By Lina Bickel, CalSAWS Project Manager
Have you been wondering about those CalSAWS Readiness Surveys? Are you curious about how the information is used? Are you a complete-it-now type? Or are you more likely to open and put aside until you have time? Or maybe you are the nope, not doing it person? Read on to learn about the purpose of the surveys, and our survey outcomes so far.
The CalSAWS Project hired Deloitte to help the 18 CalWIN counties prepare for and navigate a successful cutover to CalSAWS. Deloitte staff oversee several important project streams: business process re-engineering, organizational change management, training, and implementation readiness. The Readiness Surveys are part of the organizational change management project stream. The surveys help counties assess communication effectiveness and measure staff awareness of the migration to CalSAWS. Readiness Surveys are conducted quarterly at 12 months from Go Live, 9 months, 6 months, and 3 months. We have already participated in three surveys, as shown below.
Our most recent survey was completed at T-6 months, and you can see that our response rate has increased steadily since our first survey at 12 months. But the news is even better than that.
Survey responses provide an overall affirmation rate: the aggregate of “agree” and “strongly agree” answers to the five survey questions. The affirmation rate helps us understand whether staff positively perceives the migration to CalSAWS. I am happy to report that our affirmation rate indicates that 81% of respondents feel optimistic about moving to CalSAWS!
Another important area of readiness is measuring staff’s level of understanding, commitment, and acceptance of the change. As you can see from the picture below, we are ahead on the change assessment curve—we are almost to adoption/buy-in, which is where we need to be as we begin training in early 2023. (Click to enlarge the graphic.) Well done, DSS!
Finally, nearly 200 of you took the time to offer additional feedback. What was so interesting about your input is the level of CalSAWS knowledge already evident, and that you are ready to know more. This is exactly where we need to be as we approach training.
At the end of January, you will receive your T-3 survey, and I encourage you to open it right away—completing it will take 3 minutes at most. Don’t put it aside until you have time—no one has spare time! And don’t think that your response won’t be helpful and won’t be missed. It will. We want Santa Barbara County to be as ready as possible for CalSAWS, and the surveys are your way to let us know how you are doing.