High levels of engagement in the civil service according to Employee Engagement Survey

In September 2015 the civil service carried out the first ever Employee Engagement Survey. This is one of the key actions in the Civil Service Renewal Plan. The survey asked civil servants 112 questions about their views on working in the civil service.

Over 15,500 Irish civil servants worldwide took part, providing their views on areas like employee engagement, wellbeing, coping with change and commitment to the organisation. today (28 January 2016) the results of the survey have been published by the Civil Service Management Board.

The results are positive as overall employee engagement is high at 70% and civil servants are highly engaged, competent and resilient employees.

This result compares well internationally. The vast majority of staff feel skilful at work, confident in their abilities and that the work they do is important in serving the public and the state.

The results also highlight a number of challenges for us as an organisation, for example: leadership, career development and organisational support are areas that require focused attention.

The survey provides valuable information to leaders within the civil service to effect change based on sound analysis.

The top 5 results show that:

• civil servants are confident in their ability and skills to carry out the work required in their role (competence 80%)
• staff feel they can realise their own potential and cope with the normal stresses of life (wellbeing 75%)
• staff have a sense of energy, connection and fulfilment with their work (engagement 70%)
• staff feel they have the opportunities to develop close relationships at work (social support 70%)
• staff feel they can cope with change including managing any negative emotions (coping with change 69%)

The top challenging 5 results show that:

• civil servants do not feel they are valued by the general public (public perception 33%)
• staff do not feel that they are openly involved in decision making in their organisation (involvement climate 36%)
• staff do not feel fairly rewarded for their efforts and contributions at work and in comparison to others doing similar work (pay 42%)
• staff do not feel their organisation values their contribution and cares for their wellbeing (organisational support 44%)
• staff do not feel that there are sufficient opportunities for career development, learning, mobility and promotion in the civil service (career development and mobility 44%)

This survey is a key action in the Civil Service Renewal Plan to continually improve and progress through a period of transformational change.

This milestone highlights the pace of progress in implementing the Civil Service Renewal Plan and clearly demonstrates that the civil service is serious about improving how it does business to better serve the Irish people.

Within the first year of the Civil Service Renewal Plan, there has been major progress made in implementing the 25 actions in the renewal plan. These include:

• a new performance review process for Secretaries General which commenced on 1 January 2016
• a new performance management approach for all staff in the civil service which commenced on 1 January 2016
• open recruitment campaigns have been held for all grades and are ongoing to fill critical skills gaps
• the first Civil Service Awards event was held in December 2015 with 94 projects and teams nominated by their colleagues for exemplifying excellence in the civil service
• a mobility scheme for Principal Officers is now in operation
• a single corporate governance standard has been agreed for all government departments and Offices is being implemented in each organisation
• a new Accountability Board with ministerial, external and civil service oversight has been established and meets quarterly
• a new Civil Service Management Board (CSMB) to provide collective leadership to the civil service is up and running meeting once a month to agree proposals for change and improvement across the civil service and monitor implementation

• the survey launched in September 2015
• it was developed and run by the Central Statistics Office
• 15,519 Irish civil servants worldwide completed the survey
• the results report is available here
• the Civil Service Renewal Plan was published in October 2014 is available here