Why can’t we know what Government staff really think?

Friday 06 October 2023

Government is refusing to release unfiltered results from a survey measuring the mood of all staff working across the public service – including their thoughts on management and culture.

A summary of attitudes across the public service collected through the ‘Be Heard’ survey was published in July.

When Express asked at the time for data showing staff satisfaction within individual departments, it was told that this would be provided in September. However, Chief People and Transformation Officer Mark Grimley has now said it is being withheld this year "in order to maintain individual anonymity".

This was the case for the last Be Heard survey in 2021, but a challenge by Express under the Freedom of Information Law led to their release as their disclosure was deemed to meet the public interest test.

That information exposed low confidence in leaders in some departments, feelings of intimidation, and stark divides in views between those on the corporate side and workers on the front line of 'Team Jersey'. Health was among the departments showing the lowest levels of satisfaction.

Despite this, Mr Grimley declined to provide the same detail for the latest survey on request.

Pictured: Information uncovered by Express showed that leadership ranked the lowest in HCS in the last staff survey.

“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,” he said. 

“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.”

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," he said.

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. 

Express has lodged a Freedom of Information request, seeking release of the results of the survey broken down at departmental level.

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INSIGHT: Measuring the mood in Government (2021)