September 2024

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2024 Employee Survey – Your feedback and next steps

Thank you to the 1,058 employees who completed the 2024 Employee Survey. This represents 42% of employees who were invited to respond. Since school-based employees were last surveyed in November 2023 they will be surveyed in September. 

The results summarised here therefore only include non-school based employees. The results for every service have been shared with Service Managers who should discuss the results with their employees.

At the council level, the responses to seven of the eight questions that are asked in every survey showed more positive responses than in 2023.

Question

2023

2024

I know how my job contributes to council’s objectives

93.2%

94.5%

I am aware of the East Lothian Way

90.8%

92.2%

I am treated fairly

86.7%

87.3%

I am encouraged to offer new ideas

80.4%

84.3%

I have a manageable workload

70.4%

73.3%

Change is managed well

67.4%

67.8%

I have had a personal/ professional review in the past 12 months

55.0%

59.0%

Only one question, ‘The council is a great place to work’ had a lower positive response than in 2023; 83.1% compared to 83.8%.

The 2024 survey included 15 new questions to provide the basis for council and service self-evaluations. Eleven of these questions received over 80% positive (Strongly Agree & Agree) responses. The questions with the most positive responses were:

  • I have clarity around what is expected of me in my role – 90.9%
  • I work in a safe and healthy environment – 87.4%

Two questions received between 75% and 80% positive responses:

  • My service responds to feedback from service users to improve how it delivers it services – 75.7%
  • My line manager motivates me to achieve my best results – 78.2%

Two questions received under 75% positive responses. These were:

  • When changes are made at work, I am clear about how they will work out in practice – 72.2%
  • My service manages its staff in the best way to achieve the goals of the service – 71.3%

There were some variations in the responses to these questions between services.

490 employees provided comments on what the council could do differently to be more efficient or effective in how we deliver our services to meet the financial challenges we face. There are too many to provide a detailed response to them here. A summary with examples is below:  

Positive or no change required:

“At the moment we are working as effectively as possible”.

Some people made suggestions that we are already doing or plan to do as part of the Transformation programme:

“Develop and introduce digital forms, this would save time and effort and therefore make staff tasks more efficient”

Close unnecessary buildings”

“Better data sharing between teams”

Concern about workload and resources:

“More admin support is required within our service”

Our team is short staffed for the area we cover, having more staff would help to alleviate the pressures”

Difficult to see how we can be more efficient short of recruiting more staff

Improved engagement internally is needed:

“Communication needs to be better”

“Timely and well communicated decision-making”

The results/comments have been shared with senior management, and the Transformation team. They will consider what suggestions can be acted on now, or can be added to the list of ideas that are being considered for inclusion on the Transformation programme.

The Council Management Team recognises the concerns raised about workload and the need to improve engagement. The Council Plan is being re-prioritised to target resources to new priorities in order to manage council resources more effectively. Consideration is being given to how to support all managers to communicate more effectively with employees in order to reduce uncertainty about the impact of budget decisions, what is happening with service and staffing reviews, and inevitable change that is required to meet the challenges faced by the council and its employees.

If you want any further information on the survey and actions being taken in response to the issues and concerns raised by employees contact: Rebecca Grangeret, Organisational Development Manager

Read the 2024 consultation results

 

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