Engaged in government or in a Pickle? – depends where you work

Levels of employee engagement across the civil service have remained flat for the past two years, but there are marked differences between departments, according to a recent survey by the civil service

According to The Civil Service People Survey (CSPS), the three key drivers of engagement are leadership and managing change, the individual's work and their manager.

The CSPS found employees in junior roles tend to be less engaged. Three quarters of staff in administrative roles say they are interested in their work compared to 97 per cent of senior civil servants.

The biggest drop in morale recorded over the past year was at Eric Pickles' Department for Communities and Local Government, according to the Evening Standard. Employees in the department reported increasing levels of dissatisfaction in every area of their work.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA), an executive agency of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), received the lowest average employee engagement Index score overall at 15 per cent, three percentage points lower than Pickles' department. Leading the pack was the Attorney General's Office with an average score of 83 per cent. HM Revenue & Customs stood at third position from the bottom with an average of 21 per cent.

The levels of association with engagement for 'My Work' have remained the same from 2010 results, after dropping by four percentage points to 71 per cent from the previous year. Results for 'Manager' have remained the same over the past three years at 64 per cent, and 'Leadership and Managing Change' has risen by one percentage point to 38 per cent since last year, putting it back where it was in 2009.

Participants were asked if they were proud to tell others about their employer, and whether they would recommend it as a good place to work. They were asked to rate how strongly attached they felt to their organisation, and whether it inspires them to do well at their job. The final question asks if they felt motivated by their employer to help achieve them achieve objectives.
The survey involved almost 300,000 government employees.

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