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External consultants highly rate the experience of working with NIRAS
In our 2021 Expert Satisfaction Survey, development cooperation experts provide encouraging feedback and offer insights into improving collaboration.
March 24, 2021
NIRAS recently released the findings of its annual Expert Satisfaction Survey (ESS). Based on their experience of working with us in 2020, we were proud to find that external consultants increased last year’s average rating to 4.3 out of 5 points in five areas related to project management, working for NIRAS, country offices, security and integrity, and remuneration.
Responses were received from 419 participants - 67% of whom have worked with NIRAS for a minimum of six months – who have worked on projects implemented in 70 countries around the world. While most respondents were contracted with our eight European offices, there was input also from experts hired by our Asian and African colleagues.
NIRAS has a strong work ethic and efficient project management. It is a people-centric organisation with interesting assignments. It’s the best firm I have worked with.
Survey respondent
The respondents were asked to evaluate the statements using a scale from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. The responses were numerically scored using a scale from 1 to 5, so that “strongly agree” was given the highest score 5 and “strongly disagree” the lowest score 1. An average score was then calculated for each statement to get an overview of our performance. Feedback on what we are doing well and how we can improve was also requested.
Some new elements
The 2021 survey asked respondents if they were aware of the NIRAS Communications Toolkit, which shares best practice on communications in projects and our monthly newsletter. Project managers (PM) can provide more information if needed. In addition to the ratings, experts were asked to elaborate further on areas where there could be room for improvement and also on what they find particularly good in their cooperation with NIRAS. From these replies, we received valuable inputs for our continued development. A confirmation of the importance of a good induction process, team management and easy communication was highlighted by many.
We are glad to share that we now have a new Induction site available in Sharepoint containing access to a general introduction to NIRAS policies, tools and templates. PMs can provide access to the site. Also, PMs may create a project Sharepoint site as a space for collaboration, documentation, and file exchange for project teams. As we believe in a constructive feedback culture, we are also considering tools for annual performance reviews within long-term project teams. NIRAS’ digitalisation strategy will also lead to the development of and access to more digital tools to support project implementation and innovation. Recommendations to strengthen knowledge exchange between projects will also be looked into – we plan to arrange webinars open to our experts to facilitate this.
We are happy to see the strong results and improvements in many areas. In line with our values to Listen, Learn and Deliver, we are also committed to addressing the concerns raised and look into developing in the recommended areas. These results are shared with all managers in NIRAS International Consulting, and specific feedback is given to PMs where this has been given. Such information is invaluable in improving our cooperation with experts.
Thanks to all the experts who responded to the survey and provided important feedback on how we can further improve and become the preferred consultancy company to work with.
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