There were some really positive areas that came back from the survey results. Our highest-scoring questions were as follows:
- 94% of colleagues feel they are respected and trusted by their colleagues
- 91% of colleagues feel they are able to make a meaningful difference through their work
- 91% of colleagues believe that equality, diversity and inclusion are important to this organisation
- 90% of colleagues feel they are respected and trusted by their manager
- 85% of colleagues are proud to work for Derbyshire County Council
- 84% of colleagues have confidence in the leadership skills of their manager
- 83% of colleagues agree they have clear objectives and can see how their work contributes to the council's overall success
These are brilliant results that we should be really proud of and celebrate. We do, however, have some areas that we can continue to improve on and these remain the same as last year. Although more than 60% of colleagues agree that action has been taken as a result of last year's survey, we do appreciate that we haven't fully resolved concerns that colleagues raised last year around some key areas:
- 53% of colleagues agree that they are rewarded fairly - a 2% reduction from last year
- 63% of colleagues agree that they are valued and recognised - a 6% reduction from last year
- 66% of colleagues agree that they are involved in decisions that affect them and their work - a 2% reduction from last year
- 68% of colleagues believe their wellbeing is important to the organisation
In addition, colleagues were invited to comment with a new question asking, “If there was one thing that would make Derbyshire County Council a better place to work, what would it be?” More than 2,500 colleagues responded to this question and this has provided some real insight to areas that colleagues are saying need more focus. These key areas are: pay and reward, resources where it is perceived we have over-stretched and under-resourced teams and improvements to our work environment, including ICT and equipment. The biggest area of feedback, however, was around communications, decision-making and how we manage and communicate change.
These were the main headlines from the survey results and in early September team results will be shared with leaders to enable colleagues to discuss these results in more detail and agree actions we can take to further improve in these areas.