Scottish Government

4 Results in Detail

This part of the report discusses the findings from the 2006 survey in detail. Each section is discussed in turn, chronologically as featured in the questionnaire. Where applicable, comparisons are made with the external benchmarks and 2005 survey results. Interesting and informative demographic differences are also referred to where relevant.

Note: in the graphs presenting benchmark information, a '0' indicates there is no difference between the SE result and the benchmark. Where there is no value shown next to a question, for the difference from the benchmarks, this means that there is no benchmark comparison available for that question.

4.1 Me and My Job

4.1.1 Job Satisfaction

Overall job satisfaction amongst respondents has improved since 2005, with just under two thirds of respondents (62%) indicating they are satisfied with their job, which is an improvement of 4 percentage points since 2005. However, this is still slightly below the Central Government benchmark and below the UK benchmark. The overall job satisfaction question is an engagement question as described in section 1.3 and the Key Driver Analysis shows that feeling a sense of personal achievement in their work is a Key Driver of engagement. The result for this question as shown in the previous graph is also scoring below the Central Government and UK benchmarks. Therefore to improve levels of job satisfaction, taking action to help improve respondents' feeling of personal achievement in their job should be considered.

Perceptions of whether respondents feel a sense of personal achievement from their job vary considerably across Core Departments as shown in the graph below:

There is a high level of satisfaction with the extent to which respondents feel they can influence how they do their job; 76% gave a positive response to this question which is one of the most positive results from the survey and has not changed since 2005. When looking at the results for sub-groups, perhaps unsurprisingly, band C and SCS respondents are more positive than respondents at band A and B as shown in the graph overleaf.

It is also positive that 75% of respondents feel their job makes good use of their skills and abilities, which is an increase of 1 percentage point since 2005 and higher than the Central Government and UK benchmarks (68% and 72% respectively). When looking at the results for sub-groups, band C and SCS respondents are more likely than other respondents to feel they can make good use of their skills and abilities (87% and 90% respectively), whilst just 62% of band A respondents feel they can.

It is of concern that only 30% of respondents feel appropriately rewarded for their performance in the organisation (i.e. total reward package). Although this is an improvement of 4 percentage points since 2005, there is still room for improvement as almost half of respondents (47%) do not feel appropriately rewarded. The fact that so few respondents feel appropriately rewarded may explain why only just over half of respondents (55%) feel valued by the SE (see section 4.10.1). When looking at the results for sub-groups, responses to this question vary greatly between respondents at different bands with band C and SCS respondents responding far more positively than other respondents as shown in the graph below:

Respondents from the Environment and Rural Affairs Department are the least likely respondents to feel appropriately rewarded for their performance (22% positive, an improvement of 2 percentage points since 2005), whilst respondents from the Legal and Parliamentary Service are the most positive (45% positive, an improvement of 10 percentage points since 2005).

The other two engagement questions included in this section, "I feel I am making a difference to the lives of people in Scotland" and "One of the reasons I joined this organisation was to make a difference to the lives of the people of Scotland" received quite low positive responses (43% and 46% respectively). The low positive responses are being driven by high neutral responses, which may be an indication that some respondents are not sure if they are making a difference to the lives of people in Scotland or feel that some things they do have an impact whilst others don't. However, although these results are quite poor, they have shown some improvement since 2005. When looking at the results for sub-groups, the responses to these questions vary greatly by band with band C and SCS respondents responding far more positively than other respondents as shown in the graph below:

Respondents working alternative patterns are less likely than other respondents to have joined the organisation to make a difference to the lives of people in Scotland (39% compared to 44% of respondents not working alternative working patterns). In addition, Agency respondents are less likely than Core respondents to have joined their organisation to make a difference to the lives of people in Scotland (40% compared to 48% of Core respondents).

Interestingly, it seems the less time respondents have spent working for the SE the more likely they are to have joined the organisation to make a difference to the lives of people in Scotland. The graph overleaf shows a breakdown of these responses by length of service.

4.1.2 Work Load and Work Life Balance

Overall perceptions of work life balance and workload have improved slightly since 2005. In particular the fact that two thirds of respondents (67%) feel able to strike the right balance between their work and home life shows an improvement of 3 percentage points since 2005 and is in line with both the Central Government and UK benchmarks. When looking at the results for sub-groups, as would be hoped, respondents with alternative working patterns are more likely than other staff to feel able to strike the right balance (71% compared to 66% of respondents not working alternative working patterns).

Overall 60% of respondents feel their workload is reasonable which is in line with the Central Government and UK benchmarks and the 46% of respondents feeling the level of stress in their job does not have a negative effect on their work is just above the benchmarks. However, when looking at the results for sub-groups, line managers and more senior respondents are less likely to be satisfied with their workload and ability to strike the right balance between their work and home life. Just 55% of line managers compared to 64% of other respondents feel their workload is reasonable and 59% of line managers compared to 73% of other respondents feel able to strike the right balance between their work and home life. The graph below shows the breakdown of the workload and work life balance questions by band.

Interestingly, although more senior respondents are less likely to feel their workload is reasonable or to feel they can balance their work and home life, there is little difference in response by band to the question about feeling the level of stress in their job has a negative effect on their work. In fact it seems more senior respondents are slightly more positive than other respondents. This may be due to them having a different view of what is expected of them.

When looking at the differences between particular sub groups, respondents who class themselves as permanent are more likely than respondents on fixed term contracts to feel the level of stress in their job has a negative effect on their work (45% positive compared to 60% of fixed term respondents).

Interestingly, although Borders/South West respondents are the least positive about the influence they can have on how they do their work, they are more positive than other respondents about being able to strike the right balance between their work and home life.

4.2 My Line Manager

Overall perceptions of line management are quite positive and have improved slightly since 2005. Most respondents (81%) feel they have a good working relationship with their line manager and this is one of the most positive results from the survey. In addition, around three quarters of respondents feel their line manager is open and honest with them and recognises and acknowledges when they have done their job well (73%).

When looking at the results for sub-groups, it seems Core respondents are more likely than Agency respondents to feel their line manager is open and honest, recognises and acknowledges when they do their job well and makes them feel an important part of the team as shown in the graph overleaf.

However, although general perceptions of line management are positive, a below average proportion of respondents feel their team is well managed overall (62% positive, 3 percentage points below the Central Government benchmark and 11 percentage points below the UK benchmark). Also, just 62% of respondents feel their line manager communicates effectively to give them the information they need to do a good job, which is also lower than the Central Government and UK benchmarks (67% and 68% respectively). Interestingly however, although a similar proportion of respondents feel confident that, on important matters, their manager communicates their thoughts and feelings upwards (61%), this result is more positive than the Central Government and UK benchmarks (55% and 56% respectively).

4.2.1 Performance Management

Perceptions of performance management are very similar to those in 2005. It is encouraging that most respondents (76%) are fully involved in setting their work objectives and therefore feel their objectives clearly set out what is expected of them in their job (71% positive). When looking at the results for sub-groups, band C and SCS respondents are more likely than other respondents to feel they are fully involved in setting their work objectives as shown in the graph overleaf:

A larger proportion of Core respondents than Agency respondents feel fully involved in setting their work objectives (78% positive compared to 73% of Agency respondents). Respondents with alternative working patterns are less likely than other respondents to feel their objectives clearly set out what is expected of them in their job (66% positive compared to 72% of respondents not working alternative working patterns).

Although over two thirds of respondents (66%) felt their performance was accurately reflected at the conclusion of the performance review process, it seems more needs to be done to ensure the performance reviews are then used to help respondents identify ways they can develop further as only 44% of respondents feel this happened during their last review. This is also substantially less positive than the UK benchmark (60%). This may explain why perceptions of opportunities for personal development and growth and career development are so poor, as explained later in this report (see Section 4.4).

4.3 My Team and Work Area

Perceptions of team working is a clear strength for the SE with most respondents (84%) indicating that their team co-operates to get the work done, which is the most positive result from the survey. This may be partly due to encouragement from line managers for teams to work together to do a better job as it was seen previously that 63% of respondents feel this is the case (see Section 4.2). In addition, 80% of respondents understand how their work contributes to the objectives of the their organisation, which is also one of the most positive results from the survey, although just slightly lower than the UK benchmark (82%) and in-line with the Central Government benchmark (79%).

Although we've seen that most respondents feel they are fully involved in setting their job objectives, fewer respondents contribute to business planning in their work area (53% positive), although this has improved by 2 percentage points since 2005. Core respondents are more likely than Agency respondents to contribute to business planning in their work area (55% positive compared to 49% of Agency respondents). When looking at the results for sub-groups, it is interesting that although Agency respondents are less likely than Core respondents to contribute to business planning, they are more likely to understand how their work contributes to the objectives of their Agency (85% positive compared to 78% of Core respondents). Females are less likely than males to contribute to the business planning in their work area (49% positive compared to 59% of males).

As may be expected, the more senior respondents have a greater understanding of their contribution to the organisation and have a greater contribution to the business planning. The graph overleaf shows the breakdown of these responses by band.

It is positive that almost three quarters of respondents feel their ideas and suggestions are given fair consideration in their work area. Responses to this question vary by Department as shown in the graph below, with respondents from the Legal and Parliamentary Services Department responding most positively and respondents from the Environment and Rural Affairs Department responding least positively.

4.4 My Development and Career

Perceptions amongst respondents about their development and career are quite mixed. Although most respondents feel they have the knowledge and skills they need to achieve their objectives and those who manage staff also feel their staff have the knowledge and skills they need, there were far less positive responses to questions about having the opportunity for personal development and growth and opportunities to progress their career.

Although most respondents (80%) feel they have the knowledge and skills they need to achieve their objectives, when looking at the results for sub-groups, those working alternative working patterns are less likely to feel this is the case than other respondents (77% positive compared to 81% of respondents not working alternative working patterns).

It is encouraging that there has been a noticeable improvement in the feeling of job security with over two thirds of respondents (69%) feeling they have job security, which is an improvement of 6 percentage points and substantially higher than the Central Government and UK benchmarks (51% and 54% respectively). Perceptions of job security are more positive the more senior the respondent is as shown in the graph overleaf:

There has been a decline in satisfaction with the training received for their present job including coaching and on-the-job training with 56% of respondents indicating they are satisfied, a decline of 4 percentage points since 2005. Whilst this result is in line with the Central Government benchmark, it is noticeably lower than the UK benchmark (64%). Interestingly, Agency respondents are more satisfied than Core respondents with the training they have received (60% positive compared to 55% of Core respondents).

The key area for concern within this section of questions is the poor perception of the opportunities available for personal development and growth. Just 51% of respondents believe they have the opportunity for personal development and growth within the SE, which although in line with the 2005 result and the Central Government benchmark, is lower than the UK benchmark (57%). This question has also been found to be a key driver of engagement amongst SE respondents and therefore it is important that this issue is considered for action to improve engagement levels within the SE. This result is also reflected by the fact that just 44% of respondents believe there are opportunities to progress in their career in the SE, Agencies and Associated Depts. When looking at the results for sub-groups, the results vary to this question noticeably by band as shown in the graph overleaf with band A respondents being noticeably less positive than other respondents.

Perceptions of the opportunities for career progression and personal development and growth also vary by length of service and it seems the longer a respondent works for the SE the less likely they are to feel they have opportunities for personal development and growth and career progression. These results broken down by length of service are shown in the graph below:

In addition, it also seems that gay men are less likely than heterosexual/straight respondents to feel they have the opportunity for personal development and growth in the SE (37% positive compared to 54% of heterosexual/straight respondents).

Perceptions of opportunities for career progression and personal development and growth also vary between departments as shown in the graph below, with the Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department results being the most positive and the Environment and Rural Affairs Department the least positive.

4.5 My Working Environment

Overall perceptions of the working environment are quite poor with a decline in satisfaction with the information and communication technology ( ICT/ IT) and noticeably below average proportions of respondents feeling their physical working environment allows them to be productive in their job. Although this latter result has improved by 2 percentage points since last year with just over half of respondents indicating satisfaction with their working environment (54%), the fact that the result is so far below the Central Government and UK benchmarks is an area for concern.

If respondents had indicated they did not feel their working environment allows them to be productive in their job they were asked to indicate what aspects of their working environment they have concerns about. They were given a list from which to choose their areas of concern and the graph overleaf lists the most frequently selected areas for concern. Temperature and ventilation, noise levels and the availability of meeting rooms seem to be the main areas for concern amongst respondents not happy with their working environment.

When looking at the results for sub-groups, Agency respondents are also more positive about their working environment than Core respondents with 61% of Agency respondents indicating their physical working environment allows them to be productive in their job, compared to 51% of Core respondents. In addition, SCS respondents are more positive about their working environment than respondents in other bands as shown in the graph overleaf.

Perceptions of the working environment also vary noticeably between Departments as shown in the graph below, with the most positive response coming from the Finance and Central Services Department and the least positive response coming from the Legal and Parliamentary Services Department.

Overall just 64% of respondents are satisfied with the information and communication technology ( ICT/ IT) in the SE, which is a decline of 3 percentage points since 2005. The questionnaire asked respondents to provide details of any comments they may have about the information and communication technology in the SE. These comments were then themed based on the different issues they covered and the graph overleaf lists the number of comments given for each theme. This shows that almost 45% of the comments given were about e RDM/Objective, explaining that it is slow, doesn't help staff to be more effective and efficient in their jobs and is not very user-friendly.

4.6 Finance in our Organisation

Overall perceptions of financial management within the SE seem to have remained similar to those in 2005 with the main change being a decline in the proportion of respondents who feel that in their experience checks are made about the available budget before money is committed (50% positive, a decline of 2 percentage points since 2005).

However, the low positive responses seem, in the main, to be driven by high neutral responses, which is an indication that many respondents may not be sure how finances are managed within the SE and how well they are managed. This is evident by the results when they are broken out into two sets of respondents - those who are currently involved in managing or monitoring a Direct Running Cost ( DRC) budget or a Programme budget as part of their job and those who do not manage or monitor a budget. These results are presented in the following graphs overleaf. The results broken out this way show that respondents who manage or monitor a Direct Running Cost ( DRC) or Programme budget are more positive about financial management within the SE than respondents who don't manage or monitor a budget and have far lower neutral responses than those who do not manage or monitor a budget. However, it is still concerning that around a third of respondents who manage or monitor a budget do not feel the SE has a sound culture of financial management.

The tables below show that the more senior the respondent the more likely they are to manage or monitor a budget. Most SCS members manage or monitor a budget whilst far smaller proportions of respondents in the other bands do.

Therefore it is not surprising that, when looking at the results for sub-groups, SCS members are more positive about financial management within the SE than respondents within other bands as seen in the graph below.

Interestingly, Core respondents are less positive than Agency respondents about whether their organisation ( SE or Agency) makes good use of financial resources (23% positive compared to 40%) and their organisation ( SE or Agency) having a culture of sound financial management (23% positive compared to 39% respectively).

Although the perception of financial management within the SE is quite negative, it is worth noting that the key driver analysis conducted to assess which issues have the greatest impact on levels of engagement within the SE shows that perceptions of financial management have very little impact on levels of engagement. Therefore, although some of the questions about financial management are some of the lowest scoring questions in the survey, the issues identified as key drivers of engagement in section 1.3.1 should be prioritised for potential areas for action before considering trying to improve perceptions of financial management.

Respondents were given a list of ways in which they could obtain and access financial information or advice and asked to select which they have used in the past 12 months and then select up to three that they found most useful. The graph below lists the results to this question and shows that line managers were the most used source of financial information and advice and are found to be most useful, followed by the Finance Team, other colleagues and BC. The sources used least and found least useful are external consultants, SE Short Guide to Finance and the SE Accountancy Services.

4.7 Policy Development and Delivery

The questions listed in the graph below were only answered by respondents who are directly involved in or support or contribute to the design or delivery of policies:

A quarter of respondents (27%) indicated they are directly involved in the design or delivery of policies and 34% of respondents indicated they support or contribute to the design or delivery of policies. Combining both of these groups we find that overall 59% of respondents are involved in the design or delivery of policies in some way. Of those respondents, there is a reasonable level of confidence that the SE works effectively with external stakeholders in the development and delivery of policy (65%) and that internal colleagues with specialist expertise are involved at appropriate stages in the development and delivery of policies (61%). However both of these results have declined slightly since 2005. When looking at the results for sub-groups, SCS members are more positive than other respondents about whether the SE is working effectively with external stakeholders in the development and delivery of policy (77% positive compared to 57% of band A, 65% of band B and 66% of band C respondents).

Only a third of respondents (34%) believe the SE is effectively involving members of the public in the development and delivery of policy, the same result as in 2005. However it seems this low positive result is being driven by a high neutral response indicating many respondents may not have enough awareness of the extent to which the public are involved. When looking at the results for sub-groups, band A and B respondents are more likely than more senior respondents to feel this is the case with 44% of band A and 35% of band B respondents answering positively compared to 29% of band C and 26% of SCS respondents.

Respondents were asked to suggest ways to help improve policy development and delivery. The comments received were each allocated to a theme and the graph below shows how many comments were made under each theme.

Many of the suggestions were asking for more consultation with stakeholders and service providers and with those expected to deliver the policy:

"Consultation with staff on ground (in this case field staff) if they have any ideas or suggestions."

"Discuss policy matters with those who are expected to deliver policy so that they are able to defend any policies if questioned upon them."

"Listen more to staff at the short end rather than pursuing policies dictated by senior staff in their ivory towers!"

"Act on what stakeholders say and do it quickly. People are disillusioned by the SE asking them to contribute then nothing coming of it. We are people surprised when we act on their views."

Some respondents also suggested making sure analysts are involved at an early stage in the process:

"Direct involvement of analysts at the very start of the process, rather than at the point when policy colleagues think that analysts should be involved - which is often too late."

"Greater involvement of analysts in informing policy development (e.g. greater use of pilots) not just in the evaluation."

4.8 Communication in the Organisation

Perceptions of communication have improved overall since 2005. Just over two-thirds of respondents (66%) feel the information about what's going on in the organisation is relevant to them and their work and just 8% disagreed with this.

Above average proportions of respondents in comparison to the Central Government and UK benchmarks feel the SE does a good job of keeping them informed about matters affecting them and feel they have the opportunity to contribute their views to decisions that will affect their work. These results have also seen some improvement since 2005. However, although respondents are quite confident they can contribute their views before decisions are made it seems still more needs to be done to help staff understand changes before they are implemented. Just 40% of respondents feel changes are explained to them so that they understand them before they are implemented, although this is an improvement of 7 percentage points since 2005.

Only 23% of respondents think that generally the different parts of the organisation communicate effectively with one another, which is a decline of 1 percentage point since 2005. This is of concern considering one of the key corporate priorities identified from the 2005 survey was to improve internal communications so it seems more still needs to be done to improve perceptions of internal communication.

When looking at the results for sub-groups, generally, Core respondents responded less positively than Agency respondents to all the communications questions. In addition, the more senior respondents gave more positive responses than less senior respondents. In particular SCS respondents are more positive to all questions than other respondents as shown in the graph overleaf. However, responses between the different bands did not vary substantially to the question about effective communication between different parts of the organisation.

Responses to the question about whether changes are explained to them so they can understand them before they are implemented vary substantially between departments with respondents from the Development Department being the most positive and Legal and Parliamentary Services Department is the least positive. This breakdown of results is shown in the graph below.

Respondents were given a list of ways in which they may obtain and access information concerning what's going on in the organisation and they were asked to select all the ways in which they have received information in the last month. The graph below lists the number of times each method of communication was selected as a way in which respondents have received information in the last month. All staff e-mails, SE News on the Intranet and Face to Face with your Line Manager were the methods selected most frequently.

Respondents were also asked to select up to three of their preferred methods of receiving information. Respondents indicated they would prefer more face-to-face methods of communication such as conversations with their line manager and divisional/team meetings. The least preferred methods are SE, noticeboards/posters,press/external media and MG Minutes on the Intranet. The breakdown of responses to this question are shown in the graph below.

Respondent preferences for which communication method they would prefer to receive information from are similar across the different bands as shown in the table overleaf which shows the proportion of respondents from each band who selected each method of communication.

4.9 Senior Management

The definition of "Senior Management" stated in the Core questionnaire referred to the group of top level managers, commonly known as Senior Civil Servants, Head of Division, Group and Department (including Management Group). In the Agency questionnaire, "Senior Management" referred to the group of top level managers, commonly known as the Management Board or Team, or Senior Civil Servants (as appropriate to the Agency/Associated Department).

Questions concerning senior management often receive low positive results in employee engagement surveys of this kind and it is therefore important to put the results into perspective by comparing them to external benchmarks. The low positive results to questions about senior management are often driven by high neutral responses as is the case with the SE results. This may be due to respondents either not having enough contact with senior managers to have a strong opinion about them or it may be that some respondents feel some senior managers are more effective than others. The fact that 33% of respondents do not feel senior management are visible enough may also explain some uncertainty amongst respondents about how to respond to the questions.

Overall perceptions of Senior Management have remained the same since last year. However among the Core Departments there has been a slight decline since 2005. There has been a decline in the proportion of Core respondents who feel Senior Managers are sufficiently visible, however, this result is still in line with the Central Government and UK benchmarks. An above average proportion of respondents have confidence in the Senior Managers in the SE (36% positive compared to the Central Government benchmark of 32% and the UK benchmark of 35%). However a below average proportion of respondents feel the SE is managed well as a whole (36% positive compared to the UK benchmark of 47% - however it is higher than the Central Government benchmark of 29%). This latter result is an area for concern as the key driver analysis explained in section 1.3 found perceptions of how well managed the SE is as a whole to be a key driver of engagement. It is therefore important to find out what could be done to improve this perception amongst respondents.

Only 27% of respondents believe senior managers explain clearly the reasons behind major decisions and this may be part of the reason why only 40% of respondents indicated that changes are explained to them so that they understand them before they are implemented (see Section 4.8).

When looking at the results for sub-groups, as would be expected, SCS respondents are more positive in response to the questions about senior management than other respondents. There is also a large variation in response across the different departments as shown in the graph below with respondents in the Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department responding most positively (58% positive) compared to the least positive response of 33% from the Office of Permanent Secretary and the Environment and Rural Affairs Department.

4.10 The Organisation

4.10.1 Treatment of staff

Respondents are very positive about the way they are treated within the organisation and are generally more positive than in 2005. Three quarters of respondents think the organisation respects individual differences, which is an improvement of 2 percentage points since 2005 and is higher than both the Central Government and UK benchmarks (67% and 70% respectively). An above average proportion of respondents also feel valued for that they can offer the organisation (55% positive compared to the Central Government benchmark of 43% and in line with the UK benchmark of 55%) and feel that they are treated with fairness and respect (75% positive compared to the Central Government and UK benchmarks both of which are 71%).

When looking at the results for sub-groups, responses about whether respondents feel they are treated with fairness and respect vary by department as shown in the graph below.

An area for concern is that 10% of respondents, in the last year, have experienced bullying harassment or victimisation whilst working in the organisation. Worryingly, the proportion of respondents who reported their incident has declined by 8 percentage points since 2005 to 36%.

Respondents who experienced bullying, harassment or victimisation were asked to describe their experience if they wished to. Very few respondents made comments but the few comments made described incidences of age discrimination, bullying harassment from line and senior managers, a few mentioned harassment from customers and from colleagues. A few comments related to their experiences after cases of bullying, harassment or victimisation had been reported and mention that they felt very little happened as a result of reporting it.

4.10.2 Overall Perceptions of the Organisation

Overall, an above average proportion of respondents think the SE is a good organisation to work for (70% positive compared to the Central Government benchmark of 63% and the UK benchmark of 68%). A smaller proportion of respondents (60%) would recommend the SE as a good place to work which although is just above the Central Government benchmark (57%) is just slightly lower than the UK benchmark (62%). The level of pride is lower than the UK benchmark (60% compared to the UK benchmark of 66%). These questions are measures of engagement as explained in section 1.3 so to improve these results it is important to focus action on the key drivers of engagement as listed in section 1.3.

A noticeable improvement since 2005 is the perception that positive change has been taken following the 2005 employee survey which has improved by 16 percentage points. However, there is still room for improvement as there is still only 28% of respondents who feel this way. This question received a high neutral response of 52% which is an indication that many respondents may not be aware of all of the actions implemented since the previous survey. The improvement in perception shows that more respondents have noticed the changes that have come about as a result of the actions, or it may be that communication around the improvement activity had improved. However, it seems more needs to be done to improve communication of what is implemented as a result of the survey or what is already being done to tackle some of the issues. When looking at the results for sub-groups, SCS respondents are far more positive than other respondents about whether action has taken place as shown in the graph below.

This section of questions elicited some of the lowest positive responses to the survey. Only 26% of respondents feel change is well managed in their organisation. This question typically receives low positive responses from many organisations and often driven by a high neutral response as a result of many respondents either not being sure how well change is managed or feel some changes are managed better than others. However, the SE result is only 2 percentage points higher than the Central Government benchmark (24%) and is 7 percentage points below the UK benchmark (33%). When looking at the results for sub-groups, Core respondents are less positive than Agency respondents with how well change is managed in their organisation (20% positive compared to 38% of Agency respondents).

Perceptions of how well poor performance is dealt with is also an area which often gets low positive responses within these kind of surveys. This is the case with the SE as only 24% of respondents feel poor performance is dealt with effectively where they work and is scoring 7 percentage points less positively than the Central Government benchmark and 2 percentage points lower than the UK benchmark. This result is also driven by a high neutral response indicating many respondents may not know how poor performance is dealt with and is often the case as this kind of issue is usually dealt with privately with those affected.