We all know that happiness breeds success. From your children, to your local sports team, to the man behind the counter at the coffee shop, the results will always be better when every member of the family/team/organisation is pleased to be where they are. But the question is, where does this contentment come from? From recognition for work well done and good relations with colleagues undoubtedly, but also, I believe, from the knowledge that people are listening to you. Knowing that your feedback and input are treated with respect and genuine interest, and that what you say about your organisation contributes to its future.
I have seen this throughout my career. In the best teams I have worked in everyone had a voice and saw change happen as a result of their involvement. In my role as Head of the Civil Service this continues to be highly relevant as we go through a period of significant change. It is particularly important that as we implement the Civil Service Reform everyone has a chance to have their say. One of the methods we are using to achieve this “listening and acting” is through the People Survey 2012. This is the fourth year that the survey has run and I hope that participation will be as high as it has been in past years. There are some great examples of using the results to make the Civil Service a place we can all enjoy working in. There are two I’d like to draw on in more detail, one from UK Border Agency (UKBA) and one from the Department for International Development (DfID).
The UKBA regional office for the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber saw a 9 percentage point increase in their engagement index between 2010 and 2011 – a great improvement, but how did they manage it? Amongst other things they improved communication of policy changes, holding “whole floor” meetings with senior managers present so that staff could ask questions at an early stage, and Deputy Directors held open “surgeries” to allow staff to bring news ideas directly from the business. They have continued this work by using the 2011 results as the basis for their engagement plan, so fingers crossed for this year’s results.
DfID have made a radical change to their SCS recruitment to test candidates’ abilities to be an engaging manager and listen to their staff. They have introduced into the SCS recruitment process a 30 minute exercise where the candidate takes part in a role play with a group of staff from across the organisation looking at a set of recent People Survey results. The role play is designed as a meeting between a Deputy Director and their ‘new’ team. The candidate is expected to explore the results with the group to understand the key issues and then work with the group to develop ideas. The results from this exercise is assessed equally with the other elements of the recruitment process, so passing this assessment is just as important as passing an interview or written exercise.
But feedback isn’t just an annual process. For example, the cross-Civil Service Tell Us How programme invited views on Civil Service Reform earlier this year which helped to inform the Plan. Many of you also gave us your thoughts on the Plan itself at Civil Service Live Tell Us How zone. These and other views we seek in the future will help inform the next stage of reform.
As I mentioned before, recognition is also an important ingredient for a productive workplace. That is why I am so looking forward the Diversity and Equality awards later this week and the Civil Service Awards next month. These events are great opportunities to celebrate the hard and innovative work that is carried out day-to-day by civil servants. The awards give me the chance to hear some of the inspiring stories about your excellent contributions.
I donot feel valued in the civil service,I have 25 years hard work behind me yet I find my morale at its lowest ebb for many reasons:
1.freeze on pay and a cap for the next 2 years at 1% when prices are rising is making it impossible to live.
2.terms and conditions to be reviewed,more attatcks on what the civil service was built on
3.Attatcks on pensions
4.Constant rhetoric from our leaders how we are valued, yet as you can see from the above points we are not
5.Having to do more with less with no pay increases even in line with inflation.
6.outsourcing to private companies who are only interested in making a profit.
So in general unless these points can be addressed then morale will continue to decline if it can get any lower.
My last post was removed by the moderator so I shall summarise my previous post with this new one.
If you’re Head of the whole Civil Circus
You need a strong epidermis
Your soundbites sure stink
We respond, but don’t think
But my reply was not a disservice.
How can you possibly believe that Civil Service workers could be happy given the continuous attacks on pay and every single benefit they may get for working in the civil service? There is continual talk about engaging staff and harnessing their talents but the only mentions of reward for effort is to say we are paid too much, are pensions are too generous, our terms and conditions too generous.
I will carry on working for the civil service until I’m privatised or made redundant. Morale has sunk to levels I never thought and as soon as the job market improves there will be mass resignations. I could never honestly recommend a job in the civil service now.
Thank you for your responses. This is the first full People Survey since I became Head of the Civil Service. It is really important to me that results are used by managers and leaders across the Civil Service. If you’ve not heard anything about what’s happened since the 2011 survey then I encourage you to ask your managers what they are doing with the results.
The Civil Service is a diverse family of Departments and Agencies and each organisation is accountable for acting on their own results because each faces their own unique challenges. I want everyone in the Civil Service to get involved in taking action on the results of the 2012 survey we when get them later in the year. The last three years of results provided a clear context for the Civil Service Reform plan earlier this year. This year’s results will help us understand if that context is changing.
I do understand the concerns about pay, pensions and other terms and conditions. It’s important to remember that the Government has offered some protection to lower paid staff – for example, from the full effects of the pay freeze and changes to pensions and compensation, and that the changes taking place also apply to staff at higher grades – including the Senior Civil Service. The best way for you to engage in the discussion is to get involved in the work your department is leading on terms and conditions.
All the Awards have a zero financial dimension to them, so do not carry any weight at all to pay the bills with.
DfID & UKBA’s work is definitely to be applauded, but there is a hierarchy of needs to consider – recognition of work well done is highlighted in the opening paragraph, but this extends to being appropriately rewarded for work well done, and being able to trust your employer to deliver what they have promised to you. Sadly I am looking to leave the Civil Service, after around 5 years which I have really enjoyed, because the Service doesn’t reward hard work sufficiently (unlike my experience in the Private Sector) yet it now no longer offers any other benefits to compensate for that, such as better job security or pension, and the Civil Service terms and conditions are being revised to compete with the average in the private sector. That is far more important than feeling “adequately consulted” in some decisions, particularly when those are not the ones which make a big difference to us as individuals.
Has anyone noticed how, when people complain about those at the top being overpaid the government calls it “the politics of envy”, but when the government is engaged in rousing public support for its depredations on the public sector, using whispers such as “they’ve got better pensions than you”, it’s not? I’d love to see an increase in engagement, but fear Departments are on a hiding to nothing in the context of ongoing unsympathetic depictions of public sector workers. Add to that the increasingly deep divide between SCS and everyone else (necessary, I guess, as, if you’re trying to hugely reduce numbers, you need to be able to isolate a section of the erstwhile community to wield the axe, and they will do it much more effectively if there’s no risk of cutting off their own legs)and engagement is history. All that’s left is a figurative Miss Havisham; a dusty relict of what used to be a good relationship.
Whilst in general agreement with Mr Kerslake in that by listening to one another and communicating our differnces we would and can move forward together however is this happening? I think not as civil servants we have come under attack from succesive governments now changing our pensions, pay freezes, lack of progression through grade payments and now changes to terms and conditions and yet have the senior civil servants stuck up for us lower grades with the elected government I personally would say not and this seems to be a common opinion from all I hear and read, all they seem to be is the governments voice and not the civil service one, surely they should put our opinions across to the government isnt that what listening is all about?
A paragraph from Sir Bob Kerslakes article
‘As I mentioned before, recognition is also an important ingredient for a productive workplace. That is why I am so looking forward the Diversity and Equality awards later this week and the Civil Service Awards next month. These events are great opportunities to celebrate the hard and innovative work that is carried out day-to-day by civil servants. The awards give me the chance to hear some of the inspiring stories about your excellent contributions’.
Unfortunately the only recognition we seem to get from the public we serve is a false one in that we are viewed as a load of tea drinking good-for-nothing layabouts on gold plated pensions.
Monetary recognition is a very significant driver for most and this is poor despite all the “surveys” which tell us that we are paid slightly more on average than those in the private sector. However I would expect our average to be much higher, given that most of the lower paid clerical roles have been outsourced to the private sector, and you are therefore comparing Doctors, Teachers, Accountants and similarly professional people who have difficult, demanding jobs etc against low paid unskilled shop workers, cleaners, and clerical workers in the main.
I agree that it can help to make you feel happy if you feel that your feedback is valued, but of course and as recognised in the article, there is much more to it than this. It is with great regret that I tell you that I have two children who will be looking for work in around 4 years time after finishing university and I have strongly advised them against joining the public services, which in 4 years time looks like it will be on its knees. I have worked in the Civil Service for over 30 years and unexpectedly this has become my view.
It has been stated that happiness of the employees is not a key reason behind the Civil Service Have Your Say survey within the MOD. The response rates were poor, which is why the time to complete the survey has been extended to 31st. Not completing the survey and not providing feedback is a further sign of dis-engaged staff. Faced with a permanent pay freeze, no progression within pay scales and a reduction in the Terms and conditions of employment – there seems to be very little to be happy about.
I suspect that these words will prove to be hollow. With so many changes proposed to our terms and conditions, I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling ‘under siege’ from our political masters. The Civil Service is a very unhappy place at the moment, and this will be reflected in this year’s results.
I agree that listening is a key skill for service providers and managers alike.
In addition to listening and acting. however, I consider that actively engaging with members of one’s community (whether at work or in one’s neigbhourhood) enhances one’s wellbeing. Thus in a context of continuous change contentment can flow from listening to the needs of others, doing things with and for others or showing kindness to colleagues or neighbours.
I agree whole heartedly with the sentiments in involving all groups in discussion and input into change and all of us have ideas.
However this does not happen in practice. My experience is that if you speak out and voice opinions even suggest pitfalls which dont match those of line management then you will be castigated and labelled a trouble maker.
Unless you break this cycle we will all be better off keeping our mouths shut and letting disasters happen.
I agree with what you say, feeling like you can change an organisation you work for makes a job very much more rewarding.
What things are you doing to ensure that departments take seriously the results of staff surveys rather than just paying them lip service and concentrating on the response-rate rather than the actual responses?
When you say: ‘That is why I am so looking forward the Diversity and Equality awards later this week and the Civil Service Awards next month’
Do you realise the word ‘to’ appears to be missing from the sentence after the word ‘forward’.
I have been in the Civil Service for 20 years, never have we been so attacked by the Government and media. You have frozen pay, changed our pensions and compensation(by having to change the law first because the first attempts were illegal) You are now trying to change our terms and conditions. If MPs changed their pensions and all the allowances that they are able to claim legally(including rent for second homes etc) then perhaps we would all be ‘in it together’ but at the moment the Govt keeps attacking us as if we are to blame for the banks and greed of people at the top who were too busy gathering in the money to stop the rot. As you can see I am very angry about how we are being treated.
I agree with what you say but just want to point out from my point of view that many Civil Servants don’t work in London, yet most of policy and any decisions made for or by the “Civil Service” doesn’t take us into consideration. I have filled in every survey i have been sent yet i see no action taken with regard to anything i have raised.
I’d make two comments on the article and that’s contentment and employee engagement are two very seperate topics and shouldn’t be confused and it’s interesting that the article doesn’t mention motivation.