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SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE CENTRAL RESEARCH UNIT

General Research Findings No. 9

Results of the Scottish Executive Staff Survey 2002

Tom Lamplugh

This document is also available in pdf format (150k)

Main Findings

• Respondents awareness of the Aims, Vision and Values (AVV) of the Scottish Executive has seen a large increase since the 2001 Staff Survey. There was a small increase in the percentage of respondents who 'agreed' or 'strongly agreed' that the Scottish Executive was performing well in relation to a number of performance indicators taken from the AVV Statement.

• Respondents were more positive about long term job security, and about accessing and using the welfare and counselling services. Respondents were more likely to describe their workplace as safe and agree that training about health and safety was good.

• There was a slight reduction in the percentage of respondents who stated they had been discriminated against. However, the proportion of those who had reported incidences of discrimination remained low.

• Overall, 75% of respondents felt that their job had developed positively over the last year. The majority of respondents have become more positive in their attitudes towards training and development over the year and the average number of days respondents spent off-the-job training has risen. The range and quantity of training opportunities taken by respondents over the year has increased.

• Amongst respondents both staff and managers were generally more positive about the management process.

• The percentage of respondents who agreed that the Scottish Executive 'makes good use of resources' and 'ensures that overall staff are treated equally' had not changed since the 2001 staff survey. 76% percent of respondents indicated that they were satisfied with their job and 42% of respondents believed that management would act on the problems identified through this survey.

• There was a small increase in the proportion of respondents experiencing work-related problems. 'Too much work to do' remained the most significant problem, with 32% of respondents in total citing this as a difficulty.

• There was a 1% increase in the percentage of respondents who experienced regular work related stress and a 4% increase in the percentage of respondents who experienced occasional work related stress.

• Within the workplace temperature and ventilation continued to represent the physical and environmental factor causing most dissatisfaction to respondents. In the 2002 Staff Survey over a third of respondents highlighted the slowness or unreliability of computers as an issue of concern.

Introduction

This survey, undertaken by the Central Research Unit (CRU) in February 2002, is the third in a series of three annual surveys seeking the views of all Scottish Executive staff. The research was commissioned by the Corporate Development Division on behalf of Management Group as part of an initiative to find out how the organisation was adjusting to ongoing changes brought about by devolution. The surveys provide a regular, systematic mechanism through which staff can input their views on a range of issues affecting the Scottish Executive and can alert management to areas where the organisation is performing well as well as areas that require attention.

The objectives of the 2002 Staff Survey were:

• To find out current views on what it is like to work for the Scottish Executive,
• To explore attitudes to staff training and development,
• To find out how well the organisation is perceived to communicate with its staff and assess the understanding of the Aim, Vision and Values statement, and
• To assess the extent to which these views have changed, in comparison to baseline data generated by the 2000 and 2001 staff surveys, and to take into account any developments that have taken place over this period.

Methodology

A questionnaire was sent to all Scottish Executive staff covered by the Scottish Executive Partnership arrangements ¹. This amounted to a total of 6,436 staff. To maintain consistency with previous years and to enable all staff to participate, a structured questionnaire was used.

As with the previous years, for speed, ease of completion and cost, the questionnaire was administered mainly by way of an on-screen questionnaire delivered to 4,698 staff by e-mail. Postal questionnaires were used for those 1,738 staff without access to the SCOTS II ² system. E-mail questionnaires were sent out in batches of 400 starting on the 31 ^st January. A general reminder was sent out on the 20 ^th February and the survey was closed on the 28 ^th February 2001.

Response rate

Completed questionnaires were received from 4,198 staff. This amounted to an overall response rate of 65%. Fuller details by department are provided in Table 1.

The highest response rate came from the Finance and Central Services Department where 85% of staff responded. SASA had the highest response rate for an agency (71%). The lowest response rate came from GROS at 34%.

Working in the Scottish Executive

Aims, Vision and Values (AVV) statement

Results show that for the second consecutive year there has been a rise in respondents awareness of the Aims, Vision and Values of the Scottish Executive. Eighty-eight per cent of respondents reported that they were aware of the AVV statement (77% in 2001). However, awareness of the AVV statement still varies by department/ agency, pay band and length of service.

Views of how staff see the Scottish Executive

Table 2 shows staff attitudes to the Scottish Executive. The questions asked correspond to components of the Scottish Executive Aims, Vision and Values statement. ³

Three per cent more respondents than in 2001 felt that the Scottish Executive 'earns respect and trust', 'works with and learns from 'others' and 'values staff'. Between 2001 and 2002 there was a two per cent increase in the percentage of respondents who thought that the Scottish Executive 'is open and in touch'. There was a one per cent increase in the percentage of respondents who felt that the Scottish Executive, 'promotes Scottish interests', 'works well together' and 'ensures high quality services'. The percentage of respondents who felt that the Scottish Executive 'makes good use of resources' and 'ensures that all staff are treated equally' has remained constant at 49% and 78% respectively.

Working conditions in the Scottish Executive

Staff were also asked a range of questions about their working conditions. Table 3 outlines the results for these questions and the changes that have occurred since the 2001 Staff Survey. Overall, staff maintain positive attitudes towards working in the Scottish Executive.

Six per cent more staff either 'strongly agreed' or 'agreed' that 'training about health and safety in the Executive is good'. The percentage of respondents 'agreeing' or 'strongly agreeing with the statement 'I consider the place I work to be safe also increased from 89% in 2001 to 92% in 2002.

There has been a six per cent increase in the percentage of respondents who know how to access the Scottish Executive Counselling and Welfare service and a one per cent increase in the number of respondents who would feel comfortable using the service.

However, there has been a two per cent decline since 2001 in the percentage of respondents who believe that management will act on problems identified through this survey and a one per cent drop since 2001 in the percentage of respondents who felt that overall they were satisfied with their job.

Working conditions: Physical and environmental issues

Staff were asked to identify any factors in their physical surroundings which had caused them significant difficulty over the previous year. A quarter (25%) of staff stated that they were largely content with their physical environment.

For those staff that indicated an environmental factor caused difficulty at work, temperature and ventilation remained the most significant problem (Table 4) with 45% of all respondents citing this as a difficulty and 19% of all respondents citing this as the most significant difficulty.

Three new physical and environmental factors were added to the 2002 Staff Survey. These were 'Ease of use of computer software', 'Lack of facilities of equipment to do the job' and 'slowness or unreliability of computers'. Thirty-six per cent of respondents stated that 'slowness or unreliability of computers' caused them significant difficulty at work.

Due to the inclusion of additional factors within this section of the 2002 Staff Survey it is hard to make direct comparisons between results from the 2002 Staff Survey and results from previous staff surveys.

* Percentages in columns 2-4 sum to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed

Working conditions: Work-related issues

Staff were also asked about any work-related factors which caused them significant difficulty at work. Overall, slightly more staff were content with the work-related elements of their job than the environmental factors (31% as compared to 25%). Table 5 provides information on the work-related factors that caused significant difficulty for respondents.

The top five work-related problems were:

• Having too much work to do (32% of all staff)
• Balancing work and home (22%)
• Uncertainty about future career (19%)
• Working long hours (17%)
• Lack of information about relevant work issues (15%)

Again, these proportions remained similar to last year. Likewise, when asked to select only one problem, 'too much work to do' remained the main problem for 15% of all respondents. This was followed by uncertainty about future career (9% of all respondents) and balancing home and work (7% of all respondents).

The proportion of respondents who indicated that having 'too much work to do' caused them significant difficulty varied by department. Typically respondents within the core departments were more likely than respondents within the Scottish Executive Agencies to state that 'too much work to do' was a cause of significant difficulty.

* Percentages in columns 2-4 sum to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed

Levels of stress

Respondents were asked whether they had experienced work-related stress over the previous year. A quarter (25%) of respondents reported that they had experienced regular work related stress with a further 48% having experienced occasional work-related stress. One per cent more respondents experienced regular work related stress and four per cent more respondents experienced occasional work related stress than in the 2001 survey.

The experience of regular work related stress was found to increase significantly with grade, from only 10% of respondents in Band A1, to 41% of respondents in the SCS. This trend was less pronounced than last year due to an increase in reported regular work related stress amongst the lower bands and a decrease in reported stress amongst the higher bands.

Discrimination

There was a slight reduction in the proportion of respondents who felt that they had been discriminated against over the previous year, from 320 in 2001 to 295 in 2002. However, the relevant proportion of causes of discrimination remained very similar, predominantly on grounds of working pattern (26%), age (24%), sex (16%) and disability (5%).

Of the 295 respondents who felt they had been discriminated against, only 56 respondents (19%) said they had reported the discrimination. Of those 56 respondents who did report the discrimination, only 8 (14%) were satisfied with the response.

Job Development

Overall, three-quarters (75%) of respondents felt their job had developed positively over the last year. This was the third consecutive year that at least three quarters of respondents have stated that their job has improved in some way. Those most likely to feel that their job had not developed tended to be in Band B3 (28%) or Band C (27%), only 17% of respondents in the BFS felt there job had not developed over the previous year.

Figures for all types of job development (with the exception of the category 'my team works closely as a unit' which witnessed a 1% increase) were slightly down on previous years. Five per cent less respondents felt their work was more important (from 24% in 2001 to 19% in 2002). The proportion of respondents stating that they were using new skills and that their work was more interesting was down two per cent. The option 'I am able to work more fully on my own' saw a 4% drop (from 31% in 2001 to 27% in 2002) as did the option 'I have been given more responsibility' (from 38% in 2000/2001 to 34% in 2002).

Eighty-nine per cent of respondents who strongly agreed that overall they were satisfied with their job felt that their job had developed in some way over the previous year in comparison with just 46% of respondents who strongly disagreed that overall they were satisfied with their job.

Training and Development

Staff were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with a number of statements about training and development (Table 6). Changes to attitudes on training and development that had occurred since last year's survey remained small. However the changes that did occur were mainly positive in all categories ⁴. Overall:

• 72% of staff were satisfied with their training and development (69% in 2001),

• 77% met regularly with their line manager to discuss the aims of their section (76%),
• 78% were provided with effective feedback on the quality of their work (76%)
• 76% felt that their line manager took their development seriously (74%) and 74% that their development needs had been clearly identified (70%),
• 87% understood the links between their forward job description and the work of their section (87%)
• 80% found it easy to find out about training and development opportunities available to them (76%)

• 88% felt that they had sufficient knowledge and skills to do their job
• effectively (87%) and

• 60% were satisfied with corporate induction (60%) and 68% were satisfied with local induction (71%).

The biggest change was in relation to the statement 'My Development Advisor plays a useful part in supporting my training and development' where 7% more respondents than in 2000/2001 either 'agreed' or 'strongly agreed' with the statement.

Uptake of training

Only 3% of respondents reported not having participated in any learning opportunities during the past year (compared with 7% of respondents in 2001). In 2002, 90% of respondents received 'off-the-job' training in comparison with 84% of respondents in 2001. On average, respondents were also receiving more time 'off-the-job' training than in 2001. Table 7 outlines the types of learning opportunity that were taken up by respondents. Apart from a 5% increase in the use of self-learning packages, there was little change in the predominant types of training received from last year.

Satisfaction with training

Sixty nine per cent of respondents were satisfied with training in comparison to 67% last year. As with previous years, those respondents who felt that their development needs were not met, felt that they did not have the knowledge and skills to do the job, or felt that dialogue between themselves and managers was poor, were most likely to be dissatisfied with training.

Barriers to training

Staff were asked what factors, if any, prevented them from undertaking training. In total 31% of respondents stated that they had experienced no barriers to participation (a four per cent improvement from last year). Work pressures (52%) and inconvenient times / places (12%) were seen as the most significant barriers to participation by those who had experienced barriers (Table 8).

* This table presents the most significant barrier as a percentage of those respondents experiencing barriers, rather than of all respondents due to the small percentage involved.

Staff Management

Of the 4198 respondents to the survey, 1656 (42%) had line management responsibilities. Tables 9a and 9b show managers and staff views against a number of Investors in People (IiP) requirements.

Overall, both managers and staff felt that performance, objectives and duties were frequently reviewed although managers (86%) were more positive than staff (61%) that this in fact happens. Managers were also more certain than staff that they discussed their staff's development needs (87% and 62% respectively). Meanwhile, 83% of managers and 70% of staff felt that it was easy to identify how training and development contributed to achieving the objectives of the unit.

Less than half of staff agreed that their manager usually had a discussion with them before attending a training course (42%), and only 56% stated that they had a discussion afterwards. This compared with 68% and 79% respectively of managers. However, for both categories (managers and staff), slight improvements were noted from previous surveys.

Communication in the Scottish Executive

Communication continued to be seen as important to staff, with 83% of staff agreeing that it was important to them to find out what was going on in the wider organisation.

With regard to top-down communication, over half (55%) of staff were generally satisfied with the communication in the organisation, this being very similar to previous years. While the percentage of respondents agreeing that 'Scoop' was an effective way of keeping staff informed of the activities of Management and colleagues decreased slightly (from 50% in 2001 to 49% in 2002), there was an increase in the number of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that 'Scottish Executive News' is a good means of communication for keeping staff regularly updated on what is happening throughout the organisation (from 89% in 2001 to 90% in 2002).

Recent Developments

In response to the results of the 2001 Staff Survey a number of initiatives and processes have been implemented.

Research was commissioned by CRU to inform the design and implementation of appropriate interventions to reduce the levels of stress and to remove the adverse effects of stress within the organisation. As a result of

this research, a Scottish Executive Stress Action Plan is currently in the process of being developed and will be implemented across the organisation.

The Employee Assistance Programme was launched, complementing the existing Counselling and Welfare System.

On accommodation, building specific strategy documents are planned by the TUS and DAS. These will set out broad aims for space use in each building and cover a range of local environmental issues such as temperature control, which continue to represent areas of concern for staff. This initiative is in addition to work on temperature and ventilation reported following the 2000 and 2001 Staff Survey.

Conclusions

This research summary outlines the main findings and changes that have occurred in comparison to the benchmarks set by the first staff survey undertaken in January 2000, the 2001 Staff Survey and in light of the various initiatives that have subsequently been developed.

The 2002 Staff Survey has shown respondents to be more positive in relation to their attitudes towards working in the Scottish Executive, staff training and development and their understanding of the Aims, Vision and Values statement. Over the three years in which the Staff Survey has run there has been a gradual but consistent move towards a more positive outlook amongst staff in relation to most of their areas covered by the survey.

However, as well as highlighting the areas where there has been positive change, the staff survey has also served to highlight areas needing further attention. A large proportion of respondents continue to raise concerns about physical and environmental aspects of their workplace and work related stress still effects a high percentage of the workforce. The staff survey has served to effectively highlight areas where the organisation is improving and areas which respondents believe require further attention.

As mentioned above, a number of initiatives to tackle the problems identified from the previous surveys have only recently been put into place, therefore it is possible that these will not yet have impacted on staff attitudes. However, these findings will assist in identifying areas which staff think require further attention and act as a basis for formulating the most appropriate actions for the future development of the Scottish Executive.

Although comparison with other organisations is problematic due to differences in staff survey design and content, it does appear that the Scottish Executive is performing well in relation to a range of local and central government organisations.

About the Survey

This staff survey is the third of three annual surveys designed to investigate staff views on a range of issues. The survey was conducted on behalf of the Corporate Development Division and Management Group with the involvement of CRU at the questionnaire design, survey administration, data analysis and report writing stages. A total of 6,436 staff who work in the Scottish Executive were involved in the survey. The survey was conducted primarily by electronic questionnaire using SPSS Quancept web software on the Scottish executive Intranet. The response rate for the survey was 65%.

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