SDG&E; Management Expects Few Surprises From Worker Survey
San Diego Gas & Electric management will get a collective ear-ful this week, as officials begin analyzing the preliminary results of a companywide employee survey--the first in 32 years.
Although no one has yet told SDG&E; brass to “take this job and shove it,” there have been a few negative comments, which, along with the positive suggestions, will eventually be disclosed to utility employees and the public.
“The worst thing you can do is conduct a survey and do nothing; that’s a disaster,” said George Weida, SDG&E; vice president of human resources. “We’ll publish the results and either fix what needs to be fixed or communicate why we can’t fix it. Many times perceptions create problems.”
Weida and public relations vice president Richard Manning have yet to study the survey in depth, but their preliminary assessment is that there were “no real surprises.”
Some trends mirrored problems familiar to other utilities, Weida said. For example, “There’s been a sense of dissatisfaction among lower management (in the utility and other industries)--lost souls who don’t get high visibility. That’s a common problem through U.S. industry.”
The results of the survey will be presented to top SDG&E; executives in two weeks and to mid-level management in early June. Soon after, the results will be distributed to all employees.
The $75,000 survey was conducted by The Hay Group, a Philadelphia consulting firm, and paid for by SDG&E; customers as part of the utility’s “human resource effort aimed at improving productivity and morale,” Weida said.
In the 32 years since the last survey of SDG&E; employees, the labor force has grown from 2,107 workers to 4,835, and the public perception of the utility has evolved from apathy to anger.
Sparked by increasing energy rates in the early 1980s, the wrath of SDG&E; customers was often felt acutely by SDG&E; workers.
Managers conceded that they do not know what the results may yield. The workers “were in the trenches” during the public’s outcry against rising rates, Weida said, “and that can have an adverse effect on attitude.”
Commissioning a survey became a priority when Weida joined SDG&E; 18 months ago. He has more than two decades of experience in the employee and human relations field--the new corporate jargon for “personnel.”
Action on the survey results will fall into three categories, Weida said: Concerns that will be corrected, concerns that need more than a “quick fix” or that may be stymied because of financial and regulatory considerations, and concerns that SDG&E; simply “won’t fix.”
More than 90% of SDG&E;’s employees participated in the survey--a one-hour session, on company time, with 88 questions contained in 28 pages. Most of the questions required yes or no answers, but a handful offered the chance for a detailed explanation.
“It’s been pretty well-received,” Weida said, adding that management has no idea who did or did not fill out the survey forms.
Moreover, employees who participated in the survey did so with only their peers, no superiors, in attendance. Everyone from chairman, president and chief executive Thomas Page to the night shift custodian was urged to participate, Weida said.
