 average employee engagement score was 3.78 out of possible 5. This was a slight decline from the 2022 survey (3.84).
- The Employee Net Promoter score, eNPS, which is another measure of employee engagement improved based on 2023 results to 0.9 compared to an eNPS of -14.5 in the 2022 survey.
- Employee retention measures showed a high level of confidence that respondents felt they could find a job in another organization as good or better than their current one with nearly 50% agreeing. However, there appears to be less confidence among this year's respondents versus 2022 where nearly 60% agreed.
- Eighty percent of respondents indicated they were likely to be working for the State of Vermont a year from now. This is up from 72.4% in 2022 and could indicate turnover rates may be lower in the future.
- The “response profile” - measures of engagement and retention - differ significantly for employees of different types. Temporary employees had the highest level of agreement across employee engagement components and retention measures with exempt employees being next highest and classified employees having the lowest level of agreement.
- The inclusive workplace index which represents average agreement to questions related to inclusive workplace was 65.9%, which shows only a moderate level of agreement.
- Employees do not perceive performance management as favorably as do supervisors. For example, when employees were asked if their supervisor has the skills necessary to manage performance effectively 73.4% agreed. When supervisors were asked if they had the skills necessary to manage their employees’ performance effectively 88.6% agreed.
- Over 70% of respondents indicated they had seen/read or otherwise been made aware of the results of the last employee engagement survey. However, only 20% said they could identify a tangible change that was made because of the results of the survey.