Staff Survey 2010 School of Oriental and African Studies HR Executive Report September 2010
Organisational contact information Capita Spa House Hookstone Park HARROGATE HG2 7DB Website: www.capitahsp.co.uk
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS): Staff Survey 2010 Background HR Executive Report Staff surveys are the best way of obtaining an accurate and unbiased picture of the opinion of an organisation s staff and any changes in employment practices they feel should be made as well as measuring their level of engagement with the organisation and what it is trying to achieve. Surveys give each member of staff the opportunity to give their opinion on the issues that affect their working lives and to show that their views are valued. The results of staff surveys are used by employers as a means of improving the recruitment, retention, motivation and engagement of staff by identifying the issues that are most important to staff to improve their working lives. In particular, results provide a baseline against which performance can be measured over time and benchmarked with other organisations undertaking surveys. While most research has emphasised the benefits of employee engagement to the employer from, for example, improved levels of productivity and quality of services, recent research by the CIPD 1 says `Engaged employees also experience increased job satisfaction and more positive attitudes and emotions generally towards their work, suggesting enhanced levels of engagement are of benefit to the individual as well as their employer. The CIPD research suggests that the key drivers of employee engagement are staff: Having opportunities to feed their views upwards Feeling well informed about what is happening in the organisation Believing their manager is committed to the organisation. Staff surveys measure the drivers of employee engagement and, when undertaken regularly, can be used to inform the development and implementation of HR and management strategies and provide evidence of their effectiveness. SOAS commissioned Capita s Survey and Research Unit to undertake a survey for staff between April and June 2010. The Survey and Research Unit is one of the largest providers of public sector staff surveys in the UK, and has undertaken over 1,800 staff surveys for the NHS, Higher Education, Local Authorities, and the Probation Service in the past 3 years. 1 CIPD Working Life: Employee Attitudes and Engagement Page 1
About this Report This report pulls together key information from the reports provided to the University and from benchmark data held by the Survey Unit from other HEIs [shown in square brackets throughout the report] for specific benchmark questions. The objective of the report is to highlight areas for improvement identified by both the benchmark data and staff responding to the survey. Response Rates The School response rate was 42% overall and this is an improvement on the 2007 survey when 34% participated, although it is lower than the average response rate for HEIs at 56%. With the number of staff (434) responding, the organisation has a reliable and robust set of results on which to make decisions and inform the development, implementation and communication of its HR and management strategies. Improvements and Deteriorations Since 2007 The University asked 164 comparable questions in its 2007 and 2010 surveys. Some 94 questions showed a statistically significant different score, of which 78 questions showed a statistically significant improved score and 16 showed a statistically significant deterioration in score. The University Results Compared with Other HEIs The University has been provided with comparisons with the sample of 33 Capita HEI clients for a total of 156 survey questions. Overall, about one third of SOAS are better than the benchmark sample norm or median (including best scores) while the remainder are around or worse than the norm (including poorest scores). SOAS is around the norm or median for 13 out of these 156 question scores, and better than the norm for 44 scores (13 of these scores are statistically significantly better). However, it is worse than the norm for 73 scores (30 are statistically significantly worse), when compared with these benchmark HEIs. The University achieved the following benchmark results: University Benchmark Position Number of issues Number of best question scores 6 Better than the norm 44 Around the norm 13 Worse than the norm 73 Number of poorest question scores 20 Page 2
The School has achieved 6 top scores in the benchmark group. It has the highest proportion of staff who said: Culture and values 1. they know a lot about the School s values; Your work experiences 2. they can decide on their own how to go about doing their work; 3. they have clear, planned goals and objectives for their job; Learning and development 4. they are able to access learning and development opportunities that further improve their professional skills; 5. they are able to access learning and development opportunities that further improve their practical/technical skills; Considering leaving 6. if they were to leave their current job, they would want to remain in the same field of work. The School has 20 scores which are the worst in the benchmark group. It has the lowest proportion of staff who said: Culture and values 1. they feel the School is doing a good job of recruiting the right people for its future; Your role 2. people at SOAS are willing to help each other even if it means doing something outside their usual activities; My manager/supervisor 3. their team leader/line manager/immediate supervisor is supportive in a personal crisis; 4. their team leader/line manager/immediate supervisor has sufficient authority to make decisions; Leadership 5. their Senior Management Team is doing a good job in planning for the future; 6. their Senior Management Team is doing a good job in improving organisational efficiency; 7. their Senior Management Team is doing a good job in allocating resources effectively; 8. their Senior Management Team is doing a good job in communicating with people; Physical environment 9. they are satisfied with the physical accommodation provided throughout the School; Health, safety and welfare 10. they know how to report accidents and incidents; Page 3
Diversity and equality 11. the School respects equally people of different nationality/ethnicity; Communications 12. they know where to find information about important decisions made at the School; 13. on the whole, the different parts of the School communicate effectively with each other; Learning and development 14. they have received sufficient training to be able to do their job well; Managing change 15. the current pace of change is about right; 16. recent changes have been well planned. It has the highest proportion of staff who said: Your role 17. they often worry about work outside their working hours; 18. they feel priorities are changed too frequently for them to work efficiently; Physical environment 19. it is too noisy in their work area; Your work experiences 20. they are unable to handle all the conflicting demands on their time at work. Key Areas for Improvement The following have been identified by responding staff and the benchmark results as key areas for improvement in the University. Benchmark results are shown in square brackets while the 2010 SOAS results are shown in the text or in normal brackets. Managing Change While change has been an important feature within the higher education sector, the amount and speed of change is likely to increase significantly and it is important that staff feel that changes are managed efficiently and that they are involved in the process. A key area of concern for SOAS is that 70% [75%] of staff feel that more could be done to help staff prepare for, and cope with, change. Some 28% [43%] say that the current pace of change is about right (with 10% saying it is too fast and 38% it is too slow). More than half 59% [50%] of respondents do not feel change is managed well within the School while 46% [37%] do not feel that change is managed well within their Faculty/Department/Directorate. Some 42% say, generally, the process of change causes them concern and worry [36%]. Page 4
Less than half of respondents feel recent changes have been well planned (42%) [52%], well communicated (43%) [52%] or well explained (44%) [52%], and only around half believe recent changes have delivered business improvements (50%) or had a positive impact (52%) [51%]. Workload and Bureaucracy Workload and bureaucracy is another key area identified in the 2010 survey. A key issue identified by staff in relation to workload is that 75% [64%] of staff feel they have had to put a lot of extra time in the last 12 months to meet the demands of their workload. Some 55% [49%] of staff feel they do not have time to carry out all their work. Some 38% [30%] of staff say they are unable to handle all the conflicting demands on their time at work, and 41% [40%] of staff say they are not able to take regular breaks on most days. Around 52% [58%] of staff feel too many approvals are needed for routine decisions, and 46% [47%] feel they are required to do unimportant tasks that prevent them from doing more important ones. Workplace Stress Some 23% [29%] of staff say they feel unduly stressed at work, and this has improved since the last survey in 2007 when 37% of staff said they felt unduly stressed. Over three quarters (77%) of staff feeling unduly stressed said this was due to work and the other 23% said this was due to a combination of work and home. The most common causes of stress were perceived as work demands (55% of staff feeling stressed), insufficient staff (52%), and workload (49%). One third (33%) of staff feeling unduly stressed have reported this. Of those not reporting their stress, the most common reasons given were that nothing would happen (given by 64% of those not reporting), concerns about confidentiality (33%) and concerns about being labelled a troublemaker (33%). Some 26% of staff were unaware of the reporting procedures. All organisations have a legal duty to reduce the effects of work related stress and undertake adequate priority assessments. Questions in the survey can be related to the Health & Safety Executive Management Standards for Work Related Stress. Page 5
Communication and Staff Involvement Communication can be a challenging issue for organisations. The key communication issues relate to cross School working; i.e. 77% [65%] don t feel the different parts of the School communicate effectively with each other, 61% say there is not a good flow of information between their Department/Faculty/Directorate and the other parts of the School, and 64% do not feel there is good co operation between different Departments/Faculties/ Directorates [52%]. Some 40% [23%] of staff do not feel people at SOAS are willing to help each other if this means doing something outside their usual activities. Overall, 57% of staff do not feel communication in the School is effective [37%], and the same proportion, 57%, do not feel communication between senior management and staff is effective [50%]. Some 56% [57%] of staff do not feel the School Senior Management Team listen to and respond to the views of front line staff. Staff are slightly more positive about knowing where to find information about decisions made at the School (53% know this [60%]), and 69% [70%] receive information in a timely way while 77% [79%] say the information they receive is straightforward and they understand it. However, 38% [36%] of staff say the amount of information they receive makes it difficult for them to get on with their job. Culture and Values Some 55% [57%] of staff do not feel the School is doing a good job of retaining its most talented people while 40% [32%] do not feel it is doing a good job of recruiting the right people for its future. Leadership The scores relating to staff opinions about their Senior Management Teams doing a good job are below the benchmark sample scores. Some 44% [29%] 2 said their Senior Management Team is not doing a good job in improving organisational efficiency and 41% [34%] said they are not doing a good job in communicating with people. Staff are more positive about their Senior Management Team allocating resources effectively (37% said they do not do a good job [30%]) and planning for the future (24% said they do not do a good job [20%]). Physical Environment Some 53% [33%] of respondents are not satisfied with the physical accommodation provided throughout the School, and 41% (29%) said the School does not have adequate facilities for a satisfying work environment. Nearly one third (32%) [28%] of staff said it is too noisy in their work area while 49% [41%] said that food and catering facilities for staff are not good. 2 Results quoted exclude staff don t know` responses. Page 6
Health & Safety Some 54% [31%] of staff said they do not know how to report accidents and incidents and 77% [66%] said they have not received any health and safety training in the last 12 months. Comments and Suggestions for Improvement Respondents contributed their suggestions for improvement in a free text box in the survey. The most common suggestions for improvement were: Improve communication overall (52 respondents) Improve the condition or size of the working environment (47 respondents) Improve support/support services for staff or administration (35 respondents) Improve communication between colleagues/team members/departments (28 respondents) Improve management style (i.e. how managers interact with staff) (26 respondents). Other Key Employment Issues Pay and Benefits Pay and benefits are an important part of employee engagement as well as being seen as one of the key ways the organisation values an individual s work. SOAS scores for staff feeling fairly paid for the work they do and in relation to others are above the benchmark median scores while the result for staff feeling that, overall, the School offers a good pay and reward package (80%) is close to the benchmark score [82%]. There are a number of questions included in the survey for which the results do not generally appear as a top issue for improvement as they may typically affect small numbers of staff e.g. harassment, bullying etc. It is important that these issues are monitored to ensure the organisation s policies, procedures and working practices are effective. These issues are: Discrimination It is important to accept that the perception of discrimination by a respondent is one of the most subjective areas within a staff survey. Around 12% [11%] of staff indicated that they had felt discriminated against in the last 12 months. The most common reason for discrimination was perceived to be the individual s role or level in the School (45%), and 78% of respondents had not reported their experience of discrimination. The most common reason for not reporting this was that staff did not trust the procedures (55%) or concerns about being labelled as a troublemaker (39%), or possible victimisation (37%). Around 82% [84%] of staff believe the University is committed to the equality of opportunity for all staff and 85% [88%] are aware of the School s Equality policies. Page 7
Harassment and Bullying At the time of the survey 6% [5%] of staff said they felt harassed or bullied at work. The most common forms of this harassment and bullying, given by those affected, were the selective application of rules (58%) and patronising language (54%). Some 54% of staff feeling harassed or bullied had not reported it, and the most common reasons given for this were that nothing would happen (85%) and possible victimisation (54%). Is the University a good place to work? A series of questions were asked throughout the survey which establish whether the organisation is a good place to work (i.e. work climate indicators). These questions are directly correlated to the perceptions of individuals about their manager and senior managers in the organisation i.e. if they have poor perceptions of their manager and senior managers their responses are generally more negative to this set of questions. Around 71% [88%] of those staff responding to the survey said they feel the School delivers a good quality service to service users. This does not necessarily mean that other staff feel the School is providing a bad service but that they feel a better service could be provided. In addition 62% [75%] would recommend SOAS to a friend as a place to work (25% did not know); and 90% [89%] said they feel proud to work for SOAS. Around 83% [86%] said their motivation at work is generally high and 87% [90%] feel the University is a good place to work. In particular staff said in their comments the things they liked about working in the University are there is a happy/friendly/stress free working atmosphere/environment; the friendship and camaraderie of team/colleagues; work is varied and interesting; they like/enjoy meeting people; and the calibre of students is high. Conclusion The results show a healthy balance of positive and negative opinions from staff about working in SOAS and some things that both staff and managers should feel good and proud about. It is important that SOAS uses the information from the staff survey to shape plans for the future by identifying areas of good practice within SOAS and build upon what is done well, as well as improving in the other areas for improvement identified by the results. Some changes may take longer than others to implement but it is important that staff can see action being taken and signs of improvement within 12 to 18 months of the survey. Our research suggests that organisations that are most successful in using staff surveys to improve the level of employee engagement, including achieving high levels of participation in their staff survey and more positive staff perceptions, are those that: Page 8
Share their results widely with staff and involve them in seeking solutions to issues Carry out action planning at different levels within the organisation Use staff survey results as evidence for existing projects and groups Concentrate on one or two key issues Link actions being taken back to the staff survey in the form of You Said, We Did Provide regular updates on the progress being made in taking action Conduct a follow up staff survey to measure the effectiveness of changes or actions. Overall, SOAS has achieved a significant improvement in its results since its last staff survey in 2007. Our benchmarking shows that while about one third of result scores are above the median benchmark level, the rest are generally in line with or below the median level for other HEIs. This is reflected in SOAS Employer of Choice score. With an overall score of 2.99, SOAS is very close to being described as an Employer of Choice. Capita has developed a survey framework and benchmark tool, comparing the results from 242 public sector clients, to establish whether staff feel their organisation is an Employer of Choice. Questions from the survey are grouped under issues with a score provided for each, to allow the organisation to see how well it is doing in an area, or where most improvement needs to be made. Scores range from 1.00 up to 4.00, and Capita s research has identified that an organisation needs to score over 3.00 to consider itself an Employer of Choice. Page 9