
Introduction
Lawler Consulting is a multi-disciplinary team of highly qualified Building Services and Sustainability Engineers with offices in Ireland and the UK. They offer a range of engineering services including building services design, project management, and sustainability and low carbon consultancy.
The practice has grown over the past 40 years to become one of the leading Building Services Consultancies in Ireland and is rapidly growing in the UK in all construction sectors including Education, Commercial, Industrial, Residential, Healthcare, Retail, Hotel & Leisure, and Public Buildings.
The Challenge
Steady growth, low employee turnover and client project successes had suggested to Lawler Consulting that its workforce was engaged. However, the business had come to realise that it only had anecdotal evidence of what its employees thought – and even that evidence was sparse. In effect, its workforce was an under-utilised asset for the organisation. The challenge was to get employees’ opinions on how the business was operating and, equally if not more importantly, to uncover the employees’ ideas on how to drive the business forward.
The Solution
Lawler Consulting commissioned Brendan Cullen of SurveyGuru to carry out an employee survey. Working closely with Daniel Ring, Lawler Consulting’s MD, Brendan designed an online survey to anonymously gather the ideas of all employees.
After this initial design phase, SurveyGuru then further refined the survey by having a number of employees pilot the survey, i.e., to critique the survey itself.
SurveyGuru also provided input on the timing and content of email invitations to survey participants – it was crucial to be respectful of people’s time while also impressing on them the value that their considered judgement would bring to the process.
After data gathering was complete, SurveyGuru analysed the results and produced a report which included specific and prioritised recommendations.
The Benefits
All employees answered the survey. This means that Lawler Consulting received an extremely accurate picture of its employees’ views on current operations and on the future.
Senior Management also a series of (objective and data-backed) prioritised recommendations on actions they can take.
An incidental benefit is that the risk of employee turnover (with all its associated costs) has been reduced because employees now trust that their opinions are truly valued.
“Brendan brought creativity, insightfulness, responsiveness, and a sense of partnership to bear on the survey project. If you want to harness your employees’ ideas on how to drive your organisation forward, Brendan’s your man.” Daniel Ring, Managing Director, Lawler Consulting