Written evidence from The Cabinet Office (CSP12)

Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

Civil Service People Survey inquiry

INTRODUCTION

1. The annual Civil Service People Survey (CSPS) was established in 2009 and aims to support government departments and agencies to embed and improve employee engagement within their organisations. By taking a census survey approach, every individual working for a Civil Service organisation has the opportunity to anonymously share their views and experiences each year.

2. The survey provides extensive and comparable data over time, and is therefore an effective mechanism for internal and external accountability. It also provides invaluable insight to help measure progress against the aims and outcomes of major cross Civil Service policy initiatives, such as Places for Growth, the new Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for 2022-2025 and the Civil Service Vision for ‘A Modern Civil Service’.

3. The survey is managed by the Cabinet Office’s Analysis & Insight team on behalf of Civil Service HR and the 100+ participating organisations, which are responsible to take actions on the basis of the survey findings. Bringing together staff survey activity into a single team drives cost and staff efficiencies, maximising resources while providing a high-quality service for all participating organisations. The Cabinet Office commissions an external supplier (Qualtrics) to deliver the survey on their online platform.

4. The 2021 Civil Service People Survey ran in 101 organisations (Main and Small departments, Executive Agencies of those departments and Crown Non Departmental Public Bodies) under 34 separate departments. It was our thirteenth annual survey, completed by 327,388 civil servants (a 62% response rate). The results have been published on the survey hub on GOV.UK.

5. The 2022 Civil Service People Survey will launch on 20th September. The results will be shared with organisations first before they are published on GOV.UK.

SURVEY DESIGN

What is best practice for ensuring respondent anonymity in workplace staff surveys?

6. To ensure respondent anonymity in the Civil Service People Survey, we do not ask for name, staff number, email address, job title, date of birth or other similar data.

7. A survey manager in each organisation creates a hierarchy (a family tree) of teams and each team has a code such as DWP0123 or HMRC4321. Staff use the code for their team when they start the survey to ensure that their responses appear in the correct results report for their manager to take action on. The team code question is the only mandatory question in the entire survey.

8. Survey answers are treated in the strictest of confidence. Results are aggregated and only reported where at least 10 people in a team or demographic group (e.g. managers or finance staff) have answered the same question. Responses in teams that do not receive ten or more responses move upwards in the hierarchy until the threshold is met.

9. The suppression rule we apply significantly reduces the likelihood of individuals being identified. This is because results are suppressed if there are less than 10 respondents in the group based on how people answered the demographic questions (e.g. intersectional analysis).

10. Personal data may potentially also be submitted in free text boxes, although respondents are encouraged not to do so. There are, however, a few mitigating actions which reduce the risks that personal information is disseminated: i. there is an automated process to redact individual comments, removing sensitive information such as names; ii. the suppression rule for open questions is 20 responses to minimise the risk that the experience shared can be ascribed to a specific member of a team; iii. we encourage organisations to report the findings from the open comments in an aggregated form or as an anonymous quote. For these reasons the Cabinet Office treats People Survey data as personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

11. The purpose for which the Cabinet Office is processing personal data is to help leaders understand what is working well and needs to be sustained, as well as identify where there are problems in their organisation, and to help them to take action to improve staff experiences and wellbeing. By running the same survey across all Civil Service organisations, we are able to compare employee views and experiences across the Civil Service, and provide a means for leaders to be held accountable for people management in a consistent way.

12. The legal basis for processing this personal data is that it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller. Understanding civil servants’ feelings about working in the Civil Service can inform decisions taken to improve these experiences, and ultimately organisation performance. It is also important to know if groups of staff with specific characteristics have a better or worse experience of working for the Civil Service, so that appropriate action can be taken.

13. Respondents to the survey are fully informed on how the data collected via the survey are going to be used; who the data controller is; their rights; as well as the contact details of the Data Protection Officer. The privacy notice is available for respondents to read in the questionnaire and is published on the Civil Service People Survey hub on GOV.UK.

14. Answers to open comment questions such as ‘What is the one change you would most like your organisation to make in the next 12 months?” are only presented for teams or demographic groups when 20 or more comments have been written. Respondents are asked not to write names or identifying information in their comment but in case they do, a program is run by the supplier to remove these before the comments are placed in the reporting tool. This 20 comments rule is designed to make it harder to recognise respondents from their comments.

15. The common alternative in other engagement surveys in the private sector and some civil services to asking staff for a team code is to use their email address to send them a link to the survey. Clicking on the link puts their responses into the correct team in the hierarchy. There is a mixed picture on whether this affects response rates because of the lack of anonymity. Our approach has been to use the team code method because it provides a higher degree of anonymity for respondents.

16. Civil Service staff with access to the raw data are SC or CTC vetted and undertake regular training on dealing with personal data. Individual-level data is stored on the Cabinet Office IT system, which has been built to store official sensitive data securely, in an area with restricted access. Subject to the signing of a data sharing agreement by a named analyst and a senior responsible officer, organisations with dedicated analytical support can receive their microdata i.e. a departmental cut of individual level responses, as well as the anonymised individual comments to the open questions included in the survey. Transfer of the microdata uses secure cloud-based managed file transfer software.

17. To ensure that survey data cannot be hacked from inside the survey or results dashboards, the Cabinet Office’s Information Assurance Team conduct an annual audit of the supplier examining, for example:

●       Assessment against the NCSC standards

●       Cloud Security Principles

●       ISO27001 certificate and Statement Of Applicability

●       Penetration test reports

●       Web application and External Network and remediation plan for their penetration test

●       Cyber Essentials certificate

●       Internal risk register summary

●       Details of clearances for staff who can access data

18. In July 2020, we brought together a Technical Advisory Group for the Civil Service People Survey to critically appraise and, where necessary, decide how best to update our approach in line with best practice. The approach to suppression and anonymity was tested with the group, who agreed that the approach taken was sensible.

What is the best design and method for delivering a staff survey – in particular, across multiple organisations/divisions/Departments? 

19. The annual Civil Service People Survey started as a collective cross-government exercise in 2009. While much of the survey remains the same, over the past 14 years there have been incremental changes in response to feedback from all stakeholders and external research developments. The Civil Service People Survey team, however, felt it was time for a more strategic stock-take of the survey in order to set direction for 2023 and beyond, and proposed a fundamental review of the survey.

20. The overarching purpose of the strategy group organised for this review is to go back to a 'blank page', to think about how we want to gather employee insights after the 2022 survey and ensure that the survey still has the best design and method for a staff survey of this scope. One of the objectives of this review is to ensure the Civil Service People Survey captures all the insights relevant for a modern, skilled and more distributed workforce.  In addition to this, we have tested some immediate improvements with the current independent supplier for the 2022 survey.

21. The steering group, comprised of internal and external experts, has met several times this Summer to discuss three papers written by the team covering:

●       The scope of the survey - whether it should focus on employee engagement or employee experience;

●       Coverage of the survey - whether there should be a census or a  sampling approach, and whether wider public sector organisations should be permitted to participate

●       Timing and frequency of the survey

●       Outputs - the type and content of reporting products, and publication of results

●       Delivery - pros and cons around provision via an independent supplier vs in-house delivery

●       The Question Set

●       Accountability

●       Benchmarking

●       Open comments questions and suppression rules

●       Taking action and sharing good practice.

22. This review was endorsed by the Civil Service’s Chief Operating Officer and the Chief People Officer’s HR Function Board of main department HR Directors. They will receive recommendations from the group on how to improve the survey in September 2022 (following the last strategy group discussion in August 2022). Our response to the question posed, as well as to several others, draws upon the learning to date from this strategy work.

23. The Civil Service People Survey is a census-based employee engagement survey which runs on an annual basis. It has approximately 150 questions (a typical respondent is asked around 130 but the final number varies based on the question routing), and it is comprised of four sections:

●       core attitudinal questions - these are asked to all respondents, and cover perceptions and experiences of working for a Civil Service organisation; future intentions to stay or leave; awareness of the Civil Service Code (the standards of behaviour expected), Civil Service Vision; experiences of discrimination, bullying and harassment; and ratings of individual subjective wellbeing. The core attitudinal questions also include an opportunity to provide free-text comments and the five questions that are used to calculate the survey’s headline measure, the ‘Employee Engagement Index’.

●       local optional attitudinal questions - a bank of standardised questions on specific topics that each participating organisation can select (up to three blocks per organisation). Themes covered include: safe to challenge; health and safety; performance management; change management; support for managers; continuous learning; career progression; customer service; my organisation; and collaboration and team performance.

●       demographic questions - these questions collect information from respondents about their job and personal characteristics, such as their working location and age. These questions are used to filter and compare results within organisations by different demographic characteristics so that results can be better understood and action targeted appropriately. The vast majority of demographic questions are standardised across the survey to enable analysis not only at organisation-level but also across the Civil Service; the demographic questions are also harmonised with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Government Statistical Service (GSS) standards.

●       topical/test questions -  these questions focus on the “newest” themes, which usually align with current government priorities. These are not long-standing questions, but offer a cross-government perspective on relevant issues (e.g. benefits and challenges of working in different locations) and the ability to test/ validate new questions. Each question block is asked to a random sample of approximately 14% of respondents.

24. The survey has a few customisations such as ‘variable terms’ - meaning that certain questions include the name of the organisation, local optional attitudinal questions, own hierarchy,  which allow tailoring the questions more to respondents’ experiences and organisations’ priorities while collecting data that can be used for cross-government comparison. 
25. In the past we allowed further customisation with organisations submitting their own bespoke questions. This led to managing up to 1,000 unique questions that were not comparable, standardised and may overlap. In 2020, following a consultation with survey managers, we revised our approach, with the current structure and level of customisation approved by the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer and the HR Function Board.
26. Whilst there is no single agreed definition of employee engagement, our theoretical approach to engagement is designed to ensure that employees are committed to their organisation’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success, and are able at the same time to enhance their own sense of well-being.
27. In the Civil Service People Survey we use five questions measuring pride, advocacy, attachment, inspiration and motivation to produce an engagement score:

Please note that [my organisation] is a variable term, so in the actual survey it is replaced by the name of the organisation the respondent is part of e.g. DWP, Cabinet Office etc.

28. Like all of the other core attitudinal questions, each of the engagement questions is asked using a five-point agreement scale. For each respondent an engagement score is calculated as the average score across the five questions, where strongly disagree is equivalent to 0, disagree is equivalent to 25, neither agree nor disagree is equivalent to 50, agree is equivalent to 75 and strongly agree is equivalent to 100.

29. The engagement index is then calculated as the average engagement score in the organisation, or selected sub-group. This approach means that a score of 100 is equivalent to all respondents in an organisation or group saying strongly agree to all five engagement questions, while a score of 0 is equivalent to all respondents in an organisation or group saying strongly disagree to all five questions.

30. This is one of several methods to produce an engagement score e.g. the US federal employee survey uses 15 questions and the Australian public service survey uses 10 questions.

31. The analytical framework used in the UK Civil Service People Survey, however, does not consider engagement as an isolated concept, but linked to nine key themes of employees’ experience at work. All the questions in these themes are asked to all respondents on a five-point agreement scale (Strongly agree, Agree, Neither agree nor disagree, Disagree, Strongly disagree):

Note - [my organisation] is a variable term replaced in questions by the name or acronym of each participating organisation.

32. Our theoretical approach, then, focuses on how employee engagement levels can be improved by taking action on people’s experience of work in these nine themes, increasing the level of employee engagement which then should raise performance and enhance wellbeing.
33. The results of the Civil Service People Survey have shown consistently that ‘leadership and managing change’ is the strongest driver of employee engagement in the Civil Service, followed by the ‘my work’ and ‘my manager’ themes. The ‘organisational objectives and purpose’ and ‘resources and workload’ themes are also strongly associated with changes in levels of employee engagement.
34. Based on more recent research, which suggests that measuring only engagement is not enough and having a more holistic view of the workforce should be the way forward, the strategy work we conducted considered whether we should measure the full cycle of the employee experience.
35. Gallup (2018) defines employee experience as the “journey an employee takes with the organisation. It includes all the interactions an employee has with the organisation before, during and after their tenure”. It is suggested that the key drivers of the quality of the employee experience are: the quality of the relationship with the manager, the clarity of the role; the relationship with the team, the space and place where people work; how the work affects people’s overall wellbeing. Furthermore, in order to understand employee experience, an organisation should measure: engagement, intention to stay; comparison between employee’s experience and expectations; inclusion; and wellbeing. Although all those key drivers are currently measured in the Civil Service People Survey, some of the key stages of the employee life cycle experience are not included in our survey e.g. recruitment, onboarding and exit.

36. Some recommended best practices to adopt when measuring employees' experience include combining operational/administrative data, such as personal details, salary history, etc. with what employees tell you about their experience; link employees’ experience with KPIs such as increased productivity, lower staff turnover; designate responsibility to action upon the results at senior level; invest in workplace environment; have frequent pulse survey and collate data from candidate interviews, engagement surveys, ongoing performance conversations and exit interviews. Some of these recommendations need to be balanced against potential concerns, e.g. around perceived anonymity of the survey if linked to an individual's personal details.

37. In addition to the classical engagement survey, measuring employee experience would also include standardised measures for the hiring process for both successful and unsuccessful candidates; onboarding surveys; training feedback survey; performance reviews; 360 reviews, as multi-rater feedback assessments; exit surveys; pay and benefits optimisation surveys; pulse surveys. Some of these measuring tools already exist in the UK Civil Service, but there is variability in relation to who manages them (e.g. central Civil Service HR or organisations) and the extent to which the data collected can be linked and appropriate comparisons can be made.
38. Census vs sample-based approach

38.1.            Since it started in 2009, the Civil Service People Survey has adopted a census based approach, which means that the entire Civil Service workforce is invited to take part. Each participating organisation builds a hierarchy with the headcount for each team so that we can track response rates at a team, organisation and Civil Service level. This is not, however, the only available method.

38.2.            There are two main approaches that can be used for conducting surveys based on the research questions and needs: census based and sample based.

38.3.            The census approach aims to count everyone in a given population, so it is a ‘complete enumeration’ of the population in analysis. A census is used when we want accurate information for many subdivisions of the population. Such a survey usually              requires a very large sample size and often a census offers the best solution.

38.4.            In the sample-based survey only part of the population is approached for information on the topic under study, and it is a partial enumeration because it is a count from part of the population. These data are then 'expanded' or 'weighted' to make inferences about the whole population. Sampling methods can be divided into two main categories: probability sample - when each population element has a known chance of being chosen for the sample; and non-probability sample - when we basically do not know the probability that each element of the population will be chosen. A further categorisation is between convenience sample - when individuals who are easy to reach are chosen; and voluntary sample - when individuals select themselves by responding to a general invitation.

38.5.            There are five common types of sampling:

●       Simple random: each member of the study population has an equal probability of being selected;

●       Systematic: each member of the study population is either assemble or listed, a random start is designated, then members of the population are selected at equal intervals;

●       Stratified: each member of the study population is assigned to a group or stratum, then a simple random sample is selected from each stratum;

●       Cluster: each member of the study population is assigned to a group or cluster, then clusters are selected at random and all members of selected clusters are included in the sample;

●       Multistage: clusters are selected as in the cluster sample, then sample members are selected from the cluster members by simple random sampling. Clustering may be done at more than one stage.

38.6.            Depending on the approach chosen, there are both advantages and disadvantages:

38.7.            When measuring employee engagement, it seems that the tendency is to adopt a census-based approach in the long term. For example, both the NHS and US Federal survey started as a sample based survey and then moved to a census survey (with a population of 1.3 and 1.5 million people respectively). The Australian, Canadian, Irish and New Zealand surveys have a census-based approach as well.

38.8.            Although a census-based approach is quite common among other countries which measure employee engagement in the public sector, it seems that there is a mixed picture in relation to the frequency of employee engagement surveys (see table below).

38.9.            Running an annual survey has the main limitation of being retrospective, capturing how employees felt in a relatively wide time span. There are even further limitations if an organisation measures employee engagement less frequently, for example every three years. These include the risk of: i. losing the experience of team members; ii. not being able to capture the actual reasons for variations in the scores because of the wide time frame; iii. employees not feeling listened; iv. having outdated scores; v. not having actionable results and an effective strategy plan to address feedback. 

38.10.            Many of the organisations who participate in the Civil Service People Survey run pulse surveys and listening activities in between the annual survey to measure progress on the actions they are taking. They often also use this as an opportunity to pose departmental specific questions. In a large organisation these can be run regularly with different samples of staff. In small and medium sized organisations there is a risk that the same people are constantly asked to participate.

38.11.            It  is important to evaluate the impact on staff time and survey fatigue. If staff are frequently required to complete surveys, this may become challenging both from a cost and practical perspective, especially for those colleagues in operational and delivery roles. It  may also lead to survey fatigue, which is the lack or loss of interest in completing a survey. There are two main types of survey fatigue: i. Pre-response: this is caused by overwhelming potential respondents and discouraging them from giving feedback since it is asked too often; ii. Survey-taking: it occurs when a respondent is completing a survey and triggered by some elements of it, e.g. its length, question type, overall design. The main outcome of survey fatigue is respondents not completing a survey or abandoning it, leading to an inability for an organisation to collect insightful feedback.

38.12.            All those points were discussed during the strategy workshops we conducted over the summer on the future of the Civil Service People Survey. Among the members there was full agreement that the:

●       Civil Service People Survey should continue to measure employee engagement as well as its drivers and outcome;

●       surveys should continue to be census-based by default in order to allow all employees to have their say; a sample-based approach may be used for additional pulse surveys to follow up on specific topics;

●       surveys should continue to be annual as a minimum;

●       presentation of the findings should be tailored to the audience.

Who should be involved in the design and development of large-scale surveys like the People Survey?

39. The Cabinet Office constantly engages with different stakeholders to ensure that the survey continually reflects current policy priorities and is relevant to employee experience. These stakeholders include senior leaders such as the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer and HR Directors, as well as policy leads, survey managers in participating organisations and actual respondents to the survey.
40. Every year, starting in April, we engage with policy leads of the different topics covered in the Civil Service People Survey. Those topics include, for example, diversity and inclusion, bullying, harassment and discrimination, wellbeing, locations, Civil Service Reforms, hybrid working, talent management, use of data, job and demographic characteristics, etc.
41. Taking into account feedback received on the previous years questionnaire from users, survey managers and unions, current policy priorities, senior leaders’ and users’ needs, as well as most recent research and the updated work of the Office for National Statistics (e.g. harmonised questions), the central Civil Service People Survey team, working alongside policy leads, reviews the content of the survey.
42. To ensure the confidence of respondents in the survey, all questions are drafted by professional social researchers to ensure they are clear and unbiased. In the past we have conducted interviews with a wide range of staff to check their understanding of questions.
43. Any suggested changes to the survey are presented to and approved by HR Directors via the HR Function Board and the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer, and shared across survey managers and other relevant stakeholders.
44. On top of this annual review, we also run, whenever possible, more structured consultations. Examples include two consultations with survey managers and the survey experience feedback exercise undertaken in the last couple of years.
45. In 2020, the central Civil Service People Survey team conducted a consultation on the delivery of the annual survey that received responses from 16 main departments. The aim of the consultation was to make informed recommendations and decisions in relation to simplifying the survey structure and context. The main findings of this consultation covered five main areas:

●       topics: organisations wanted to keep the majority of the questions the same in order to track changes in employee attitudes and experiences over time;

●       local questions: each organisation would now be able to select three blocks from a standard list - instead of adding their own local questions - to facilitate cross-government comparison and simplify the process. This streamlined the previous approach where each organisations could submit their own question (up to 1000 questions to manage centrally);

●       test/topical questions: a review of the topics covered was suggested to improve their usability and reduce their complexity;

●       logos and local terminology: it was recommended to use only the Civil Service logo and align to the GOV.UK design template, as well as adopt a standard definition for senior managers and leadership team;

●       digital and paper surveys: it was decided to continue for the survey to be digital by default while offering paper surveys to organisations only if there is a clear operational need for them (e.g. for prison officers).

46. At the end of the Civil Service People Survey 2021 we added a link to a short survey to gauge the experience of all our respondents with the data collection process. The survey included three closed questions where users were asked to indicate the extent to which they were satisfied with the overall experience of completing the survey, the topics covered and the digital platform. There was also an open question to write how respondents would improve the survey.

47. 9,277 users responded to this questionnaire and 1,980 suggestions were provided to the open question. A few common themes emerged, including; the length of the survey, having a ‘Save and Continue’ button and Progress bar, use of the demographic questions (e.g. SEB), and anonymity and relevance of some of the questions to some respondents, e.g. military personnel. Following this feedback we took a number of actions, including: deleting questions that were not relevant, worked with our supplier to add a ‘Save and Continue’ functionality, and reviewed with the Cabinet Office Data Protection team to ensure that the privacy notice clarifies how we manage the data and any potential doubts on anonymity.

48. In Spring 2022, we conducted a light-touch consultation with survey managers of all participating organisations. This exercise had the aim of (1) collecting information on how CSPS 2021 findings were used by organisations; (2) gathering feedback on usability and accessibility of our products, particularly the dashboard; and (3) helping us understand the user needs in terms of accessibility. A cross-government exercise like this allowed us to gather feedback not only from the ‘big five’ organisations which we engage with regularly (HMRC, DWP, HO, MOJ and MOD that employ 68% of staff), but also from smaller organisations which might not have the same chance to express their concerns/ideas ordinarily.

49. In total, 45 organisations responded to the consultation. Some of the results can be summarised as follows:

●       Organisations found the open text questions useful for further analysis and the production of topical packs for leaders

●       The benchmark and the demographic publications were mainly used only for internal purposes instead of external reference

●       Organisations were overall satisfied with the 2021 Dashboard and their data visualisations

●       We also received open comments on the main changes organisations suggested for our products such as our dashboards and publications.

50. In Summer 2022 we initiated a more strategic review of the Civil Service People Survey. The overarching purpose of the review group was to reflect on the insights provided by the survey, how they are used across government, and what that means in terms of retaining or fundamentally changing elements of the survey.

51. In addition to internal Cabinet Office officials from the people survey team (including the Analysis and Insight Deputy Director), the membership of the group includes: HR Directors and HR expertise e.g. Diversity & Inclusion, digital experts, Users, Internal Comms, Office for National Statistics experts and external expertise (e.g. academics) on best practice and modern methods of gathering employee insights and improving engagement.

52. The central Civil Service People Survey team is currently working on the detailed outcomes of those workshops and on the written feedback received by those members who could not attend, as well as conducting more research and exploring more complex scenarios related to the survey structure. Suggested recommendations by the group on how to improve the Civil Service People Survey will be presented to the HR Function Board and the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer later in Autumn.

53. The strategy workshops clearly demonstrated the extensive value in conducting the Civil Service People Survey: it gives all employees a chance to have their say; and provides Civil Service wide robust and comparable data to drive actions on important and sensitive topics such as leadership and managing change, diversity and inclusion and bullying, harassment and discrimination. More details on this strategy work can be found in the response to the question: ‘What is the best design and method for delivering a staff survey – in particular, across multiple organisations/divisions/Departments?’

How relevant are the metrics included within the People Survey? Are there additional topics or metrics that would add value to Departments in collecting the information sought?

54. Since it originally started back in 2009, the metrics included within the Civil Service People Survey are the result of extensive consultations that the central Cabinet Office People Survey team - which includes professional social researchers - has undertaken with relevant stakeholders to ensure that the survey content is still of quality and reflects current priorities. These stakeholders include senior leaders such as the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer and HR Directors, as well as policy leads, survey managers in participating organisations, the Office for National Statistics (e.g. harmonised questions) and actual respondents to the survey.
55. The suggested changes, supported by senior leaders, are then presented to and approved by HR Directors via the HR Function Board meeting and the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer, and shared across survey managers and other relevant stakeholders. On top of this yearly review, we also run, whenever possible, more structured consultations for example with survey managers in each participating organisation or through the strategy work. Additional information is provided in our answer to the question ‘ Who should be involved in the design and development of large-scale surveys like the People Survey?’
56. Currently the CSPS, with approximately 150 questions (a typical respondent is asked around 130 but the final number varies based on the question routing), is comprised of four sections:

●       core attitudinal questions (asked to all respondents);

●       local optional attitudinal questions (asked if an organisation selects them);

●       demographic questions (asked to all respondents);

●       topical/test questions (asked to a random sample of respondents).

57. All questions are voluntary apart from the team code question as described earlier (see ‘What is the best design and method for delivering a staff survey – in particular, across multiple organisations/divisions/Departments?’ for additional details). The table below summarises the range of topics that will be covered in the 2022 survey. Annex A is the reference version of the 2022 questionnaire with the response options that will be asked.

58. The majority of questions are asked on a five point Likert scale of agreement, where 1 indicates strongly disagree and 5 strongly agree.
59. Depending on the question we also have frequency scale or ad hoc options (e.g. grounds of discrimination, list of functions and professions; benefits and challenges of locations). The response options for the demographic questions which cover both personal and job characteristics have been harmonised to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and/or the Government Statistical Service (GSS) standards to facilitate comparison.
60. In 2019 we added the standard questionnaire module facilitated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for comparing aspects of work and organisational engagement, and public service motivation across civil services. This six question module is included in the test/topical section of the survey, so it is asked to a random sample of approximately 14% of respondents from all participating organisations. All the questions - in the table below - are answered using the five-point agreement scale:

61. Five of the questions in the Civil Service People Survey are used to calculate the engagement index. This is computed as the average score across the five questions where strongly disagree is equivalent to 0, disagree is equivalent to 25, neither agree nor disagree is equivalent to 50, agree is equivalent to 75 and strongly agree is equivalent to 100. Like all questions in the survey this cannot be linked back to named individuals. The engagement index is then calculated as the average engagement score in the organisation, or selected sub-group.
62. Since high employee engagement is often conceptualised in terms of the benefits it can bring to an organisation, from 2012 we introduced subjective wellbeing measures to the Civil Service People Survey, trying to understand the benefits that high engagement can bring to employees as individuals. Results include two indexes: the Proxy Stress Index and the PERMA index.
63. This Proxy Stress Index aligns to the Health and Safety Executive stress management tool. It uses eight questions from the People Survey. The PERMA index uses five questions to measure the extent to which employees are ‘flourishing’ in the workplace; it is based around five dimensions: Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning & Accomplishment.
64. Considering the range of topics covered in the survey, one of the most common feedback we receive relates to its length. On average, the time taken to complete the survey is approximately 16 minutes, although this may vary depending, for example,  on the routing of the questions and how much respondents write in the open questions.
65. The central team tries to balance response duration with relevant insight, not only building routings and display logics so that respondents see only questions relevant to their experiences (e.g. follow up questions on bullying and harassment only if they have experienced it), but also via the local question blocks and the topical/test questions.
66. In relation to the local question blocks, each organisation can select up to three sets of additional questions that focus on topics of particular interest/relevance for them. These are available from a bank of questions that the central Civil Service People Survey team provides to organisations.
67. Some of the more unique organisations (e.g. the biggest department, devolved administrations and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) are also allowed some extra questions to further tailor the content of the survey to their employees’ needs and their departmental priorities.
68. The topical/test questions help to balance the length of the survey with collecting relevant information and testing new approaches, asking a certain set of questions only to a random sample of respondents (approximately 14%). This approach is quite useful because it optimises the length of the survey while providing for significant departmental representations (especially for big organisations) as well as a Civil Service picture on some additional topics, allowing the collection of further insights.

SURVEY DELIVERY

How does the Cabinet Office work with other Government Departments to administer the survey and gather responses?

69. The Cabinet Office team, composed of analytical and project management staff, works closely with a range of stakeholders including policy leads, senior leaders such as the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer and HR Directors, digital experts, external bodies (e.g. OECD, academia), survey managers in participating organisations and actual respondents to the survey to understand the People Survey’s requirements and priorities. This is done in different ways such as collecting feedback, formal consultations, meeting, papers for official boards, etc. The Government Chief People Officer’s HR Function Board of main department HR Directors is the primary decision making board for the People Survey with endorsement from the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer (e.g. approving changes to the questionnaire).

70. The central team constantly communicates with these stakeholders over the annual life cycle of the survey, and especially with survey managers in each of the c100 participating organisations. These survey managers are usually colleagues in HR or communications, and it may be part of their role or a full time position depending on the complexity of the organisation. The largest and most complex organisations may have a small survey team who also promote employee experience improvements year round or run pulse surveys.

71. Survey managers support the build of the survey for their organisation in spring and summer by supplying to the central team e.g.:

●       local grades (and their Civil Service equivalents to allow cross-CS comparisons);

●       local question block choices;

●       the hierarchy (family tree) of teams;

●       the mapping of teams to the previous survey for comparisons over time (trend);

●       translations  if required (e.g. into Welsh);

●       reviews of paper surveys if required (e.g. for prison officers); and

●       tests of the online survey.

72. After building the survey the survey manager promotes it, monitors response rates and any reported issues e.g. staff not knowing their team code. Every department manages their own People Survey communications activity, however, the Civil Service Communications team in the Cabinet Office works closely with their colleagues across government to ensure coordination and consistency of messaging.

73. Before results are released, the survey manager decides which staff or groups of staff will have access to the different dashboards e.g. HR might receive the Advanced dashboard with all filters. If the organisation has an analyst (e.g. a statistician or social researcher) the survey manager can arrange for them to receive the microdata upon receipt of a signed data access agreement form that informs the analyst of their confidentiality responsibilities with respect to the data. Having access to the microdata allows professional analysts to conduct ad-hoc analysis (e.g. segmentation, intersectional, etc.) based on the specific priorities of their organisation.

74. The role of the Cabinet Office is then to commission required activities, respond to queries from survey managers around building and delivering the survey, run workshops and clinics e.g. on building the hierarchy (and produces written and video guides), send a weekly round-up email containing information on forthcoming tasks and tips, support users and stakeholders when the survey is live and results dashboards are released, and deposit guidance in an online library. The central team provides guidance and tips to organisations on taking actions based on the survey findings that departments then take forward. The Cabinet Office facilitates and strengthens the survey managers network via events organised through the year (e.g. launch event) and putting new survey managers in contact with more experienced colleagues. On top of this, the Cabinet Office has the function of mediating all the contact with the supplier so progress can be monitored.

75. Bringing together staff survey activity into a single contract drives costs and staff efficiencies, maximising resources while providing a high-quality service for all participating organisations. Up to this point the Civil Service People Survey has always been delivered by an external supplier. At the end of each contract the central team submits to the Cabinet Office Approval Board a business case exploring the pros and cons of alternative approaches (e.g. in-house, hybrid which is partially outsourced and partially delivered in house). Based on the decision of the Approval Board, the Cabinet Office then procures the contract, evaluates the bids, manages and tracks the performance of the awarded supplier, ensuring a successful delivery of the Civil Service People Survey.

76. The Cabinet Office is also responsible for ensuring that the supplier meets the standards for security and data management (e.g. compliance with GDPR). The central team is responsible for creating a recharging model through which organisations are billed for the delivery of the survey. The cost that each organisation is asked to pay is based on a flat fee and a proportional one calculated on the departmental headcounts. It is important that the Civil Service People Survey continues to maximise value for money by providing a high quality centralised service which benefits from economies of scale and cross government coordination.

77. Since it was first developed back in 2009 as a centralised exercise, the Civil Service People Survey has: captured comprehensive, consistent and comparable attitudinal data across the Civil Service on a regular basis; provided leaders, managers and teams a means of easily engaging with the data and to highlight where actions can be taken; and maximised value for money through economies of scale and relevance at organisation, teams and individual civil servant levels.

78. On top of managing the central contract and quality assuring the work of the supplier and collaborating with them to resolve any arising issues at pace, the Cabinet Office central team also produces and presents the overall Civil Service position and the main departmental findings to senior leaders including the Head of the Civil Service, the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer and the Permanent Secretaries, putting results into context, highlighting significant variations in the trend or differences among relevant groups. The Cabinet Office also publishes the benchmark and organisational scores, as well as the demographic breakdown of the findings on the Civil Service People Survey hub on GOV.UK.

How is the survey delivered within individual Departments, and how are respondents encouraged to take part within those Departments?

79. The Cabinet Office provides central guidance and materials on how to deliver the survey, but, as described above, each organisation has a Survey Manager who works with the central team to build their survey, promote it when it is in the field and distribute and analyse the results. Every department is responsible to set strategies, plans and approaches - approved and supported by departmental senior leadership and permanent secretaries - to encourage their staff to complete the survey. Organisations manage their own People Survey communications activity, however the Civil Service Communications team in the Cabinet Office works closely with internal communicators across government to ensure coordination and consistency of messaging. Below are some examples from the Cabinet Office, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) setting out how the survey is delivered differently within each department.

80. Example of delivery within the Cabinet Office.

80.1.            A separate team based in HR is in charge of delivering the survey within the department. Cabinet Office respondents are encouraged to take part in the People Survey every year through a variety of means.

●       People Survey Champions are appointed to represent each Business Unit, whose role is to liaise between People Survey managers and their Business Unit staff to deliver promotional messages, encourage completion of the survey, and communicate any changes within team structures.

●       In advance of the survey launching staff are reminded of the action taken on the back of the previous survey - the People Survey Action Plan.

●       Once the survey has launched a range of routes are deployed to encourage completion including the development of a People Survey hub page with promotional blogs, a countdown to the end of the survey, and a regularly updated list of response rates for each Business Unit and messages from Permanent Secretary and Chief Operating Officer

80.2.            Below is the communications plan for the 2021 survey in the Cabinet Office which is typical of a plan used in organisations. This communications plan helped the Cabinet Office reach a 76% response rate in 2021.

Example email banner for staff to use. Posters are also available.

81. Example of delivery within DWP

81.1.            A similar approach is also adopted in other organisations, such as DWP, where the Permanent Secretary writes to all colleagues on the day the People Survey opens reflecting on the Department’s journey over the last year and encouraging participation. There is a permanent survey link to the DWP People Survey intranet pages (link to the survey, list of team codes, FAQs, previous results, message from the Permanent Secretary etc.) on the intranet homepage throughout the survey period and there are weekly reminders in the all-colleague email “DWP Connect”. The survey is promoted and discussed at national leaders calls (for example, directors and SCS calls). Directors General will also highlight the People Survey in directorate comms.

81.2.            Below this level local managers and leaders distribute comms as they see fit, with advice from HR Business Partners. Examples Include: bespoke email shots, including a link to the People Survey Team code;  reminders in Service Delivery Line Managers Update (SDLMU). The SDLMU is used to highlight important information to operational managers that they may need to share with their team during meetings; local newsletters, all-colleague calls and senior leaders’ updates are other examples of communications channels utilised.

81.3.            Unique comms approaches are taken where possible. In 2021 a member of the People Insight Team was the feature of a “Day in the life of” intranet headline news article to give a sense of what goes on behind the survey and to encourage participation.

81.4.            In the months leading up to the People Survey DWP also recommend a “You said, we did” approach to communications, encouraging local leaders to link actions taken to colleague feedback. This approach seems to encourage participation and is taken throughout the year, not just during the period of the survey, so that colleagues are regularly reminded of the importance of their feedback.

81.5.            Finally, completion rates are monitored throughout the People Survey, both centrally by the People Insight Team and by local survey managers (LSMs). National response rates are used to determine if further communications are required, or if  particular drops in response might highlight a problem with access. LSMs communicate with their directors and senior leaders to help push local comms or highlight particular areas where responses are low. This could lead to, for example, a leader visiting a site to help encourage completion.

82. Example of delivery within MoD

82.1.            Within the Ministry of Defence (MoD), all Civil Servants, Military staff who line manage Civil Servants and all Military staff in Head Office are invited to participate in the Civil Service People Survey.  MoDTop Level Budgets (TLBs) make the decision if they wish to invite Contractors to share their views.  The People Survey is coordinated centrally through the Head Office Engagement Policy team and delivered in collaboration with a Reference Group of Engagement Leads based in MoD Head Office and TLBs.

82.2.            Recognising the scale and complexity of the MOD,  there is not a single mandated approach to engagement activity across the Department. TLBs include the business areas within the MOD run by Directors General and Chiefs of our Front Line Commands. The Engagement Policy team in the Head Office act as SPOCs for the Cabinet Office, facilitate corporate activity and coordinate Engagement Leads who are based in each TLB. Engagement Leads drive forward local activity which will have the greatest impact on engagement for that area.

82.3.            Five of the Enabling Organisations and Arms Length Bodies take a similar local approach to engagement activity but work independently and deliver their own Civil Service People Surveys. They include Defence Equipment & Support, Submarine Delivery Agency, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the UK Hydrographic Office and Defence Electronics and Components Agency. We share best practice with these areas.

82.4.            During the pre-survey period the Head Office Engagement Policy team communicates with relevant Senior Boards and Trade Unions, providing information about any updates to the annual People Survey. They also engage with Senior Leaders, ensuring they are sighted on the survey timeline, and they fully understand their responsibility for encouraging survey participation in their area.

82.5.            During the survey live period:

●       Articles are published on intranet from the start of the survey month, highlighting that the People Survey is coming, reminding colleagues of what action has been taken through the year, informing staff of how to participate in the survey when it is live, and reminding them of the value of sharing their views. Other tools like blogs, banners, digital screens and FAQs are used through the survey period to keep the survey visible and easy to complete.

●       Direct emails from the Permanent Secretary are shared at the start and end of the survey window encouraging participation in the survey and highlighting how senior leaders pay attention to the survey results. A direct email from the Cabinet Secretary are shared with all Civil Servants to encourage participation.

●       Local communication plans are also developed, delivered and sponsored by local leaders, utilising both digital and physical tools and taking into account the variety of environments our staff work in across the country.

●       Response rates are shared locally with Senior Leads, HRBPs and Engagement Leads through the survey period to highlight areas where further communications might be needed and to spotlight areas of good practice in survey communications.

82.6.            Once the survey closes,final response rates and the timeline for results are shared with Senior Boards, HRBPs and Engagement Lead Reference Group. The Defence Communications colleagues conduct a review of the impact of various communication methods to understand how improvements to the communications approach can be made for next year’s People Survey.

83. Example of delivery within HMRC

83.1.            Within HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) the survey as an end-to-end process is delivered through a programme of work:

●       scoping: roles and responsibilities, resources, timeline, governance, risks, issues and dependencies, Memorandum of Understanding with Valuations Office Agency are identified;

●       survey-build: the HMRC team works both externally with Cabinet Office and internally with stakeholders and delivery partners to ensure all requirements are designed in and delivered to time;

●       survey-live: as part of the communications approach, HMRC liaises with Cabinet Office and internal delivery partners to monitor and promote completion of the survey with HMRC people and other more senior stakeholders.

83.2.            In relation to the comms, HMRC communication objectives are to i. ensure colleagues know when and how to complete the survey and to proactively address any issues they may havel; ii. encourage completion by demonstrating the positive impact surveys have had; iii. encourage managers to support their teams to complete the survey – particularly around setting aside time in operational areas.

83.3.            HMRC communication approach is to:

●       focus on encouraging colleagues to complete the survey;

●       be clear on the practicalities: what colleagues need to do and when and how long it will take;

●       showcase the benefits: demonstrate that engagement with the People Survey has a direct impact on making HMRC a great place to work, signposting to a page of stories (subject to policy support);

●       use leaders across HMRC to deliver clear, human and transparent engagement with colleagues.

●       encourage managers to make time for their teams to complete the survey;

●       create content under ‘people survey’ visuals – including intranet banner and weekly HMRC-level and group totaliser;

●       use a cross-channel approach with targeted communications across central, group and directorate channels to reach and engage colleagues at different levels of the organisation;

●       work with and through key diversity networks to encourage completion;

●       encourage colleagues to share on Yammer when they have completed the People Survey using CountMeln topic with leaders role modelling;

●       engage with Departmental Trade Unions ensure they understand HMRC approach and flag any issues on the ground which could erode trust.

84. Participation

84.1.            In 2021, 101 organisations took part in the survey. A total of 546,261 people were invited to take part and 327,388 did so, an overall response rate of 62%.

84.2.            Half of participating organisations in 2021 achieved a response rate of 76% or greater.

84.3.            The table below shows how the overall response rate of 62% compares to selected other public sector engagement surveys. Among the surveys included in the list we are the third largest survey, behind the US and the NHS surveys with respectively 1.5M and 1.3M headcounts:

84.4.            Response rates vary greatly across Civil Service People Survey organisations from 21% in the Scottish Prison Service to 100% in the Government Property Agency. This wide variation is also seen across other nations. While the United States federal survey had an overall response rate of 34% in 2021, the response rate in participating organisations varied from 16% to 94% and in Australia, which had an overall response rate of 77% in 2021, response rates varied from 24% to 100%.

84.5.            The low response rates seen in the Scottish Prison Service (21%) and HM Prison Service (HMPS, 23%) are partly explained by the unique challenges these organisations face  (the Ministry of Justice will cover the complex challenges faced by HMPS, and the impact these have on participation in the People Survey, in a separate submission to the Committee). To encourage engagement with the survey, HM Prison Service are supplied with paper surveys for staff to use.

84.6.            With regard to the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), analysis has indicated a number of factors influencing response rates, including the continued delivery of services for those in custody during the COVID pandemic. SPS has committed to increasing response rates.  A range of activities will be undertaken as part of an organisational wide promotion campaign designed to promote the benefits of participation for employees.

84.7.            These issues with engaging staff working in prisons in the survey are not, however, unique to the UK prison services. For example, the US Department of Justice (including the Bureau of Prisons) response rate in 2021 was 27%.

84.8.            The Cabinet Office has reached out to the Queensland Corrective Services survey manager and will share any advice received with the UK prison services on how their peers in Australia received a 49% response rate in 2020.

What are the strengths/weaknesses of delivering the survey in the current manner?

85. When considering the strengths and weaknesses of the current delivery of the survey, there are two strands to take into account. The first strand relates to delivering the survey using an external supplier, the second to how the Cabinet Office builds the survey with participating organisations.

86. Delivering the Civil Service People Survey using an external supplier has both benefits and drawbacks.

87. The benefits are:

●       It is likely to be the most cost efficient way - especially in the short-term, realising economies of scale.

●       It is likely that an external provider has proven their capacity and expertise to deliver a project with this degree of complexity.

●       In the event of re-procuring the same provider, the knowledge of building the survey would be retained.

●       It is more likely that an external provider would guarantee the delivery of the local departmental requirements such as the provision of the paper surveys and translation into foreign languages, therefore having the broadest reach in giving all civil servants the greatest opportunity to participate.

●       It is less likely that the delivery of the survey will be affected by potential lack of internal resources within the Civil Service.

88. The drawbacks are:

●       We would not automatically own the Intellectual Property of any survey platform or analytical tools developed and used. This has previously caused some difficulties, in particular when an Analyst Tool from a third party provider was discontinued in 2019, leaving departments without an interactive tool to interrogate their results. This has been in part mitigated by adding clauses in the most recent contract (2020/21/22) and it will be looked at for the delivery of the 2023 survey.

●       Buying an off-shelf product may reduce the likelihood that all our requirements (both essential and desirable) are met.

●       There may be the risk that some suppliers may be excluded because they do not meet or pass the information assurance (security) standards or do not comply with GDPR, e.g. American based companies which store data outside of the UK/Europe.

89. There are also strengths and limitations in relation to how the Cabinet Office builds and delivers the survey collaborating with participating organisations.

90. The strengths are:

●       the current Civil Service People Survey provides a reliable way to collect employee lived experience;

●       being run as a single exercise with a validated set of measures, the survey allows us to track changes over time and at departmental level, and make comparisons among relevant groups (e.g. grade);

●       having a centrally managed contract is cost efficient and the best use of money; it optimises the number of resources needed for procuring a contract, purchasing a licence, building and delivering a survey;

●       having a single survey with a census-based approach also guarantees that each civil servant has an equal opportunity to complete the survey regardless of the organisation they are part of;

●       having a central team in charge of the delivery of the survey facilitates the communication among 100+ organisations and improves accountability on the delivery of the project.

91. The limitations are:

●       the timing of the survey may not necessarily be suitable for all organisations because it could conflict with own departmental priorities;

●       there may be cases where the questions or topics asked in the survey may not be fully relevant for a specific organisation and the level of customisations requested may not be appropriate for practical or analytical reasons.

VALIDITY OF RESULTS

How can and should data collected through a staff survey be quality-assured?

92. Since it originally started back in 2009, the quality assurance of the data collected through the survey has evolved, becoming more automated and with fewer manual processes. 

93. When thinking about the validity of the findings, it is essential that every response is correctly reported in the results so that action is taken where appropriate. For this reason the central survey  team spends up to five weeks quality assuring the data and results dashboards. We also test our methods during the survey testing in the summer. Our supplier, Qualtrics, also has its own quality assurance process. 

94. There are validity checks built into the online platform itself, e.g. only values of ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘prefer not to say’ (or a blank) can be accepted for a question if these are the only response options provided to respondents.

95. Validity checks cannot be performed automatically for paper surveys, of course. Instead, we ingest data using R (a programming language for statistical computing) and run automated checks to ensure each question contains only the appropriate response options.

96. After the survey closes, we run our own R scripts to (i) clean the full set of responses (online, paper and telephone, if relevant), such as ensuring that the correct routing has been followed through the questionnaire (which is not always the case for the paper responses) and (ii) compute new variables, such as the composite National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NSSEC). These scripts also contain code that checks that the changes have been executed correctly.

97. Soon after the survey closes, we run code to prepare a file that contains organisational and overall scores for each question, which is shared internally with survey managers so they can benchmark their results.

98. Members of the Civil Service People Survey team perform ad hoc checks of the full dataset and the interactive dashboards to further sense check that the data are as expected. Members of the wider Analysis & Insight team in the Cabinet Office are also called upon to quality assure the data in the dashboards, and ensure they match with the underlying data. We can use the scores in the benchmark files for this purpose.

99. A microdata file is created for each organisation that contains only the responses from their staff and returns only the variables relevant to that organisation (due to differences in the local question blocks selected, for example). Again, R scripts have been created to ensure this process is automated and reproducible and to check that the files contain only the appropriate information.

100. Throughout our quality assurance processes we use automated, reproducible, version-controlled scripts. We test the outcomes of our processes both with code using different software (e.g. R or STATA [programming languages for statistical computing]) and manual checks to maximise the chances of spotting errors by using different methods.

101. Each year the Cabinet Office reviews its quality assurance process to see whether any further procedures are required based on the lessons learned from previous years.

What sources can this data be cross-referenced with?

102. We can ‘sense check’ the current year’s scores by comparing them to prior years, both on-platform via the interactive dashboards and by inspecting the underlying full dataset itself. Each individual organisation can also cross-reference their findings with those organisations similar in size or type of work.

103. We can’t cross-reference response counts by demographic against those available through Civil Service workforce admin data e.g. Civil Service Statistics, because the survey response rate is not 100%.

104. Some questions included in the survey, e.g. personal wellbeing, loneliness, etc. are also included in other surveys such as the annual population survey, so there may be some scope for comparison, albeit recognising the differences in survey respondents.

105. It’s not viable to compare the results of the CSPS against other nations due to the fundamental differences in the question sets, the workforce answering them, and the difference in conditions.

Are the People Survey results considered to accurately represent the ‘lived experience’ of Civil Servants? Which areas are relevant or tend to vary?

106. At the moment the Civil Service People Survey can be considered the best indicator of the ‘lived experience’ of UK Civil Servants. There are a few points related to anonymity that increase the likelihood of the survey accurately reflecting employees' experience and reduce the effect of social desirability i.e. the tendency to underreport socially undesirable attitudes and behaviours and to over-report more desirable attributes. These include:

●       all the questions - with the exception of the team code one - are voluntary;

●       the demographic questions include a ‘prefer not to say’ option;

●       respondents are made aware of our suppression rules and of how their responses are going to be used and reported (e.g. who is going to have access to their individual responses; only aggregated findings where at least 10 responses have been received are going to be shared; etc.)

107. Another reason why the Civil Service People Survey can be considered a living document that changes to reflect civil servants’ lived experiences is the fact that every year it goes through a light touch review to ensure that it contains relevant topics and priorities. Clear examples of this are the introduction of new questions/sections such as the question around hybrid working and the time people spend working from home or in the workplace (first introduced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic). Similarly, the fact that participating organisations can select up to three blocks of topical questions, allows further tailoring of the Civil Service People Survey to the lived experiences of civil servants in different roles.

108. There are also a couple of departmental examples respectively in HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy (BEIS), which clearly reflected how employees’ experience was represented in the Civil Service People Survey scores and vice versa.

109. The Pay and Benefits theme score for HMRC in 2019 was 20% and HMRC had the lowest engagement score of any Civil Service Department. As a result of the survey, HMRC undertook further engagement across the business and with colleagues and found widespread disengagement with pay, terms and conditions.  As a result, HMRC successfully made a case to the Cabinet Office and HMT to negotiate a set of pay and contractual reforms with departmental trade unions.  Alongside increases to pay, HMRC implemented a new set of standard terms and conditions that allowed the department more ability to deploy colleagues to better serve our customers.  The new pay deal was reflected by a doubling of the Pay and Benefits score to 48% in 2021 illustrating the impact of targeted interventions based on data.

110. The People Survey has shown to be a very useful indicator of measuring progress against baseline data. It has been particularly helpful in gauging staff experience related to Machinery of Government changes. This can be demonstrated in People Survey results for BEIS in its first year (2016), which showed a score of 41% for Leadership and Managing Change, putting BEIS in twelfth position among Whitehall departments. In the 2018 People Survey, after a carefully managed integration and transformation programme, focussed leadership development, the department's score on this metric was 57%, an increase of 16pp, moving BEIS to seventh position in Whitehall. This improvement was triangulated with additional data through informal conversations and Pulse Survey data.

111. The Civil Service People Survey not only assess employees’ experience via closed questions, but includes open comments questions such as ‘What is the one change you would most like your organisation to make in the next 12 months?’. This type of open question allows people to share their views and experiences in their own voice. Every year we receive hundreds of thousands of responses about experiences across a wide range of topics. Organisations can explore these to make improvements to the lived experience of their employees.

How does non-response bias impact results, i.e. How does the percentage of civil servants who choose not to respond to the survey impact the overall validity of the data?

112. The Civil Service People Survey is census-based so every employee has an equal opportunity to take part. This is, for example, encouraged by making the online version of the survey accessible, having the survey in other available formats if needed (e.g. paper and telephone), as well as having it translated in different languages.

113. We report results of the survey based only on the responses provided and this is caveated throughout our products. We clearly state that the Civil Service People Survey should not be used to comment on the composition of the Civil Service workforce for example, because the demographic information collected only refers to employees who actually responded to the survey instead of the entire Civil Service population. This means that the validity of the data that we reported is not in question.

114. All comparisons year-on-year (trend) are calculated on the basis of who responded to the survey, so any type of potential bias in the type of respondent would be consistent between departments/teams and over years.

115. With a response rate of e.g. 75%, we know that 25% of people do not respond. We could estimate the number of people within certain demographics but we can’t know whether non-respondents have any particular biases.

116. We could weight the scores we do receive, given the representation that certain demographic characteristics have in the responses, but this approach would have a number of issues. For example, those not responding may have very different opinions from those who do.

117. It is however important to mention that the scale of the Civil Service People Survey minimises the non-response bias. Compared to the other employee engagement surveys, indeed, the UK survey gets a good response rate (62% in 2021 at Civil Service level), with half of participating organisations receiving a response rate of 76% or higher.

118. Furthermore, some of the non-responses are also due to the status of those that are invited to complete the survey. More specifically when the hierarchy is built, all staff included in the headcount are included, but during the ‘live period’ of the survey those staff could go on annual leave, parental leave, sabbatical, on sick leave, so they would not have the chance to complete the survey and are instead counted as a non-response.

APPLICATION OF RESULTS

How should organisations take forward and implement learning from staff surveys, both to learn and build on positive outcomes and take corrective action for negative outcomes? 

119. When the Civil Service People Survey results become available, the Cabinet Office team prepares and disseminates a series of products for the Head of the Civil Service, the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer, the HR Directors and Permanent Secretaries, highlighting the main findings and any significant variations over time, across organisations and demographic groups. These products facilitate conversations, at senior level, on how to build on positive outcomes and take corrective actions where areas for improvement are identified. Specific sessions are allocated at the regular Permanent Secretary Wednesday Morning Colleagues meeting and at the HR Function Board in order to discuss the findings at a cross-Civil Service level. The central team also prepares topical packs, for example on health and wellbeing, that are discussed and inform the activities of other cross-government forums and networks (e.g. Wellbeing and Attendance Network)

120. The Cabinet Office also shares with survey managers in each participating organisation interactive dashboards and benchmark files (as well as microdata if analytical support is available within the organisation) which allow them to interrogate the data and compare each other. The central team also offers tips and guidance on how to improve certain areas and hold team conversations, and provides a platform - Knowledge hub -  with allocated areas where organisations can share good practice. However, considering how the scores vary across organisations, it’s the ultimate responsibility of survey managers in each organisation to take forward and implement learning from the Civil Service People Survey findings.

121. Specific examples at departmental level are reported to answer the question ‘What action takes place within departments following the publication and sharing of results?’ .

What is considered best practice for taking forward and acting on employee feedback?

122. The Civil Service People Survey provides a window into the organisation, focusing especially on employee engagement and the main themes related to this concept. There is extensive literature on employee engagement and its enablers and consequences.

123. Engaging for Success for example identified four enablers of employee engagement in 2009:

●       strategic narrative: visible empowering leaders who can explain where the organisation is going;

●       engaging managers: focus on their people, treat them as individuals and coach and stretch them;

●       employee voice: all employees are seen as central to the solution of problems;

●       integrity: values on the wall reflected in day to day behaviours.

124. SHRM research in 2006 suggested, instead, ten common themes related to engagement:

●       Pride in employer;

●       Satisfaction with employer;

●       Job satisfaction;

●       Opportunity to perform well at challenging work;

●       Recognition and positive feedback for one’s contributions;

●       Personal support from one’s supervisor;

●       Effort above and beyond the minimum;

●       Understanding the link between one’s job and organisations’ mission;

●       Prospect for future growth with one’s employer;

●       Intention to stay with one’s employer.

125. These themes are measured in the Civil Service People Survey.

126. There is an ever increasing body of evidence demonstrating the business benefit of employee engagement in both the private and public sector. UK cross-sector and international evidence demonstrates that organisations with higher levels of employee engagement perform better and are more innovative, and for individual employees, being highly engaged supports enhanced wellbeing (itself having a business benefit of reduced sickness absence).

127. Specifically, an organisation with an engaged workforce is more likely to:

●       Increase organisation performance;

●       Have better employee performance;

●       Have higher employee retention and reduced employee turnover;

●       Have higher job satisfaction;

●       Increase revenue;

●       Have a better customer experience;

●       Have more innovative behaviours.

128. For example, a few simple steps can lead to improving the employee experience of work and increase engagement, wellbeing and productivity:

●       Thank employees for taking part in the survey

●       Distribute the results

●       Explore the results individually

●       Team leaders seek further insights if required e.g. differences by grade

●       Talk about the results as a team

●       Celebrate success e.g. rising scores because of actions taken since the previous survey

●       Identify areas of opportunity for improvement and use the resources available to all organisations to begin to take action on these

●       Monitor progress (e.g. via pulse surveys) and report back to the team

●       Have senior leaders who set the example

●       Showcase and share best practice

129. Team leaders and teams taking these simple steps have led to the increasing theme scores since 2009. The chart below at Civil Service level clearly shows how employee engagement and the main theme scores improved since the survey started as a result of the insights provided by the People Survey and the actions taken. In the chart below the shaded area denotes the highest and lowest score of the organisations participating in the People Survey each year. The dark line indicates the Civil Service benchmark (median organisation score) from 2009 to 2021.

Note: the Civil Service Benchmark is the median score across the 101 organisations who participated in the 2021 survey. We use this measure as our benchmark because it prevents the results from being skewed by a small number of organisations who contribute the largest number of respondents.

130. Furthermore, Outcomes Through Engagement (2018) from the Cabinet Office and Engage for Success includes case studies from the Civil Service, police and NHS, which shows a positive association between high levels of employee engagement, and improved productivity, staff and citizen outcomes. Sixteen case studies are also published on GOV.UK to showcase the approaches taken and outcomes experienced by Civil Service teams who have achieved outstanding engagement and wellbeing scores in the Civil Service People Survey. They are designed to help managers and leaders in the Civil Service to identify ideas to apply to their teams.

What data from the People Survey are shared with departments following the delivery of the survey, and at what level of granularity?

131. While the survey is live, organisations receive response rate information which helps them check that the joining information is reaching staff in all areas and consider whether further promotion is required. Once the live period of the Civil Service People Survey closes, the team usually takes five weeks to conduct a data handling process which includes steps such as merging the dataset from the online and paper collection (paper surveys are used by e.g. prison officers); cleaning the data (e.g. routing, etc.); generating microdata for each participating organisation; calculating the indexes; producing benchmarks, organisation scores and comparisons; and quality assuring the findings.

132. The central Civil Service People Survey team works on different reporting products that can be categorised into internal and external.

133. Internal products

133.1.            The first set of internal reporting products are for Civil Service senior leaders. A summary of the key findings at Civil Service level is drafted for the Civil Service’s Chief Operating Officer and the Head of the Civil Service. The central team also creates what can be defined as a national report, basically a data pack, which is presented by the head of the team to the Permanent Secretary Heads of Government departments as well as circulated to HR Directors in main organisations. The Cabinet Office also produces other annual internal packs on key topics such as locations, health and wellbeing and diversity and inclusion.

133.2.            Between 2009 to 2019, the former supplier used to produce a pdf report for each team who took part in the survey. The pdf included the main scores for the main themes and the comparison with the organisation and with the previous year. An example of the front page of a pdf highlight report received by participating organisations prior to 2020 can be found below.

133.3.            Only survey managers and e.g. HR, have access to online tools from the supplier to analyse their results and to the comments left in open text questions.

Front of Cabinet Office 2017 survey report

133.4.            Since 2020, Qualtrics, the current contractor for the Civil Service People Survey, has provided each organisation with access to three interactive, digital dashboards. These dashboards contain an increasing amount of data and analytical filters. Any staff member can use the Standard dashboard to see the overall scores for any team in their organisation and the difference from the previous survey. Team managers and leaders of multiple teams can use the Intermediate dashboard to compare teams and conduct simple analysis e.g. differences between grades or demographic groups.

133.5.            The Advanced dashboard allows Human Resources to dive deeper into the organisation's results including responses to open comments questions. The dashboards have an export function, so results can be exported as needed. Each organisation can decide who within their organisation can access each of the dashboards. They can either create individual employee logins, or create a universal login to share with their workforce.

133.6.            Release of the three types of dashboards - Advanced, Intermediate and Standard - is usually  staggered over the course of a week with two main purposes: a. to not overload the system; b. to allow survey managers in each participating organisation time to prepare relevant briefing and comms ahead of the distribution to all staff (the Standard dashboard is launched last). The dashboards contain aggregate, anonymised survey data, and are GDPR and security compliant (only the advanced dashboard includes anonymised individual open comments).

133.7.            Although we do not know the time spent on each visit to the dashboard, we do have some information on the total number of logins each day since launch. For example, both in 2020 and 2021 the daily logins peaked at almost 10,000 when the dashboard was launched across participating organisations.

133.8.            An example of the headline findings from the Advanced dashboard:

133.9.            An example of the responses to a specific question set where also one of the filters is selected.

133.10.            As shown above, the dashboards contain the filters (e.g. job and personal characteristics) at the top; the themes on the left-hand side and the findings at the centre. At the top left corner users are able to select the team or work unit they are interested in (organisations define their own work units through work over the summer period, when survey managers in each organisation build or update a hierarchy of work units in the online survey platform before the survey launch).

133.11.            The minimum number of respondents for a team to receive a report in the dashboard is 10 staff. In 2021, approximately 12,000 units received 10 or more responses and received a report and 3,000 did not receive enough responses in which case the data ‘moved up’ in the hierarchy to a ‘parent’ unit. Respondents identify their unit by inputting a unique code for each of approximately 15,000 units.

133.12.            The dashboard offers team comparison, comparison by demographic, comparison with directorate and organisation level, as well as with previous years. Results are only displayed for work units or job/personal characteristics when there are ten or more respondents. Comments to the open text questions are only displayed when there are twenty or more from respondents. Respondents are asked not to write names in their comments but in case they do, a check is undertaken before the dashboards are released. Names or identifying characteristics are removed by the supplier.

133.13.            Users of the Intermediate and Advanced dashboards can compare different job or personal characteristics in a unit as long as each received ten or more responses e.g. ten men and ten women.  Examples of comparisons that can be made include: Civil Service Grade; Function or Profession / Job role; Country or Region / Town or City; Main place of work (office / home / both); Time in current job / organisation / Civil Service; Manager or non manager; Working pattern; Type of employment contract; Sex / Gender matches sex; Age; Ethnic Group; Has long-term condition or illness; Sexuality; Religion; Socio-economic background.

133.14.            There is also a fourth type of dashboard - a cross-government version - which allows users to interrogate the full dataset at Civil Service level, but doesn’t permit analysis at team level, only at an organisational one. The purpose of this dashboard is to facilitate cross-government comparisons and it is mainly used by Civil Service HR, the diversity and inclusion communities, as well as heads of functions and professions.

133.15.            A further internal product that the central Civil Service People Survey team distributes to all participating organisations is an internal benchmark file. This spreadsheet contains:

●       The overall results for the Civil Service People Survey for that year;

●       the overall results for each of 100+ participating organisations;

●       a high-performers benchmark (Upper Quartile [top 25%]); and

●       organisations grouped in six size benchmarks (e.g. less than 100 headcount or 6,000+ headcount) and the scores for each size benchmark.

133.16.            This file is well-received by participating organisations because it facilitates cross-government comparisons, the drafting of internal briefing and action plans, as well as an opportunity to connect with similar organisations and share best practice.

133.17.            Furthermore, for organisations with dedicated analytical support, there is the possibility to receive the microdata i.e. individual level responses, as well as the anonymised individual comments to the open questions included in the survey. This is subject to the signing of a data sharing agreement by a named analyst and a senior responsible officer. Transfer of the microdata uses secure cloud-based managed file transfer software.

133.18.            The level of the granularity of the findings provided varies based on the different products - e.g. from being quite high level in the reports to senior level or in the standard dashboard which gets distributed to all staff, to becoming extremely detailed in products such as the advanced dashboards, the topical packs or in the microdata.

134. External products

134.1.            As external products, each year we publish on our public survey hub on GOV.UK two sets of data.

134.2.            Civil Service benchmark results: a spreadsheet with mean and median scores for all respondents, plus overall scores for 100+ organisations and a technical guide to that years survey

134.3.            Results by all demographic groups and five focus files with results by:

-          Ethnicity

-          Gender

-          Health status

-          Sexual orientation

-          Socio-economic background

134.4.            Statistics are published in an accessible ODS format. The technical guide is published in an accessible HTML format. Organisations are separately encouraged to publish their own results on their public website and many link to the survey hub to do so.

What action takes place within departments following the publication and sharing of results?

135. The Civil Service People Survey asks two questions about taking action: I believe that senior managers in [my organisation] will take action on the results from this survey and Where I work, I think effective action has been taken on the results of the last survey. Both are answered with the five point agreement scale. The scores have increased by 20 percentage points and 9 percentage points respectively since they were first asked.

136. Few other surveys that we are aware of ask these or similar questions but the scores for those that do are presented in the table below.

137. Several organisations are responding directly to the Committee to answer this question. Below are examples from the Cabinet Office, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Ministry of Defence and HM Revenue and Customs that show the utility of the Civil Service People Survey for driving change and monitoring the impact of change.

138. Cabinet Office example

138.1.            The Executive Committee, People and Operations Committee and all Heads of Business Units are briefed on the key results, including demographic insights. Ministers and NEDs participate fully in this process with discussions at Cabinet Office Board on the results and action plans. Staff also have access to Cabinet Office-wide findings, guaranteeing transparency within the organisation.

138.2.            Following the publication of People Survey results, a department wide People Survey Action Plan is developed in consultation with various stakeholders including senior leaders, staff networks and trade unions. Discussions on the findings are also held at directorate and team levels with each business unit expected to develop their own plans based on findings.

138.3.            There are many tangible examples of improvements from the People Survey driving change and monitoring the impact in the Cabinet Office. For instance:

●       In 2017 Cabinet Office kickstarted a review of its purpose off the back of fairly low scores relating to Objectives and Purpose (73%). Through the development of a new purpose, and carrying out organisation wide engagement through the Cabinet Office ‘Our Conversation’ programme, understanding of the department's purpose and how people’s work contributes to that improved by 4pp to 77% in 2018.

●       In 2019 through interrogation of bullying, harassment and discrimination scores, we identified areas of best practice through high performing units, and targeted poor performing units for particular action. Within one Business Unit, scores in 2019 were high (16% discrimination, 22% bullying/harassment) targeted work was carried out with them including piloting an organisational change intervention which saw significant improvements in their scores year on year (in 2021 their scores were 9% discrimination and 12% bullying/harassment). A case study was developed from their experiences and shared at a best practice round table in May 2022 alongside other examples from Units who have low scores in this area.

●       In 2021 scores for learning and development for those at EO grade increased from 55% to 58%, with 5pp gains in some key questions about learning opportunities after the launch of a new talent model and improved opportunities such as delivery of the ‘GROW’ career management programme for EOs and the introduction of Career Conversations for all staff. People Survey scores will also form a key success measure for an ambitious agenda for Cabinet Office to have the best learning offer in government and double the typical amount of time spent in Learning & Development.

●       By having this comparable data the survey provides a means for senior leaders to be held accountable for people management in a consistent way in the Cabinet Office. People Survey scores relating to Leading and Managing Change, Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination and overall Engagement are considered as part of SCS performance management process and a mandatory SCS Leadership Objective sets out expectations in relation to taking action on the back of the survey insights.

139. DWP example

139.1.            In the case of DWP, the People Insight Team undertakes several regular activities in the weeks and months following the release of People Survey results:

●       A day 1 download of results to the Permanent Secretary and People Capability and Place Director General on the day results are released to departments;

●       A senior leaders (SCS) briefing, led by the Permanent Secretary, highlighting areas of celebration and concern in the results. This pack also includes actions to be taken by senior leaders to engage their colleagues with the feedback and start action planning. This occurs the day results are released to colleagues.

●       An all-colleague call, using a slightly altered version of the pack shared with SCS, giving the Permanent Secretary the opportunity to walk colleagues through the results. This normally occurs the same day, or day after, the SCS call.

●       The DWP Executive team receive a more in depth analysis of all results in the weeks following the release, and they use this as the basis for discussion on what needs to be focused on as a result of the survey.

●       Around January, the Executive Team receive a second report highlighting key areas of focus and more in depth analysis. The content of this often depends on the results themselves, but is sometimes affected by wider events; for example, following the Black Lives Matter protests and national conversation, this pack focused on the experiences of BAME colleagues.

●       The final part of DWP regular results work is each DWP Champion for a protected characteristic receives a bespoke report, highlighting the changes in results from the previous year to this one for the particular group they champion.

●       Throughout the rest of the year, bespoke analysis can be requested from the People Insight Team and they use People Survey results in a great deal of their analytical work. Alongside this, monitoring of colleague wellbeing is done via an in house Pulse Survey.

●       Below national level, approaches vary with the size of the team considered. Most directorates are large enough to take on a similar level of analysis to that of DWP as a whole, and this is generally a joint effort between directors general and HR Directors partnered with them. Many areas of DWP have representative groups known as People Groups, made up of colleagues of all grades but normally with support of a local manager / senior leader. These groups action plan and take forward results at a local level (for example Jobcentre level).

139.2.            There are tangible examples of work undertaken as a direct result of the People Survey Results in DWP:

●       Case study: In 2020, most health and wellbeing results had reduced compared to 2019, and new questions about the impact of Covid-19 showed negative effects on physical health (35% of respondents) and mental health (60% of respondents). DWP developed immediate and longer-term wellbeing interventions due to Civil Service People Survey 2020 data and wider supporting insight.

●       The recent launch of a future vision and story for the department to 2025 was influenced heavily by colleagues’ feedback in the 2021 People Survey that they wanted a clear vision for the future.

●       In Change and Resilience Group, the rollout of the Leadership Essential products demonstrates commitment to learning and growing line management capabilities in areas like performance management and developing the line management relationship.

●       People, Capability and Place have been embedding Behaviour Matters and Micro Behaviours products on the back of scores in relation to bullying, harassment and discrimination and inclusive leadership.

●       Finance Group (FG) have developed their own Leadership Essentials Refresh programme. This new programme runs alongside the DWP programme, using their material, but a few tweaks have been added to make it as relevant as possible for all FG colleagues. FG coaches are used to deliver the programme and they use examples in the sessions which are FG specific.

●       Service Excellence has started running a “cultural inquiry” on the back of People Survey results to help understand the culture of Service Excellence and how best to move forward as a group.

140. MoD example

140.1.            On the release of the CSPS results for the MOD, analyst and HR colleagues work to develop an initial highlights results pack for senior boards, followed by a further in-depth presentation highlighting any trends, insights gathered from the survey and identifying priority areas for action, which will support the improvement of employee experience within the MOD. Deep dives into key priority areas are commissioned by Senior Boards and insight is fed into corporate activity owners to inform activity for the year ahead. Regular communication is maintained with corporate activity areas to ensure activity is progressing.

140.2.            Additional activities include:

●       An article from the Permanent Secretaries is published on intranet sharing the People Survey results. This is followed up by a later article reminding colleagues of engagement action taken since the last survey and highlighting any new action to be taken as a result of feedback from this survey.

●       As part of the annual appraisal and objective setting round, MoD Permanent Secretaries look at the People Survey results of their Directors General to ensure staff engagement forms a part of the conversation.

●       The Head Office Engagement Policy team meets quarterly with the Cabinet Office and the ‘Big Five’ government departments to discuss the People Survey updates and best practice.

●       Monthly Reference Group meetings are organised where Engagement Leads representing our TLBs come together to collaborate by sharing progress on engagement activity, identifying common challenges and spotlighting best practice.

●       Engagement Pages are available on intranet and highlight the ‘Listen, Act, Track’ methodology, providing a ‘Policy Bites’ video on engagement that helps all staff to understand the value of activity to improve employee engagement and experience. Best practice resources such as Engage for Success for teams to continually learn from are also highlighted.

●       At local level, results are shared with local teams via the Survey provider’s digital dashboard and all local Engagement Leads have access to the dashboard, empowering them to conduct further analysis of their data and identify priority areas.

●       Teams are encouraged to discuss their local results and review engagement action  plans to identify areas of success and progress, along with areas of improvement. Where needed, further local focus groups are set up to discuss the survey results and identify actions.

●       TLBs utilise a range of tools to drive engagement activity forwards including local action plans, regular newsletters highlighting engagement activity and sharing information, local networks of Engagement Champions for driving and communicating action across our full estate, face to face road shows providing opportunities to discuss engagement activity, workshops on topics highlighted within the survey etc. MoD is also piloting a Self Service use of the Qualtrics digital dashboard for local leaders to build greater engagement ownership of their engagement results.

●       In terms of reporting, as part of the ‘People Survey Takes Action’ series MoD publish articles on the Department wide intranet spotlighting activity that has taken place at a corporate level to improve employee experience as a result of the People Survey, monthly rolling articles and blogs spotlighting activity that has taken place in each TLB, helping to share best practice across the MOD.

●       Local and corporate activity is reported back to Senior Boards on a quarterly basis, enabling Senior Leaders to monitor progress and highlight potential areas where further work may be required.

141. HMRC example

141.1.            Once the Civil Service People Survey findings are cascaded from the Cabinet Office to participating organisations, there are some steps that take place within HMR. These include:

●       Reporting: HMRC survey managers prepare a sequence of senior leader briefings at the top of HMRC on results in the wider context of the HMRC Strategic Objective ‘Making HMRC a great place to work’. Results are also disseminated to report owners (managers with a team of 20 or more and where a minimum of 10 people respond) and survey managers ensure complete transparency of all results across HMRC for all staff.

●       Further analysis: the HMRC survey managers manage deeper analysis for HMRC programmes of work and other bespoke requests.

●       After Action Review: survey managers draft a model for continuously improving year-on-year.

●       Funding: HMRC survey managers ensure payment and secure budget for the following year.

141.2.            It is worth mentioning that in HMRC actions are planned following the Listen, Learn, Act and Communicate cycle and the organisation uses the People Survey, other HMRC surveys and approaches as a major part of how they listen to their staff. HMRC learns by creating ground level action plans in collaboration with employees to foster ownership, grounded in data, to drive the other two elements of the cycle.

141.3.            Specifically, HMRC survey managers take forward and implement learning from the Civil Service People Survey by working in conjunction with staff to deliver on the action plan, building their capability throughout in organisational development and design, people analytics, listening tools, techniques and listening platforms and channels (acting); and providing regular, useful and insightful updates to staff with a ‘You said, we/you did’ format, making clear how location action relates to the data and insight that’s been gathered (communicating).

141.4.            This approach of action planning and implementing learning acts as a barometer and becomes a part of HMRC evidence base ensuring that action is driven in line on HMRC.

141.5.            Strategic Objective to make HMRC a great place to work and its five underpinning pillars ( connection to purpose; a great environment; enabled to do best work; attractive employment offer; and continuous learning culture).

141.6.            The Magenta book is used as a guide for developing success measures and evaluation for various initiatives.  For HMRC’s ‘Great Place to Work’ strategic objective, various People Survey questions provide the measurement for the Key Performance Indicators used to measure this strategic objective, to enable to track the impact of changes.  Some Civil Service People Survey questions are replicated in a monthly sample Pulse survey to allow a continuous tracking. This approach also features in how the HMRC Executive Committee post-People Survey is briefed.

How is this recorded, monitored and kept consistent across departments?

142. The Cabinet Office does not formally record or monitor the different actions that each organisation implements on the back of the Civil Service People Survey findings.

143. The central Cabinet Office team, however, works as a facilitator among organisations, offering opportunities for sharing good practice. For example, the central team meets every six weeks with survey managers from the bigger organisations (HMRC, DWP, HO, MoJ and MoD that together employ 68% of civil servants) identifying areas where organisations may benefit from sharing knowledge.

144. Since 2020 the Cabinet Office has been using Knowledge Hub, a secure online platform, where Civil Service People Survey related materials are shared with participating organisations. These materials include not only products from the central Cabinet Office team, but for example Action Planning Templates from different organisations, and case studies that departments are willing to share and showcase.

What should the Cabinet Office’s role be in enabling departments to understand and benefit from the People Survey results?

145. Currently the Cabinet Office’ role in enabling departments to understand and benefit from the Civil Service People Survey results relies on a few actions.

146. As mentioned in previous responses, the Cabinet Office produces reports and data packs for senior leaders to highlight the main findings and variations in the trend and comparisons and prompt the conversation on how to act on them. The team also shares topical packs for example on location, health and wellbeing, or bullying and harassment which inform policies at Civil Service level.

147. The Cabinet Office also has a role in supporting departments. The central team provides guidance on action planning via different routes, including the dashboards. The results dashboards used to disseminate the findings within the Civil Service contains practical tips on how to increase the engagement and the main theme scores such as:

●       Learning and development - Identify informal training opportunities e.g. from a member of the team that has expertise in a certain area; complete a skills audit with members of the team.  Arrange coaching/mentoring for team members and job shadowing opportunities. Feedback about L&D undertaken at team meetings.

●       Inclusion and fair treatment - Recognise individual achievement appropriately e.g. a face-to-face thank you, a mention at a meeting or event, or nominations for awards. Also encourage peer recognition.

●       Resources and workload - below is a screenshot of a part of the Further Reading and Resources section of the 2021 results dashboard on this topic.

148. The Cabinet Office also manages a Knowledge Hub library, giving survey managers in each organisation access to a pool of resources including guidance and videos on how to use the dashboard. This hub is also a place for organisations to share knowledge, materials and good practice, benefitting from each other’s lessons learnt.

149. The Cabinet Office is also in constant communication with participating organisations, not only being responsive to any queries received in the two team mailboxes, but also having scheduled and ad hoc meetings and events with them. On top of this, the central team sends new practical tips to increase employee engagement and wellbeing to the survey manager community every week in the weekly round up email. An example being the Australian Public Service Commission’s guide to action planning sent in June 2022.

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