PHSO 2011 People Survey Results Presentation

1. PHSO 2011 People Survey Results Presentation Michael Courtier – Associate Director ORC International

2. Outline of presentation • Introduction and background • Employee engagement at PHSO • Highlights and lowlights • Key drivers of engagement within PHSO • Next steps The presentation focuses on the picture of the results across the PHSO with details of internal differences where appropriate.

3. Response rate • 405 employees took the time to complete the survey within PHSO. This equates to an 85% response rate. • This is above the Central Government average response rate (73%) and the UK average for similar surveys (70%). • Directorate response rates vary between 60% and 100%

4. Drivers of engagement: basic needs, social needs, esteem needs Measuring Employee Engagement An overall Employee Engagement Index is developed using questions which measure the extent to which employees want to “Say”; “Stay” and “Strive”. The average positive score from the selected questions is used to calculate the Engagement Index score. Say Stay Strive Employee advocacy Employee commitment Discretionary effort The outcome of these measures create overall index scores.

5. Measuring Employee Engagement 79% 80% 73% 2009 Score 2011 Score 2011 Score Discretionary effort Using the OLD questions from 2009 Using NEW, more challenging questions

6. Engagement within PHSO – using 2009 question set • Using the 2009 questions to inform the Index, employee engagement within PHSO is very high, with questions in the index scoring strongly. Engagement Index: 80% Say Stay Strive

7. Engagement within PHSO – using new 2011 question set Using the new 2011 question set, engagement is still high but the score is lower than 2009. This is expected due to the more “challenging” questions used. Engagement Index: 73% Say Stay Strive

8. Employee Engagement across PHSO Employees in Manchester demonstrate higher levels of engagement, as in 2009 Manchester: 93% London: 78% Manchester: 70% London: 65%

9. Engagement by length of service and pay Not available Not available 2009 2011

10. Engagement by BME/ non BME & Disability Not available Too few respondents

11. Highlights/ Lowlights

12. High positive, neutral and negative responses • Understanding how work contributes to team/ directorate objectives • Understanding how work contributes to PHSO objectives • Understand responsibility for sharing knowledge and being clear about what expected to achieve • Agree with importance of PHSO effectively publicising its role externally What are staff most positive about? • Senior management open & honest in communication and communications are open & honest • PHSO manages change effectively • Way basic pay is determined is clear and transparent • Poor performance is dealt with effectively • I get useful feedback from customers • The way performance awards are determined is clear and transparent What are staff most neutral about? • The way performance awards are determined is clear and transparent • Ombudsnet meets my needs • Belief staff views are taken into account before changes are made ; having opportunity to contribute views before changes are made; safe to speak up and challenge the way things are done • Belief poor performance dealt with effectively What are staff most negative about?

13. Comparison to central government benchmark 60 questions were comparable to the benchmark norm • The highest scoring questions compared with the benchmark were: • Pay is reasonable • Recommend as a good place to work • Proud to work for PHSO • Confidenceinthe senior managers • Senior Management effective leaders • Sense of belonging to PHSO 5% (3 questions) 45% (27 questions) 50% (30 questions) • The lowest scoring questions compared with the benchmark were: • Quality of our customer care is improving • Job makes good use of my skills &abilities • Senior management open/ honest comms (by 5 percentage points or more) (between +4 and -4 percentage points) (by 5 percentage points or more)

14. Comparison to 2009 results 71 questions were comparable to 2009 • The highest scoring questions compared with 2009: • Opinion of training &support post-induction • Had a performance review in past 12 months • Health and Safety taken seriously • Understand responsibility for sharing knowledge • Believe quality of customer service improving • Promote access to services for all community 10% (7 questions) 25% (18 questions) 65% (46 questions) • The lowest scoring questions compared with the compared with 2009: • Performance award determination transparent • Way basic pay determined is clear and transparent • Satisfied with recognition receive for doing good job • Feel my pay is reasonable/fair (by 5 percentage points or more) (between +4 and -4 percentage points) (by 5 percentage points or more)

15. Key drivers of engagement

16. Key Driver analysis Key driver analysis uses statistical processes to determine what areas/ factors are most strongly correlated with engagement. Firstly, the different questions within the survey are grouped into different areas/ themes using factor analysis. Factor analysis determines how strongly groups of questions are related to each other based on respondents’ answers. Questions which have been answered similarly become factors/ themes. Multiple regression analysis is then used to determine how strongly correlated the different factors are to overall engagement (overall engagement is measured based on the engagement index). In statistical terms, the regression analysis shows how much of the overall engagement can be explained by each of the factors.

17. Key Drivers of Engagement Seven themes were found to be significant drivers of employee engagement within PHSO The most important themes, and therefore where post survey activity should be focused, areLeadership /Communication and Skills/ Development. In 2009, leadership style and communication also came out as the top driver of engagement. Job role clarity was the second strongest, whereas now it is skills and development. In 2009, customer focus was also the third strongest driver

18. Key theme 1 – Communication, Leadership Style and “culture” Communication

19. Key theme 1 – Communication, Leadership Style and “culture” Communication • Very positively, staff feel they have the information to do their job well. • However, belief that communications are open and honest; belief that senior management communicate openly and honestly and belief that the reasons behind decisions are communicated all have room for improvement, and there are no major improvements since 2009. “Communication is often a top-down approach so new targets, changes in working etc, are communicated to staff downwards without involving them in the decisions are explaining why a decision was taken.” “More focus on communicating better with each other – there is little or no communication sometimes within the directorate between peers” “More effective communication of changes within the organisation”

20. Key theme 1 – Communication, Leadership Style and “culture” LeadershipStyle – the perception of senior management

21. Key theme 1 – Communication, Leadership Style and “culture” LeadershipStyle – the perception of senior management • Perceptions of senior management need improving within PHSO • Reasons behind the high neutral and negative responses need to be addressed • Encouragingly, the results are notably above the central government benchmark “I feel that the communication between senior management and the rest of the staff could be better – especially relating to change of policies, procedures or communicating decision making. It sometimes appears that decisions are based on a ‘because I say so’ approach. I’ve no doubt that this is not the case, but this is how it sometimes comes across.” “Consultation between senior managers and staff about changes that effect them, particularly process or role changes.” “For senior management to be open and honest about the reasons for their decisions” “Less bureaucratic approach to our work and decision making & more trust in our employees”

22. Key theme 1 – Communication, Leadership Style and “culture” LeadershipStyle – listening to “employee voice” • Employee voice at PHSO could be greatly strengthened

23. Key theme 1 – Communication, Leadership Style and “culture” PHSO “Culture” • PHSO staff strongly share PHSO’s values, but do not believe to such a great extent • that PHSO lives its values. This, amongst other things, may be having an impact on • morale.

24. Key theme 1 – Communication, Leadership Style and “culture” PHSO “Culture” I share PHSO’s values I believe PHSO lives its values

25. Key theme 2 – Skills and Development

26. Key theme 2 – Skills and Development • It is positive that 87% of staff feel involved in identifying their learning and • development needs. However, this seems to be having little impact on actual • development within PHSO. • Overall, staff do not feel they have sufficient opportunity for development and • growth within PHSO. “Giving new starters proper training in their duties and responsibilities instead of letting them loose without a clue what they’re supposed to be doing. Providing proper handover notes.” “Recognition that experienced caseworkers should have training opportunities to develop their skills in interesting and appropriate ways.”

27. Next Steps

28. NEXT STEPS Belief that action will be taken on the results of the survey has improved, but there is still room for improvement. The relatively high neutral response suggests that if action is taken quickly, those staff who are unsure may be persuaded to believe in the process

29. Next Stages

30. Appendix A Scoring explanation

31. Interpreting the results Results are compared to the “Trend” (which are the 2009 survey results) and to ORC International’s Central Government benchmark Questions were posed as statements with respondents answering on a 5 point scale depending on their levels of agreement • Variations from the Trend and the Benchmark norm are based on differences in the positive responses (i.e. agree/ strongly agree) • Differences of 5 percentage points or more are deemed as being notably above or below and are highlighted in green/ red. Differences of less than 5 percentage points are classed as being “in line”. • A “P” denotes where a comparison has been made to ORC’s Perspectives benchmark database, rather than the Central Government benchmark, due to insufficient data available to make a comparison. • A “t” denotes a change in text from the 2009 survey where a question has been compared to 2011

32. Appendix B Less Significant Key Driver Themes

33. Key theme 3 – Customer Focus • Customer focus is an area to celebrate and maintain • However, whilst perceptions of customer focus are high, only 64% believe that the • quality of customer service is improving. • Only 54% say they get useful feedback from customers, which could hinder the • ability to improve.

34. Key theme 3 – Customer Focus Best thing about working for PHSO: “My supportive colleagues and being able to help our customers.” “The people. We have a good mix of employees within PHSO and new recruits are coming in with a clear focus on wanting to do the best job they can for our customers.” “Being able to achieve good outcomes for our customers (on occasions!)” “The power of the organisation and helping customers” “The sense of doing something useful and that is valued by our customers” “good ethnic of making things right for customers” “The people I work with within Customer Services”

35. Key theme 4 – Equal Opportunities • Equal opportunities is performing well within PHSO, with high positive scores • Incidents of staff experiencing bullying (94%); discrimination (92%) and • harassment (91%) are also low.

36. Key theme 4 – Equal Opportunities Demographic differences: • Employees who consider themselves to have a disability have more negative • opinions: • 45% believe PHSO is an equal opportunities employer, compared with 81% who do not consider themselves to have a disability. • BME staff do not believe to such a great extent that PHSO is an equal opportunity employer: • 57% of BME staff believe PHSO is an equal opportunity employer, compared with 82% of non BME.

37. Theme 5 Ext. Communications and Theme 6 Working Environment • The perception of external communications is an area to celebrate and maintain. • 93% think it is important that PHSO effectively publicises its role and work externally Staff in Communications; CS&A; HR Operations and POD; O&L and Ombudsman all greatly agree that PHSO is improving its external communications. • Perceptions of job security and workload are scoring relatively poorly. • Whilst, 71% feel able to strike the right balance between their work and home life – • this has not improved since 2009 and the issue came out in the comments: “Less workload. I am drowning right now, I can’t even take a lunch break” “An improvement in work-life balance” “Better work-life balance”

38. Theme 7 Pay and Benefits • Although staff feel their pay and benefits are fair, they do not perceive the process • for determining pay to be clear and transparent. The issue of internal pay • differentials came out in the comments: “more transparency and honesty from senior management about targets, pay increases and performance awards” “more consistency in pay” “more clarity around pay” • Some comments mentioned that it would be fair to have a London weighting