Meeting documents

The Committee received a report on the results of the staff survey for 2017 conducted in December and January this year and the following points were noted:-

·         65% response rate.

·         6 themes, leadership, change, engagement, empowerment, management and work.

·         overall the results were very positive

·         There was a slight decline in the number of positive responses, compared to last year, in each category.  The biggest decline in positive responses was in the Leadership category where 76% of respondents responded positively to the 7 questions compared to 83% in the previous year.

·         However, when looking at the chart on page 19 of the agenda however which compare’s results since the Council has undertaken the survey in 2014, overall there are very positive trends.

·         Questions which sought to measure the Councils against stress standards indicate that despite the uncertainty with Unitary status etc. the stress results remain very positive.

The Council is responding to the survey as follows:-

·         A staff survey working group has been set up to look at the results;

·         Heads of Services were developing actions plans.

·         In order to help staff manage stress, the Council would be running a series of workshops for managers run by Mind help raise awareness about stress and how to manage staff effectively.

Whilst Members found the results very encouraging, despite the uncertainty around the unitary decision (which had been picked up in the recent Peer review) they highlighted the following issues:-

·         Reference was made to the three questions where the overall rate of agreement fell below 70%. One of these related to the senior management team communicating a clear and consistent plan for the future which fell by 18% from 2016. Members asked that this issue be addressed within the action plan. The Chief Executive reported that this had been an issue in the past and as a result they had set up regular staff briefings with the Senior Management Team and the Leaders of both Councils. The Chief Executive said that they would need to discuss this further with the Staff Survey Working Group, particularly in light of the briefings that were already taking place. There was a lot of uncertainty amongst staff because of the unitary decision and this response may be because all staff were unclear what the future would look like. A Member suggested that the Senior Management Team should try and ‘walk the job’ to provide further interaction with staff.

·         In terms of the question ‘I feel I am treated fairly and with respect by elected Members’ this had fallen by 1% and Members hoped that this did not indicate a downward trend.

·         Members recognised that whilst there were high level summaries there was also further data analysis at service level. If the feedback was not in line with the trend this would be bought to Heads of Service attention.

·         Members expressed surprise at some of the feedback with all the work being carried out on developing positive unwritten ground rules. The HR Manager reported that she was surprised considering there were regular meetings with the UGR champions and lots of team building work being carried out within both Councils. This would be discussed further with the Staff Survey Working Group. It could be that this related to the higher response rate which was bringing in a wider viewpoint from staff.

RESOLVED

That the results of the 2017 Staff Survey and the actions being taken in response to the feedback given be noted.