Significant progress made in employee engagement across APS
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ALPENA -- Gallup Q12 survey data shows significant progress in employee engagement at Alpena Public Schools, but improvements still need to be made in some areas.
At the regular APS Board of Education meeting on Monday, Cheryl Kuch, senior consultant for HR solutions at Rehmann, presented the data to the board.
The last time APS employees took the Gallup Q12 survey was in 2024. The Gallup Q12 survey measures employee engagement through responses to 12 statements, including "I know what is expected of me at work," and "I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right". Respondents enter their answers on a five-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
Organizations that use the survey can also add custom questions. APS added:
-"I have seen the strategic plan being put into action in my daily work environment."
-"The leadership of my organization is creating a future I want to be a part of."
-"I plan to be working at my organization two years from now."
-"There is open communication throughout all levels of my organization."
-"My pay and incentives are fair in comparison to the job market for people doing similar work."
-"I am certain that the issues arising from this survey will be acted upon."
Kuch said that there are 6 million individual responses in the survey pool from hundreds of organizations in the US.
According to the 2026 data, APS employees survey results put them in the 33rd percentile for engagement, meaning they scored higher than 33% of organizations in the data pool.
In 2024, APS ranked in the 26th percentile, meaning they grew by seven percentiles in two years.
Superintendent Dave Rabbideau said the goal is to make it to the 50th percentile in five years.
Kuch's data showed that improvement was made in the transportation department. In 2024, the transportation department surveyed the lowest in employee satisfaction at an average of 3.11 out of five. In 2026, they surveyed at 3.79, marking an increase of 0.68. Employee satisfaction at the central office declined from 4.32 in 2024 to 3.87 in 2026.
Bus drivers/attendants increased from 2.95 to 3.59 and teachers increased from 3.80 to 3.91.
Kuch said that across organizations, an average of 30% of employees are fully engaged, 54% are not engaged, and 16% are actively disengaged. Engaged employees thrive at work and are passionate about what they do. Unengaged employees are checked out and lack enthusiasm. Actively disengaged employees are visibly unhappy and act out.
In 2026, there were above 30% of employees considered fully engaged in most categories. Across all of APS, 37% of employees are considered engaged. In 2024, that number was 33%, making that an improvement of 4%.
APS employees were asked four written response questions including "What changes have you seen since our last survey?" and "What is one thing you would like leadership to know?"
Listed below are some changes that employees noticed:
-Significant concern about frequent principal changes, with one building experiencing four principals in three years.
-Many respondents noted increased communication from central office and district leadership, particularly through the Wildcat Roar newsletter.
-Many remain concerned about workload.
Listed below are some thoughts employees had about what makes APS a great place to work:
-Their colleagues and co-workers
-The students
Listed below are some things employees would like leadership to know:
– Several noted that small gestures of recognition make a significant impact on morale.
– Widespread frustration with inadequate consequences for disruptive and aggressive behavior.
– Mixed feedback on administrative presence, with some praising building principals while criticizing central office.
"I mean, we don’t dismiss comments," Kuch said. "We don’t take them off or anything like that. We don’t scrub them out or if they call out somebody, it’s there, you know. So um know that every comment is read here and every comment is considered as we look. Can we address every single comment with every action? No, we can’t. But we look at those themes and make adjustments accordingly."
Rabbideau said he has met with almost every employee group and the building principals are meeting with their buildings to go over the results.
"And then talk about action steps, how to respond to the survey," Rabbideau said.
He said responses will be categorized and then the whole organization from top to bottom will be asked to provide actionable feedback.
"So there will be a second wave, this will be the first time we've really done that across the district."
Rabbideau said he went over the entire verbatim comments from employees and saw a trend of people saying they felt overworked. Those comments were widespread across all departments.
He said it will be a focus to find out what people mean when they say they feel overworked and find ways to address the issue.
APS employees will take a pulse survey in the spring that will provide more data to work with.