City presents employee engagement survey showing high overall satisfaction, identifies communication and staffing gaps

Paulette presented the city’s employee engagement survey results, telling the council that the September survey — conducted by Prabulski Research — shows broadly positive staff sentiment while also highlighting areas needing improvement.

The presenter said the survey covered 45 questions and produced an average score of 84.6 across respondents. She told council that roughly 274 employees completed the survey and that nearly all respondents rate the city as “a great place to work,” citing sample figures such as 96% agreement that employees understand job expectations, 94.2% agreement that coworkers are committed to quality service, and 93% who said they are proud to work for the city.

The report singled out opportunities for improvement: cross‑departmental communication (about 65.7% agreement), decision‑making empowerment (47.8%), perceived staffing sufficiency (roughly 58.8% said there are not enough people to do the work), and addressing poor performance (64.2% said it is addressed effectively). Paulette said staff will analyze departmental and work‑area results (subject to anonymization thresholds) and follow up with department directors to target improvements.

Council members asked for historical comparisons to prior surveys; staff said they would provide trend slides from 2022 and 2024 and breakouts by department where response-group sizes preserve anonymity. Several council members also questioned response rates and possible incentives; staff said response rates were under 50% this year and that incentives can skew results, so they will examine non‑identifying subgroup sizes before publishing more detailed breakdowns.

Council requested that staff return with comparative slides and recommended next steps to bolster communication and address workload and performance‑management concerns.