Promoting Staff Satisfaction in the Sonoma County Human Services Department

Through the years, social service agencies have gone through tremendous changes and recognized that through shrinking financial resources and increasing workloads, there is also an increasing demand to provide a more efficient means of social service delivery. Every day, employees interact with consumers, and their attitudes and delivery of service speak volumes about an organization’s mission and goals. Both Sonoma County Human Services Department (hsd) and San Francisco Human Services Agency (sf-hsa) executive teams and managers recognize the need for employee surveys as part of a larger strategic planning and review process. In Sonoma County, executive team members and managers want to ensure that employees have the resources and satisfaction necessary to meet the needs of the community, as well as articulate the desired organizational vision. In 2007, the hsd executive team implemented a rigorous methodology to measure employee satisfaction and implemented interventions to address identified areas of concern. The purpose of this case study is to explore the design, analysis and reporting of the Sonoma County Human Services Department’s satisfaction survey and the outcome of the continuing efforts of executive team members and managers to implement interventions following the staff satisfaction survey.