2025 employee survey: why it's worth taking part
A job satisfaction survey is currently underway for all ETH employees. The anonymised results yield insights into how research groups and teams are doing. How do those insights benefit you and your team? Three employees reflect on their experiences from 2021.
It takes an employee about 20 minutes to answer the roughly 90 questions about their personal work situation. After four years, ETH Zurich staff have once again been invited to participate in a new round of this confidential survey. The anonymised responses provide ideas for how ETH Zurich can evolve as an institution. In addition, they are a valuable source of feedback that can reveal where there’s room for improvement in departments, research groups and teams. That's why in 2021, the data was aggregated into individual reports and made available to managers for the first time, provided that at least five people from their units had participated.
Surprising insights
“I always thought my research group needed more technical advice, that I needed to be more hands-on with the experiments – but that wasn’t what my employees wanted at all,” recalls Professor Simone Schürle, who was still new to her role in 2021. “Structure and guidance on less scientific matters were much more important to them – working according to a milestone plan, for example, or setting priorities. They also wanted me to be less personally impacted by bad news.”
These insights came from a group workshop that examined the results of the survey – which had turned out well – in more detail. “It helped me a lot,” says Schürle. “Of course, you know that there can be differences in how you and your employees perceive things. But it opened up a completely different dimension to understand just how crucial it is to regularly seek out feedback from your team.”
The deputy head of Facility Services, Umberto Lodi, also received a good individual report for his team – but with some surprising results as well: “There were some points that I hadn’t picked up on in one-on-one conversations or group meetings. It was really valuable for me to get a better understanding of my team and their needs.”
“It was good to see that our feedback was taken seriously.”
How did employees perceive the discussion of the survey results? Michael Christiansen, established researcher in Schürle's research group, says: “It was good to see that the feedback from our group was taken very seriously. We discussed the questions and looked at what we wanted to change as a team.” When asked whether the survey was a prerequisite for this discussion, he says: “Hard to say, but the survey definitely highlighted important issues that probably wouldn’t have come up in one-on-one conversations.”
Take part now!
The Employee Survey 2025 runs until Friday, 11 April 2025. ETH employees can find the link in their email inbox.
The survey is confidential and conducted by the external research institute external page Empiricon AG.
Evolving together
Defining milestones, documenting decisions, planning deadlines with more lead time, fostering a positive feedback culture – while these were crucial steps for Schürle's research group, for Lodi the true value was created elsewhere. “Honestly, the measures from our workshop on work processes didn’t lead to all that much,” he says. “But all the more important was the realisation that we wanted to do something to create a sense of community as a team.” Since then, they occasionally meet for social events. “This is very much appreciated,” says Lodi. The measures from the survey workshops are as varied as the teams themselves; certain realisations only surface through further discussion, and it’s often small changes that make the biggest difference. For Christiansen, working with the survey results is part of a continuous process of improvement.
Opportunity for mutual understanding
The differing roles of supervisors and employees means that there will be different perspectives and needs. In addition to being able to better pick up on employees’ feelings, Lodi points out that discussing the results is also a good opportunity to create mutual understanding: “I believe that after our workshop, some people were more aware that direct supervisors only have limited influence over certain factors that are important for job satisfaction, like salary.” For ETH, however, the responses regarding salary satisfaction are an important indicator. Only those who speak up can drive change!
Wanted: openness and constructive discussions
Critical feedback can be challenging for managers. However, their attitude is key, according to Schürle. Instead of feeling personally attacked, it helps to say to oneself: “Well, this is an interesting result! How can we address this?” Lodi also confirms: “Taking a step back helps. Some things were put into perspective when we discussed the results within the team. A survey is always a snapshot of a particular time and place. The 2021 survey was right in the middle of the Covid period, and this of course showed up in the results.” That’s why it’s important to put the results in context and to talk about them with one’s team on equal footing. “Even with good survey results, there is always something worth improving in your working relationships,” says Schürle.
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