Issue - meetings

Report by Executive Director Terence Herbert.

Cllr Richard Clewer, Cabinet Member for Housing, Corporate Services, Arts, Heritage and Tourism, presented the report which provided an overview of the results of the 2018 staff engagement survey, including a summary of the key themes from the survey results and an assessment of the results against the four “enablers” contained within the adopted engagement model.  The report also contained the agreed corporate priorities following the results of the staff survey 2018.

Cllr Clewer was pleased to report that the staff engagement index score (which measures the extent that staff feel emotionally connected with their organisation i.e. that staff believe in the organisation’s goals and priorities and therefore care about doing the best job they can), had risen from 58% in 2016 to 70% in 2018.    

The Cabinet noted that there were a number of issues in connection with ICT, in particular the intranet, and staff engagement would be key to the development of any revisions to the current format.  

In response to a question from Cllr Clare Cape about recruitment and retention Cllr Clewer reported that the Staffing Policy Committee would be the most appropriate forum to consider issues of recruitment and retention of staff.  

In response to a question from Cllr Ian Thorn about the visibility of Senior Management, Cllr Clewer reported that the figures from previous years indicated that staff considered improvements were needed in this area, and he was pleased to report that there had been a significant improvement in this area between 2016 – 30% positive response and 2018 – 76% positive response. It was suggested that the rise in positive responses were the result of changes within the Senior Management team over the last two years and a challenge from Cabinet to be more visible to staff.

Resolved:  To note the report.

Reason for Decision:

To update Cabinet on the results of the 2018 staff engagement survey and to highlight the agreed corporate priorities for corporate and service action planning.