News
NIRAS receives a big ‘thumbs up’ from development cooperation professionals in annual satisfaction survey
It’s that time of year again when we reach out to the experts working with us across the globe. The results of our annual Expert Satisfaction Survey (ESS) are hot off the press and we have reason to celebrate.
March 21, 2022
The NIRAS team wasn't just about management, but also brainstorming and drawing on their own experience. They were top pros, confident, good listeners, and solutions-oriented, but also friendly and very approachable.
Survey respondent
When asked how likely they were to recommend NIRAS to others, over 400 respondents who were working with us in 2021 rated us 8.7 out of 10. This translates to a net promoter score (NPS) of 57. For those unfamiliar with NPS, while scores relate to the business a company is in and the nationality of the respondent, it is understood that 50+ is excellent and 80+ is world class.
So, yes, we are happy.
A wide range of input
We conduct this survey annually asking experts to rate their satisfaction on working with NIRAS on topics related to project management, country offices, security and integrity, and remuneration. This is the first year NIRAS has added the NPS metric.
Responses were received from 413 participants – 73% of whom have worked with NIRAS for a minimum of six months – who have worked on projects implemented in more than 80 countries around the world. While most respondents were contracted with our European offices, there was input also from experts hired by our offices in Indonesia, Malawi, Uganda, Serbia, Mozambique, Philippines, Tanzania, and Vietnam. A-not-insignificant number of experts ‒ 43 ‒ were working on projects in Ethiopia. Around 58% of respondents were Team Leaders, and sole consultants or project team members equally comprised the remaining 42%.
I recommend NIRAS to fellow consultants as the experience is always very rewarding.
Survey respondent
Some work to be done
We asked whether respondents were aware of the NIRAS induction Sharepoint site, which provides a general introduction to NIRAS and access to policies, tools and templates, as well as our Communications Toolkit, services and newsletter. Awareness of these could be improved to ensure experts have access to all the support that is available.
Additionally, the survey asks experts to elaborate further on areas where there could be room for improvement. From these replies, we received valuable inputs for our continued development. In last year’s survey for example, there was a request for better communication and sharing of learnings among Team Leaders. As a result, this year we introduced our first webinar inviting this group to meet, learn more about NIRAS and the support we can offer, and start a conversation around how we can collaborate better. The goal is to make these sessions a regular feature in our partnership with experts. We intend to offer other network events among our experts as well as arrange webinars which they can join. Respondents also requested more digital tools to support project implementation and innovation and this year NIRAS rolled out its digitalisation strategy and is working with sector teams to support the sharing of digital approaches to different challenges. As we become more digital, we want to develop online timesheets and encourage our project managers to work with experts on the external SharePoint sites. We have also expanded our in-house communications team to be able to offer project teams support services in graphic design, video and social media for example.
On what they find particularly good in their cooperation with NIRAS, many experts ’ comments reflected that they appreciated NIRAS for being a highly professional organisation, creating a good working environment, and having a good reputation.
We are happy to see the strong results but acknowledge there is more to be done. In line with our values to Listen, Learn and Deliver, we are committed to addressing the concerns raised. These results are shared with all managers in NIRAS International Consulting, and specific feedback is given to project managers where this has been given. Our Project Management and Quality Team takes the general comments on board.
Thanks to all the experts who responded to the survey and provided important feedback on how we can further improve and continue to collaborate with professionals committed to creating a sustainable, more equal and stable world.
Speaking of which, if you are interested to join us on our journey, register at cv.niras.com.
