5 Suggestions for making the Scottish Executive a better place to work
At the end of the questionnaire there was an opportunity for respondents to provide suggestions for making the Scottish Executive a better place to work. Each comment was allocated to a theme based on what the comment was about. The greatest number of comments centred on resources (including pay/benefits/staff/staffing/working organisation/running efficiency), management and communication. The graph below lists the number of comments received by theme.
Summaries of the main themes are given overleaf.
5.1 Resources
Comments under "resources" cover a number of areas, though a large proportion do tend to highlight the issue around pay and recognition, specifically in relation to bands:
"I would like to see better pay and rewards for A band staff. A lot of the time A band staff do very similar work to B band staff and get paid much less…."
"Better pay and recognition for staff that exceed the duties required for their band."
With regards to issues around staffing a number of comments are made about how temporary staff are recruited in place for finding permanent staff to fill positions:
"Reduce the number of temp staff. Fill the vacancies that need to be filled. Senior management need to watch workloads and stress levels much more. Division and groups need to be aware of each others duties and roles."
"Employ full time workers instead of replacing permanent staff (who move on to another post) with temporary workers. There is no stability in teams, permanent staff are constantly having to train temp staff…"
Both the issue of numeration and the lack for staff appears to having an impact on morale:
"Poor pay is still a demotivating factor and workloads seem to burgeon."
"….Staff morale and health takes a severe nose-dive as staff numbers are reduced and those left are having to pick up the slack…."
Another key area commented upon is the amount of bureaucracy within the organisation, which tends to be common theme that runs through many public sector organisations. In addition the amount of new initiatives that are put in place also appear to have an affect on running efficiency of the organisation. Respondents feel that less bureaucracy and stream lining schemes and initiatives would make the Scottish Executive a better place to work:
"Less bureaucracy/paper work would make life easier"
"Reduce the amount of new 'initiatives' which are continually being imposed on staff and stop making changes to the Performance Appraisal system. Staff are already extremely hard-pressed and it doesn't help if we're also expected to absorb changes to existing practices…"
5.2 Management
Visibility of more senior management appears to be a key sub-theme highlighted from the comments, again a common area of concern in many large organisations, where there are a number of levels between front line staff and senior management. The issue of visibility is also closely linked to being aware of what management are doing, their leadership and communication skills and managing change effectively:
"Senior management are seldom seen, but more importantly than that, their views and guidance as to policy direction are not known, or not passed down…."
"More visibility of Senior Managers on the shop floor. Clearer and more frequent communications from Senior Managers about SE decisions…."
"I feel that Senior Management need to communicate earlier with staff on major changes to the way in which we work."
"Corporate change should be better managed with information being provided early and at each significant stage…"
Dealing with performance management is another area highlighted in the comments, possibly aimed more at middle management and this also may link to comment about training of managers:
"Bad performance is not adequately dealt with and people remain in position unsuitable for them….."
"Give managers more backing to deal with under performing staff."
"Ensure managers have the necessary managerial skills and not simply given staff on the basis of band…"
5.3 Communication
Most of the comments about improving communication refer to the need for more open communication between senior management and staff and between departments/divisions. Most comment about the need for team, departmental and divisional meetings to be encouraged throughout the organisation:
"1. Compulsory face-to-face communication between senior management and their departments/groups/divisions. 2. More honest, open, genuine dealing with difficulties when they arise…"
"A lot of open communication and encouragement for team meetings i.e. departmental and divisional is important to me."
"Although a lot has been done to improve communications between bands there is still work to be done. Senior managers should hold more face to face "band" meetings with all staff so that true feelings and concerns of staff on all issues are not lost in the Chinese whispers that the line manager system sometimes lends itself to…"
"Better communication and co-ordination between departments on areas where policy or implementation work overlap…"
"Better explanations of why decisions are taken i.e. more openness. Minutes of Management meetings are so limited in their information that they are not worthwhile issuing."
There were also comments from respondents wanting more involvement in decision making:
"More involvement of staff in reaching decisions on change to corporate process..."
"More involvement of staff when developing change - there are no 'change champions' for anything - if there are then they are invisible - positive response to change only happens when people feel involved and 'own' it. More e-mails and edicts are not the way. Nor is being preached at once it happens."