Employee Engagement in the Civil Service
Our objectives are:
- To establish employee engagement levels as a key people management metric across government, and for organisations to assess its link to performance levels
- For organisations to understand their own drivers of employee engagement and use this knowledge to improve their people, business and change strategies
- For line managers to understand engagement levels among their staff and manage people according to priority employee engagement drivers
- To embed the employee engagement concept in Civil Service management thinking
The Civil Service is committed to measuring the engagement levels of its staff and the factors which influence and drive engagement, so that its managers have the best information available to motivate their staff. Effective employee engagement is a crucial component of improving performance, driving efficiency, reducing sickness absence and enriching its employees experiences of work.
What is Employee Engagement?
“A workplace approach designed to ensure that employees are committed to their organisations goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success and able at the same time to enhance their own sense of wellbeing”
Professor David Guest
How do we measure Employee Engagement?
One of the tools that we use to measure employee engagement in the Civil Service is the People Survey. This year it ran from 19 September to 21 October 2011, in 97 organisations. Find out more about the Civil Service People Survey, how we measure employee engagement in the Civil Service and the results of the 2011 survey here.
The Employee Engagement Programme Team
The Employee Engagement Programme Team is part of the HR and Capability Group which sits within the Efficiency and Reform Group in the Cabinet Office. The role of the HR and Capability Group is to strengthen the effectiveness of Civil Service organisations, leaders and workforce, to deliver Government business priorities and improve public services. In keeping with this remit, the employee engagement programme was established to help drive productivity and improve employee health and wellbeing across the Civil Service.
Team objectives:
- To provide a consistent set of measures for employee engagement across the Civil Service
- To reduce the cost of engagement surveys across the Civil Service
- To support organisations in the successful delivery of the annual Civil Service People Survey
- To manage the supplier contract and coordinate the programme across the Civil Service
- To identify areas of best practice in employee engagement from within the public and private
sectors and encourage sharing of learning across the Civil Service - To embed the concept and practice of proactive employee engagement across all levels of
Civil Service leadership and management - To encourage organisations to focus on David MacLeod’s four enablers of engagement:
- A strong strategic narrative that explains where the organisation is going and why; and one that helps employees understand how their role contributes to this
- Engaging managers who motivate, challenge and support their people, treating employees as individuals and seeking and responding to their views
- An effective employee voice which ensures employees in all areas are involved in decision-making within the organisation
- Organisational integrity so that there is clear alignment between stated values and actual behaviours
What is the Employee Engagement Team trying to achieve?
- Improved productivity and delivery
- Innovation
- Employee satisfaction
- Better customer service
- Higher attendance levels
- Retention of our best staff
- Effective change management