National staff survey results show some improvements to staff wellbeing with our staff engagement score maintained but more progress is needed
This year’s national staff survey results, published today, shows a third successive increase in the proportion of our staff who would recommend the Trust as a place to work and as a place to be treated. These scores are well above the average for acute trusts. Our special focus on ensuring the health and wellbeing of our staff over the past year has coincided with an improved survey score in this area and we have maintained our overall staff engagement score of 7.2 which remains above the average for acute trusts.
At the same time, survey scores have slipped back in three key areas – equality, diversity and inclusion; immediate managers; and team working. Though for team working, we remain above the acute trust average score. The scores for morale and creating a safe environment (against bullying and harassment) haven’t changed from last year.
Commenting on the results, chief executive Professor Tim Orchard said: “The past year has been like no other and the pandemic has created new challenges and highlighted some existing ones. It has also created opportunities to accelerate improvements and I am committed to ensuring we make the most of them.
“Everyone has worked incredibly hard in responding so amazingly to the demands of Covid-19, but we still have much more to do to address the underlying challenges in our workplaces. It’s clear that policies are not always applied consistently within and across teams, that staff don’t always get the support they need and that we still have further to go in ensuring we live our values and appropriately challenge colleagues who do not. In particular, we have to make faster progress on equality, diversity and inclusion. That Black, Asian and minority ethnic colleagues and those with disabilities have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated the many inequalities that already existed and I am grateful for the increasingly strong and influential voice of our staff networks in helping us to bring this out into the open.
“During the past two years, we’ve had success in achieving parity in the application of our disciplinary processes for Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff – we have to do the same across all aspects of how we work and, really importantly, it also has to feel better. As we hopefully begin to return to a more normal way of life and work, I am committed to ensuring your feedback helps drive real change and contributes to a positive legacy from the pandemic for all staff.”
You can access the staff survey results here.
