The below was submitted to Scrutiny Panel in November and was received positively from members who seemed to think the official interpretation rather glossed over things.
It remains to be seen if this leads to any action
There are concerns that Members need to be aware of from this survey
Satisfaction levels appear to be down across most metrics.
How much of this we can put down into big world contexts such as the pandemic and inflation is hard to say but people don’t see a future with PCC.
They don’t see any long-term vision or effective leadership at the strategic level. Diminishing faith in line management too.
Training and opportunities are limited and over a quarter of staff are ambivalent about being here next year. 8% of those surveyed actively looking to leave. 13% of staff have been here less than 2 years indicates not an entirely new phenomenon.
Expectations are that change will be negative and they won’t be able to do much about it.
Do we manage change badly or is it that most change is negatively motivated by money saving etc.? TUs can play a part in improved communication but need to have the info to communicate and access to PCC distribution.
Some communication issues may be linked to home working which probably accounts for one of the few bright spots, improved happiness with work environment.
Work is grinding people down. Insufficient staff and the stress of trying to keep up makes people ill. Long hours and unrealistic deadlines. Most suggested improvements involved investment in staff and services.
Worrying reduction in job satisfaction and people feeling valued. Dissatisfaction with pay and reward predictable and a 17% reduction in satisfaction with benefits supports idea of reviewing Plymouth Book as appreciate pay is nationally agreed.
Environmental impact only looks at staff travel.
Hybrid working is here to stay but figures show that more staff expect to work from home less in future that may have a positive impact but only if they don’t all drive in. How do we promote other options and reduce need to use own vehicle during workday? Need to offer more low carbon works vehicles and incentivise use of public transport within the context of many staff not coming to workplace on a daily basis
Limited faith that anything will happen as a result of this exercise
Kicking it down the road to focus groups will likely feed this cynicism. Might be a good idea for thorny problem like communication but need to look at direct actions up front such as those suggested here.
- Don’t cut services every year. We are already under resourced
- Improve access to training to make long term careers viable again
- Constant piecemeal changes are destabilising, and restructures are not always an answer
- Review the Plymouth book with a view to raising the bar back to the national standard so at least we don’t loose staff to neighbouring Authorities
- Green policies that focus on organisational efficiency not individual sacrifice
- Facilitate TUs to communicate with staff via PCC mechanisms so that they can help with the communication deficit
Further Directorate Observations we will take to JCCs
Particularly poor morale in Children’s Services despite highest commitment to vocations/clients. High work related pressure and illness
Customer and Corporate Services have lowest levels of flexibility in working environment and highest incidence of all home working. Seem happy with this yet half think mental health being impacted? Higher performance management yet lower progress and training?
Executive office seem most frustrated in careers as well as under pressure despite not having customer impact?
ODPH have all declined to comment on leadership and have the lowest satisfaction on workplace and equipment
Place seem to have lowest buy in and confidence in management and poorest performance on diversity related issues. Need departmental breakdown here as suspect manual workforce may have fed back differently to white collar?
People seem to be the happiest but still critical of communication and change management and identify high levels of health risks and inability to take breaks
