2009

CITY OF GREATER
SUDBURY
COMMUNICATIONS
FOCUS GROUP REPORT
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

COMMUNICATION - TOP OF MIND .........................................................................................4

GAPS IN COMMUNICATION ....................................................................................................5

MOST LIKED ASPECTS OF COMMUNICATION .................................................................................7

OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE THEIR VOICE HEARD .....................................................................................8

INFORMATION THEY WOULD LIKE TO HAVE COMMUNICATED ...................................................................9

HOW THEY WANT INFORMATION COMMUNICATED .............................................................................10

DO THEY BELIEVE WHAT THEY ARE HEARING ....................................................................................11

DO THEY HAVE ENOUGH INFORMATION ..........................................................................................13

SUMMARY ..........................................................................................................................14

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 METHODOLOGY & LOGISTICS
Background
Oraclepoll Research Ltd. was commissioned by the City of Greater Sudbury (CGS) to
conduct a series of focus groups of a cross-section of its employees. The objectives of
the sessions were to gather information from employees on issues related to
communication at the City. In total, 7 sessions were held at the Oraclepoll Research
facility at Sudbury, Ontario.

In total, 38 participants attended sessions on the days of February 20th, March 5th and
March 6th 2009. There were four groups of consisting of: general employees from
across the City, one group of union executives, one group of administrators and one
group of City managers.

No financial incentives were paid to any participants. Each session lasted on average
one hour.

Methodology

The 38 participants for the sessions were randomly recruited from a list of employees
provided to Oraclepoll Research Ltd. by the City of Greater Sudbury. Employees were
sent letters advising them of the sessions. They were asked to confirm their
attendance either by telephone or e-mail. Follow-up phone calls and e-mails were
sent to those respondents who did not confirm.

In total, 140 invitations were sent to employees and 52 agreed to participate. As a

result, 88 employees refused to participate. In the end a further 14 of the 52 recruited
did not show for their scheduled session.

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
COMMUNICATION - TOP OF MIND

Participants were first asked about what came to mind when they thought about
communication at the City of Greater Sudbury.

The overall concept and perception of communication is largely a function of the

position and immediate work environment of the individual City employee. For
instance, managers and union executives tend to think of communication in terms of
corporation communications. However, the general employees, for the most part,
think of communication in terms of their immediate jobs (postings, transfers etc.) and
their own departments. Corporate communications is more of a distant notion. As a
result, employees are primarily aware of communication in their own departments
(with co-workers and supervisors) while inter-departmental and corporate
communications are seen as poor and in need of improvement.

When asked, participants in the Manager group had a consensus that corporate
communications at the City of Greater Sudbury is poor. A main gap is the lack of
communication to all employees, including themselves, involving key issues,
directions and controversies. Those in the Manager group feel that too often they
become aware of events through outside sources such as the news media.

The Union is of the opinion that “strategic leadership” is a bigger concern than
“communication” and they referenced the employee survey to point this out. They are
of the belief that changes are communicated poorly at the Corporation and
communication is only on a “need to know” basis at the corporate level. Workplace
communication is seen as being better than at the corporate level but this also various
considerably with managers.

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GAPS IN COMMUNICATION

Overall, communications is seen as focusing on negative matters, while positive

matters are seldom relayed back to employees and managers. Communications within
departments, while varied, are for the most part good. But there is a feeling not
enough inter-departmental communication of positive events is occurring. Most
workers are aware only of the matters within their own departments.

The focus groups indicate that morale varies department to department, but is
generally low. The question arose whether people are getting the right information
and through the right channels. Different areas have different communications needs,
as there are issues that affect the Corporation as a whole and those that affect
individuals and their specific workplaces.

Concerns arose over not having important developments at the City properly
communicated to employees, such as the hiring of the City’s new CEO. This issue is
especially a concern among Managers, who feel this is a critical issue as it relates to
corporate communications. Managers say they are only hearing about the CEO
situation through internal rumors and the media.

Those in the Managers group believe effective communication starts at the top, and in
this area there is a need for strong leadership. Things are now adrift without a
permanent CEO and Managers themselves are not sure as to where they fit within the
structure of the organization. Managers, administrators, union executives, and general
employees all feel the Mayor and Council are not being transparent and are not
showing a strong direction. In addition, there is a feeling that city councilors often
interfere in the city’s business and bypass managers in the process. This includes
councilors who have gone directly to workers or have shown up at workplaces.

From the Union’s perspective, some of the communication problems at the City relate
to middle and top management not getting along, and as a result there are
communication blockages in the system. For the most part the Union believes senior
managers as doing a good job. Most of the problems are seen to arise among so-
called “old school” middle managers who are set in their ways. Middle managers are
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not advising them of changes, so union members find out information from others at
the City or from the media.

The Employee Recognition Program is disliked by both managers and the union, both
for its cost of implementation and the fact that it is not merit-based. The process was
also criticized and there is a feeling that concerns about the program were not heard,
nor was there proper consultation throughout.

Among general employees, communication at the City is seen as inconsistent. These

employees feel communication varies between sites, among inside and outside
workers, and among those who work at Tom Davies Square and other facilities in the
community. There are organizational structural issues including a lack of
understanding of the lines of communication, inconsistencies in messages, too many
changes without notice, too many bosses and too many lines of communication. In
addition, there are instances of middle and upper managers not communicating with
each other.

Some employees perceive there are gaps with top management as they show a lack of
interest by not showing up for meetings and information sessions. These employees
want a clearer understanding of some of the larger issues and policies at the City,
such as budgetary deliberations, equipment or supply shortages, transfers and
staffing.

In certain areas such as the Water Treatment Plan there is a distrust of supervisors and
managers due to poor communication, the inability to make suggestions or be heard,
gossip, and inconsistencies in job postings and hirings. Some employees took issue
with the job postings bulletin boards, citing a lack of the proper maintaining and
updating of the boards, which they felt affected the job selection and filling process.

There was a sense that there should be a standardized policy of posting and hiring as
well as communication to the employees in question as to the reasons for the
selection. Notification of success or failure should either be communicated by Human
Resources or the Manager. The Human Resources Department is itself seen as another
obstacle, as there is no HR follow through with job postings.

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MOST LIKED ASPECTS OF COMMUNICATION

While departmental communication is for the most part good, workers find out about
corporate-wide news from sources other than the City, such as the media and
workplace rumors. Even with respect to departmental communication, it is better in
areas like the Provincial Building and Tom Davies Square where things are in close
proximity and there are multiple communication channels available. This contrasts
with outside units, outlying facilities and those operations including Pioneer Manor
that have a varied employee base with shift workers. Another problem is that many
workers, especially the outside employees, do not have computer access and as a
result no access to e-mail or E-links. This creates a consistency problem and a
dilemma as to how to get information to workers.

Team meetings were popular where they are being held, but once again there is no
City-wide consistency. Some managers appear better at running meetings than others,
and with operations such as Sudbury Transit it is difficult to hold regular meetings.
Having news releases to relay current and important information such as key Council
and budget issues was seen as important, but the question arose as to how this can
be accomplished uniformly across the City.

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OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE THEIR VOICE HEARD

While Managers feel that they are heard within their departments, they are not being
heard above that level. At higher levels in the organization, including Human
Resources, there is a need for more decisiveness and more consistency in
communicating to managers.

According to the Union, while management may listen to them because of their
positions, they will nevertheless already have their minds made up beforehand and
not take the union’s suggestions into account.

Employees feel that they are listened to within their department but not above that, as
it is too political. Even then, there is a frustration with respect to making suggestions
as there is a sense that they are having no effect or impact.

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INFORMATION THEY WOULD LIKE TO HAVE
COMMUNICATED

The information all employee groups want the most relates to leadership and strategic
direction of the Corporation as its felt there is currently a lot of silence. For instance,
Mayor and Council need to be better at setting an agenda and strategic direction for
the City and communicating with senior managers. For the average worker there is a
need to explain how the big picture relates to their job and their future at the
Corporation. There is also a need for greater transparency with respect to postings,
hirings and training.

Managers want the information provided to them to be selective; in other words

important and relevant as it relates to what is going on in the Corporation. As it is
perceived now by managers, information tends to be “flavor of the week” with an all-
or-nothing approach with very little follow-up.

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HOW THEY WANT INFORMATION COMMUNICATED

Managers feel that e-mails that are sent to them are negative in tone and need be
more positive. Regular staff meetings are good and this was a common theme
throughout all of the employee focus groups. However, there is a need to have
multiple tools to provide them with information, including e-mail and flyers. For
example, e-mail works with respect to day-to-day or operational information.
However, for strategic direction, group or personal meetings are preferred.

While E-links are liked overall as a method of sharing information, not all employees
have access to computers, with the same holding true of e-mails. The Union especially
felt that the onus should be on the employers to communicate to the employees,
instead of employees having to seek out the information themselves when they may
not have time. As a result, it’s felt the City needs a consistent corporate
communications strategy. This could entail having mandatory staff meetings and
improved Manager training to run them.

Meetings and face-to-face methods of communication are overall most preferred as

vehicles of communication across work groups. Further, communication is seen as
better in areas where there are regular team meetings held such as in the IT and
Economic Development departments. IT also tends to communicate positive news
which has a corresponding positive impact on morale. Where available, E-links are
liked, while many employees reminisce about the old City newsletter. Those who want
meetings also want to have the big picture issues discussed.

A key issue is how to communicate to outside units that have no computer access and
that operate on shifts. There is a disparity in information sharing between inside and
outside workers and those at facilities outside of the City’s downtown headquarters.
Bulletin boards in many cases are poorly maintained and many workers feel that they
are too busy to go looking for information and have no time to read inserts and e-
mails. Workers clearly want the big picture of City business spelled out for them;
starting with Council meetings, strategic directions, budget decisions and how they
impact on them, and how they fit into the City’s plans.

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DO THEY BELIEVE WHAT THEY ARE HEARING

While trust in what employees hear from management varies with each department or
with the Manager, they do like what they see and hear from the acting CEO as
compared with the approach of his predecessor.

There are gaps in the area of organizational communication and the City needs
greater clarity with policies and procedures, such as whom to contact, when, and
about what. There are also occasions when senior managers do not consult with
employees on major issues, an example being the “recognition program” which has
met with almost universal disdain among attendees at the focus groups. Issues were
raised about communication around the employee survey, its roll out and follow up.
This was seen as done poorly and inconsistently.

There is a lack of trust in what the Union hears because of past experiences. These
include, the Human Resource Department and arbitration cases that are seen as
lengthy, expensive and that otherwise would have been easily resolved.

Overall, employees believe in what they hear within own department above, but above
that there are gaps as things are detached and too far removed from the average
worker. Problems with information flow occur when information gets filtered down
from the top through some middle managers that may be stuck in their ways or have
their own agendas.

Some corporate-wide policy should be in place to ensure the dissemination of key

information from the middle management group. Some question whether managers
themselves are being communicated to, and whether they are accurately
communicating this information back to the workforce or putting it through their own
filters. Believability is also impacted as a result of the rift between the Union and
Management, as each side has its own interpretation on events and issues.

For all employees in the focus groups, there is a lack of belief in what they hear,
especially from Mayor and Council as it is all seen as too political. Further, there is a
feeling Council is disconnected when it comes to decision-making as councilors

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seldom visit workplaces. And when Council does set strategic direction or make
decisions, it’s done at retreats without the input of employees. With no overall picture,
employees are unaware as to how they fit into the bigger organization, and as a result
morale suffers. In addition to informing workers of the big picture decisions (i.e.
budget) there should also be a standard protocol or organizational structure to
properly disseminate key information.

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DO THEY HAVE ENOUGH INFORMATION

There are times when Managers feel that they do not have enough information
provided to them from their superiors on various issues, and they are unable to
answer the questions posed by their staff.

The union members in attendance feel that they need more information on job
postings, changes to jobs, training and the strategic direction of the Corporation.
Meetings are the favored and most effective means of communication over other
communications vehicles.

Having enough information varies, as there are problems in areas where employees
have not been made aware by their Managers of changes to Provincial Policy that
affect their jobs. Employees say that, in the past, there have been times when they
found out this information second-hand. Within some areas there are also concerns
over a lack of accountability on the part of Managers, and employees are often left to
their own devices, unaware of where to turn or who to contact.

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SUMMARY

In summary, communication with the City of Sudbury needs to better focus on the
City’s strategic objectives and agenda, key policies (especially as they relate to jobs)
Council decisions, and budget deliberations and their impact. Employees prefer to
hear first-hand about key decisions, controversies and strategies that relate to them
(several references were to ticket scandals) before they get that information through
other sources, such as the media, and before Mayor and Council put a political spin on
the issues. Employees want to be informed of key City business before community-
wide news releases are issued. On a more individual level, corporate communications
can and should give employees a greater sense of the City’s overall picture and how
they factor into that picture. Within this context, the City should provide a
standardized communication plan for disseminating various key information, such as
job postings and notification, training notices and new employee orientations.

The generally held opinion is that Mayor and Council are detached, and should make
greater efforts to listen to workers and visit them on a regular basis. The same also
holds for all levels of managers who need to perform more “walk-arounds”. Other
suggestions for improving communication include City news releases or bulletins for
timely or topical data and a regular newsletter for longer term or inter-departmental
news. E-links and on-line communication are good tools for inside workers and those
with computer access, but the gap needs to narrow with those that have no
connectivity. It was suggested having Council meetings on E-links, but there would
need to be a supplemental tool such as a newsletter to get these notes to those with
no access. Bulletin boards and paystub inserts can be effective but there needs to be
corporate wide consistency to ensure that trust is maintained.

Finally, there is a widely held view that regular monthly meetings are a valuable two-
way communication tool and an effective way to communicate information and
subsequently boost morale. There is a bottleneck in the flow of information from
senior levels of management and administration, to middle and lower managers and
ultimately the employees. There are consistency issues among the various managers.
As a result, a concerted effort is needed to bridge the gaps between the various
workplaces and among managers through training and a standardized
communications policy that involves regular open meetings.
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