Civil service morale down

The offical staff survey of civil servants has revealed a lack of morale in government departments with the majority of staff saying the felt a fall in "employee engagement". The survey, which polled around 325,000 workers and is the largest of its kind in the UK, was conducted by the Institute for Government thinktank, found that all major departments in governement – apart from the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Transprot had seen a fall in "employee engagement", with the biggest declines in health and education. When asked to rate "my department as a whole is managed well" the department that came out worst by the response was the Department for Communities and Local Government. The Department for Communities and Local Government had experienced the biggest fall in the proportion of staff agreeing that "my department as a whole is managed well". The survey was carried out towards the end of the Spending Review process last autumn and the institute said that some results appeared to reflect the settlement for each department. The Department for International Development, which has ring fenced funding, fared best when employees were asked about engagement. The institute said overall staff felt they were less able to access the right learning and development opportunities across all departments and that save one department, all were less likely to feel that changes happening in their department were "usually for the better". Julian McCrae, director of research at the institute, said: "Whitehall is facing an unprecedented challenge in overseeing an ambitious agenda for reform at the same time as facing major cutbacks in spending. Most departments are also having to reduce their own administrative costs by a third. Falls in staff engagement levels are not unusual as organisations start tackling challenges on this scale. The important thing is for departments to have a clear vision and effective leadership, so any falls are rapidly turned around." The former Labour cabinet minister Lord Adonis, now heading up the IG, said Whitehall needed a "clear vision" to reverse the change. "Effective employee engagement has a crucial role to play in improving performance, driving efficiency and cutting sickness absence rates," a Cabinet Office spokesman said. "This government is committed to supporting the civil service in focusing on the challenges ahead. This survey, the largest in the UK, helps us do just that by understanding what really motivates our workforce and by making the right management decisions in order to get the very best from our people."