Culture Assessment 2019

In Aug. 2019, Civility Partners conducted a Pulse Survey with IST staff. The survey, a shorter follow up to the first culture assessment survey conducted in May 2018, was created by analyzing the data from the first culture assessment in order to select questions that would provide reliability.

 53% completed 47% did not      70% satisfied, 9% neutral, 21% dissatisfied      55% say yes, 31% neutral, 14% has not improved

Survey Responses

The original survey conducted in May 2018 was created using a series of already validated and reliable scales from scientific research. The pulse survey was created by analyzing the data from that first survey in order to select questions that would provide reliability for each scale even though the scales were being shortened. Statistical analysis on the pulse survey data shows that all major scales were reliable.

There were 158 respondents (and 181 on the 2018 survey). View the full survey results here

As a whole, the pulse survey shows positive change: 

  • Employees feel more encouraged that their concerns will be taken seriously and addressed than they did in 2018.
  • 55% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they’ve seen improvement in the last year.
  • 41% of respondents indicated they have used the knowledge they gained in the bystander/ally training.
  • The gap between how women and how Blacks/African Americans view IST in comparison to other groups has decreased (i.e., the perception of women and Blacks/African Americans has become more positive).
  • Women’s perceptions of bullying have decreased significantly (from 4 to 1.8 on a scale of 1 to 5).
  • Perceptions of IST’s commitment to diversity and relationship-building strategies (e.g., communication), as well as employees’ own engagement, have increased.

However, the percentage of respondents who would recommend IST as a great place to work has dropped from 80% to 68%, and levels of job satisfaction have declined by 14%. This is not surprising - while the last year has included a lot of projects focused on positive change, it has also included a lot of messaging as to why change was needed. People who may not have been aware of bullying in the previous survey, for example, are now aware it occurs in their workplace and are likely to be less satisfied. Further, as the organization gets its footing in new ways of doing things the environment feels uneasy, and, let’s face it, change is hard and requires more work.