Agenda item - Summary of Results of Staff Survey

Agenda item

Summary of Results of Staff Survey

Minutes:

The Head of Business Transformation and Organisational Development delivered a presentation which summarised the results of the staff survey conducted in August 2013 (Appendix 1).

 

Following this presentation a number of points were raised by Members:

 

·         The level of responses that had been received from staff, which represented a third of the employees from both Bromsgrove District Council and Redditch Borough Council.

·         The potential to design and promote future versions of the survey in ways that would encourage a larger proportion of staff to respond in future years.  Officers confirmed that the survey had been made available both electronically and in paper form for staff to complete.

·         The value of assessing responses at a departmental level and the challenges this would present to the Staff Survey Working Group due to the fact that staff were not required to indicate which department they worked in when completing the survey.

·         Some of the feedback that had been received in completed surveys, particularly the qualitative data, had been treated as confidential.  This was because in some cases the comments submitted by staff could have enabled observers to identify the respondent or a specific team.

·         The potential for senior Officers to make themselves available for staff to access across numerous working sites.  Members were advised that senior Officers would not focus on one action exclusively but rather would seek to engage with staff face-to-face using a range of methods in order to meet the differing needs across both Councils.

·         The Working Group’s Action Plan, which was in the process of being developed would be utilised to monitor progress in implementing actions taken in response to the feedback, particularly the top ten recommendations.

·         The benefits of face to face communications between staff arising from “No Email” days.

·         How the feedback that had been received compared to the responses to previous versions of the staff survey.  Members suggested that in future a record should be kept of the responses received in order to ensure that progress with addressing staff concerns could be monitored.

·         The importance of 1:2:1 meetings for staff and the need for these to be held regularly.  However, it was noted that there needed to be some flexibility across the organisation regarding the frequency of these meetings due to the varying work patterns and demands on staff employed in different services.

·         The fact that some staff struggled with change and the challenges this presented at a corporate level during the course of service transformation.

·         The failure of some ICT systems and the financial implications that this presented for the Council.

 

Concerns were expressed in respect of the 14.75% of respondents who had indicated that they had been subject to bullying and harassment while at work. Officers confirmed that there was a policy for managing reports relating to bullying and harassment and this was applied by managers when cases were reported directly by members of staff.  Improved training of managers would further enable them to respond to reports of bullying and harassment in a sensitive manner.  There were also support groups, such as Phone a Friend, which could provide advice to staff.  Members concurred that it was important to demonstrate to all staff that the Council would not tolerate bullying and harassment and it was suggested that this could be highlighted within the top ten recommendations.

 

The Board also discussed the proposal for the staff finder and phone lists to be updated in order to improve internal communications.  Members noted that unfortunately they were not able to access the intranet, where the staff finder facility was located, using their Council IT equipment.  However, the Board recognised that it was important to provide all elected Members with access to staff contact details as this could help Members to manage issues raised at both Committee meetings and by residents in a constructive manner.

 

RECOMMENDED that

 

1.    a statement should be added to the top ten recommendations arising from the staff survey which demonstrates that the Council has a zero tolerance approach to bullying and harassment among staff;

2.    the contact details for staff, as detailed in the staff finder on the Council’s intranet, should be made available for the consideration of elected Members; and

 

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

Supporting documents: