DETAILED results from the government’s Be Heard staff survey will not be released to the public.
A summary of attitudes across the public service was published in July, but data showing staff satisfaction within different departments is being withheld this year “in order to maintain individual anonymity”, chief people and transformation officer Mark Grimley has told the JEP.
In 2021, the details were provided for the last Be Heard staff survey in response to a freedom-of-information request, but Mr Grimley declined to provide the same detail for the latest survey on request.
“We run the internal Be Heard employee feedback survey to listen to the views of our colleagues on their experiences and to help inform the development of the workplace. The survey is conducted anonymously and in confidence to ensure people feel they can speak honestly and help to shape change and improvement. In order to maintain individual anonymity, departmental and team results are not being put into the public domain,” he said.
This year’s survey – which attracted responses from 40% of employees compared with more than 60% in 2018 – indicated that one-in-three employees would ‘leave their job tomorrow if they had another to go to’, although Mr Grimley said in July that progress had been made in a number of areas – the role of line managers, implementing appropriate performance management, ensuring staff were clear about their roles and helping develop employees’ careers.
“Individual departmental results are being shared with staff in a variety of ways including chief officer Q&A sessions, staff videos and emails, face-to-face briefings and presentations from managers.
“Departments are already using the feedback to inform their engagement work with staff going forward. This includes having their own employee engagement champions and developing specific improvement plans,” Mr Grimley explained.
The lowest levels of satisfaction emerging from this year’s survey – while still being slight improvements on the 2020 survey – came in relation to pay and the perception of the organisation giving back to the community.
The JEP has lodged a freedom-of-information request, seeking the release of the results of the survey broken down at departmental level.
