PUBLIC SECTOR
Biggest ever staff survey aims to make civil service more efficient and innovative
More than half a million people are taking part in Britain’s largest ever employee engagement survey, which was recently launched across the civil service.
For the first time all government departments will ask their staff the same questions - on issues ranging from strength of management to training and development needs - giving civil service leaders the chance to get the best possible picture of what works and what doesn’t across the entire organisation. Senior managers will then use the results to focus resources and expertise where they are most needed, making frontline public services more efficient and effective.
In previous years, departments have carried out their own engagement surveys, but sharing the same system across the whole civil service will "save around 35% in administration costs".
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Mervyn Thomas, director of HR at the Department for Transport and programme sponsor for the survey, believes employee engagement is crucial for staff to achieve their potential and makes organisations more innovative and efficient. He said: “I’m delighted that the civil service is undertaking Britain’s largest-ever employee engagement survey. It will give civil service managers an enhanced opportunity to fully understand the issues that are most important to all our staff, be they policy officials, JobCentre Plus workers, prison officers or coastguards.
Thomas added: “By launching a survey on this scale the civil service will not only improve the public services we deliver but also set a positive example for other employers.”
The MacLeod Review of Employee Engagement, published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills earlier this year, stressed the importance of employers engaging with their staff and called on government to promote the practice.
Survey details
The Civil Service People Survey was rolled out across a total of 96 departments, agencies and NDPBs (non-departmental public bodies) in October 2009. The survey replaces existing employee opinion surveys and forms part of a wider employee engagement programme, an initiative designed to “embed staff engagement” across the civil service. “Results from the survey will help civil service leaders decide where best to focus their actions to improve staff engagement.”
The stated aims of the Civil Service People Survey include:
a reduction in the overall cost of employee surveys in the civil service by using a single survey
a set of comparative results for all organisations – this will improve understanding by the inclusion of appropriate benchmarks
a focus on what drives civil servants to achieve their full potential and maintain a high level of health and wellbeing.
The results of the People Survey will be available from February 2010. Once business units throughout the civil service receive their results, managers will be looking to use them to implement real change that can enhance employee engagement and improve public services.
A final word
Sir Gus O’Donnell, cabinet secretary and head of the home civil Service, believes the People Survey will help provide a greater understanding of civil servants’ experience of work, leading to improved public services.
O'Donnell said: “The civil service faces unprecedented challenges tackling complex policy issues every day. In order to meet these challenges we must harness the talents of all our staff to the full. Our employee engagement programme enables us to do this by understanding and improving civil servants' experience of work, helping to ensure that they have access to the opportunities they need to achieve success in their roles. This, in turn, supports our drive to deliver improved public services and better outcomes for citizens.”
Want to know more?
For more details about the survey visit
www.civilservice.gov.uk/about/improving/engagement/index.aspx.