A message from Auditor McGuirk:
Why is the Auditor conducting a survey?
The Multnomah County Auditor’s Office is conducting this survey to better understand our county’s ethical culture. The survey serves as a way to identify and measure awareness of county ethical culture efforts, assess the perception of the ethical tone at the top, and identify opportunities to strengthen workplace culture. A strong ethical culture helps promote compassion, loyalty, and honesty in how we treat our employees, and the people they serve.
What makes this different from other surveys at the county?
This is the only survey conducted of the county's ethical culture.
This survey is also different because:
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The County Auditor is independently elected and outside the county’s management hierarchy. The County Auditor offers an outside perspective on areas for improvement and accountability, which is different from county management’s perspective. Because we are independent, I hope that employees will feel free to express concerns honestly without fear of retribution.
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Reports from our office are always public. We commit to publishing survey results on our webpage and making public recommendations for change, based on the results.
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We will look at the whole county. We will be able to compare departments, to learn from departments that are doing well and identify ones that need improvement.
Is participation in the survey voluntary?
Yes. But a survey’s reliability and accuracy is dependent upon how many people participate. We hope as many employees will participate as possible so our survey report can accurately reflect what you are experiencing.
Is the survey anonymous?
Yes, the survey is anonymous. No one will know if you took the survey (or did not take it). We hope you will take it.
The survey will be sent to you via Survey Monkey. Your response will not be linked to your email address, name, employee ID, IP address, or any other identifying information.
How do you keep survey data anonymous when tracking demographic data?
The survey does include a number of demographic questions. This information helps us provide you with information about how different demographic groups are experiencing the county's ethical culture. In theory, someone accessing the entirety of this information might be able to identify an individual.
My staff adhere to strict professional ethical standards and will not attempt to identify any individual respondents and will not share personally identifying information. To further protect employee identities, we will not release survey data about any group that is less than 30 people. We encourage you to complete the demographic section, but responding to demographic questions is voluntary.
Will you share my data?
We will not share any personally identifiable data with anyone outside of our office, and this includes with anyone in county management or with any county elected officials. Results will be reported at a high level, in broad categories. In our reporting, we may include people’s answers to open-ended questions as examples, but we will not include quotes that include personally identifying information.
How did you design the survey?
We based the survey on our 2016 and 2018 surveys of the county's ethical culture. We updated the survey to align with emerging best practices for surveys of ethical cultures. We used demographic categories that the Evaluation and Research Unit uses, and that have been vetted through their Survey Advisory Group.
How were employees involved in creating the survey?
Members of the Evaluation and Research Unit and their Survey Advisory Group generously shared their expertise and provided valuable feedback on our survey during development. Members of this group includes representation from county ERGs and equity committees from departments across the county. We are very grateful for their contributions.
How will you report on the survey results?
We will report on survey results in two ways. We will present survey results in a report that we make available online to all county employees. We will use survey results to inform our audit choices.
What are the risks to taking the survey?
Taking the survey is low risk. Some potential risks are the opportunity cost of the time you use taking the survey, potential to be upset by a question, and a slight risk of loss of confidentiality due to a data breach. As noted above, there are multiple protections to your data and anonymity, and this risk is low.