Regular blog readers will know that the staff survey is something I’ve mentioned frequently over the last few months. I’ve always said it’s important because it’s your chance to tell us what you think of the work we’re doing, particularly on communication and engagement. I encouraged as many of you as possible to participate so we could get a good idea of what you’re thinking and because we pledged we’d act on the survey’s findings.
I’m pleased to say the initial feedback we’ve had has been very positive with a response rate of around 38% – higher than for any staff survey we’ve done for many years. But this still means two-thirds of our staff either didn’t wish to complete the survey or wasn’t aware of it. This remains a concern to me and I need to understand why this is. The next thing to do is share its findings with our wider managers later in September so we can start work on an action plan to address what you’ve told us and be clear on our actions.
In the meantime, one positive statistic is that 88% of teams and 80% of individual respondents felt very or fairly well-informed about the changes and developments in the council that affect you. Of course, that also means we now have to look at potential solutions to the problem of why those who feel uninformed feel that way. The survey also tells us that, among teams, the top ways you are kept informed is via team meetings, your manager and colleagues. Among individuals this blog was the most popular route to being kept informed – just a little bit higher than team meetings.
Although the survey may now be closed, we still want to keep the communication and engagement conversation going. So please do let feedback via your managers or you can always let me know what’s on your mind about these or any other issues. I’ll report back in the autumn about the actions we intend to take as a result of your feedback and in the meantime thank you for taking the time to respond.
Linked to the staff survey is the launch of our new Values and Behaviours initiative. You can read more here. They’ve been developed over a number of months with help from staff, our employee engagement group, trade unions and others. We all agreed that the values we’ve embraced for a number of years don’t need to change.
So, People Focus, Working Together and Innovation remain the basis of our approach as a council community to the work we do every day. But what the revised Values and Behaviours do achieve is a refresh of what our behaviours look like in action and how we conduct ourselves. They demonstrate how we expect people to treat others, how we expect to be treated and the way we should react to others.
Please take time to have a look at them. Let me know if you’ve seen any colleagues setting a strong example to others by displaying our values and behaviours in action so I can share their story with everyone else.
Finally, farewell to Paul Jones, who has worked for the Council for 46 years and has spent the last 19 years in the Call Centre, providing advice to residents on environmental issues. Before this he worked for our Trading Standards team. Goodbye also to Dylan Jenkins, business manager at Pontarddulais Comprehensive School, who retires this week. Dylan joined us in 1979, back in the days when education was managed by West Glamorgan County Council. Thank you both for your service and for your contributions to our communities over the years – and best wishes for your next chapters.
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