Study on expanding the job ticket offer for employees of the Aachen city administration
Aims of the project:
In 2008, the administration of Aachen planned to improve the job ticket offer for its employees. The offer was to be extended to all employees of the administration throughout the entire urban area. Compared to the previous offer, the new ticket was to be cheaper and given to the employees using a simplified two-step rate key. In order to do so, the job ticket needed to be used by as many employees as possible. In this project, we created an employee questionnaire to find out to what extent the new and improved conditions would increase the ticket sales so that we could create a binding offer for the implementation.
Project contents and structure:
Experience from previous projects has shown that an employee questionnaire already plays a vital role in promoting the job ticket and should therefore be prepared and accompanied accordingly so as to achieve maximum demand among the employees. The procedure was subdivided as follows:
Developing an introduction strategy for the new job ticket (WP 1)
Announcing and preparing the questionnaire and creating accompanying media (WP2)
Designing the questionnaire (PAPI) and conducting a pre-test (WP 3)
Evaluation and coordination of the questionnaire (WP 4)
Presenting the results and deriving recommendations for further action (WP 5)
WP 1 and 2:
In order to differentiate between the new and the old job ticket, a new brand name was first created for the new job ticket: the MitarbeiterTicket. In addition, employees were informed about the new ticket and the questionnaire via posters and the intranet. Three different posters detailed the most important advantages of the offer:
- Saving money compared to using the car
- The option of taking up to four people (one adult, three children) with you using the ticket in the evening and on weekends
- Ability to use the ticket for occasional and recreational travel
In order to address the target group directly, well-known employees of the administration were chosen as ambassadors. The posters were put up in all offices. In addition, employees were motivated to participate in the questionnaire by holding a prize draw of 20 tickets to the Carolus Thermen among those who sent in their completed questionnaire.
WP 3:
The questionnaire was handed out to all employees alongside detailed information on the MitarbeiterTicket, a letter from the mayor of Aachen (OB Linden), and the images from the posters for better recognition. In addition, the questionnaire was available for download via the intranet. The questionnaire comprised seven questions; however, due to contingency questions, not all employees had to answer all questions. The questions covered three topics: The first part of the questionnaire asked about the employee’s general interest in the MitarbeiterTicket (question 1) and their willingness to participate (question 2), but also about possible reasons against the ticket (question 3). The second part covered the employee’s current transport modes for their trip to work (question 4) and, if applicable, their reasons for using a car (question 5). Finally, the employees were asked for information on themselves and their place of work so that all responses could be placed and potentially used to determine a participation area. As time was short, the survey was conducted in the two weeks following Easter. The last questionnaires were handed in on 5 May 2008.
WP 4 and 5:
46% of the current employees participated in the survey. The response shows that the majority of the employees are interested in the new MitarbeiterTicket and want to participate. However, in relation to the total number of employees, the overall share of those interested is lower since those who didn’t respond must be considered negative. There is a number of reasons that may explain this refusal:
Bad public transport connections either at the employee’s place of residence or work (e.g. travel times too long, too many transfers etc.), specific working hours (e.g. working in shifts, inflexible starting and end times etc.) or special needs in the job (e.g. requiring a car to transport material, frequently changing locations).
Evaluating the responses by place of work allowed us to identify “critical” areas with particularly few or negative responses (e.g. fire department, city cleaning etc.). The low response is likely due to the very specific working conditions (e.g. specific working hours, bad public transport connection at the place of work). Because of this special situation, we recommended not to consider these departments for the MitarbeiterTicket for the time being. If the employees of these departments are to be won over, fundamental accompanying measures must be taken first (e.g. improving the public transport connection). Evaluating the questionnaires by place of work allowed us to recommend introducing the MitarbeiterTicket in a tiered area system. For this area development in accordance with the goals of the Air Quality Framework Directive, it makes sense to expand the old job ticket area (essentially all departments inside of Aachener Alleenring) up to the outer ring. In this case, all employees working within the outer ring are eligible.
Project duration:
February 2008 – May 2008
Commissioned by:
The City of Aachen
Responsible at the ISB:
Dipl.-Ing. Christoph Hebel (project manager)
Dipl.-Ing. Katja Johänning
Dipl.-Ing. Armin Langweg
Contact at the ISB:
Dipl.-Ing. Katja Johänning