Air Force studies workforce survey

The Air Force is analyzing 306,000 responses to the most comprehensive online survey about workforce concerns that it has ever conducted.

Officials expect to complete the analysis in February and make the survey results available to all Air Force leaders to improve their units’ morale and operational efficiency. In past years, the Air Force has responded to the confidential biennial surveys by increasing, for example, the frequency of unit potluck dinners and by correcting recognition programs that squadron members perceived as unfair.

The latest study, the 2005 Air Force Climate Survey, went further than previous surveys in soliciting opinions about supervisors’ competency as leaders. The Air Force sought new information about tactical, operational and strategic leadership competencies with questions about how frequently, for example, a service member’s supervisor “spurs others to action or gains enthusiastic agreement regarding an idea, plan or activity.”

Fifty percent of Air Force employees, supervisors, managers, executives and commanders voluntarily answered the worldwide survey, which the Air Force conducted online between Oct. 1 and Nov. 23, 2005, using Raosoft’s Web-based InterForm survey software.

Air Force officials reported no glitches with the software during the survey, but initially they had to deal with a few network problems. “Because each base configures their networks differently, we needed to adjust for those differences,” said Tech Sgt. John Canter, who is assigned to the Air Force Manpower Agency at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.