NHSSCOTLAND STAFF SURVEY 2013 National Report

10. Involved in decisions

Including staff in organisational decision-making has the potential to obtain valuable new opinions, ideas and solutions. It can also promote employee trust in the organisation and their senses of ownership and responsibility in respect of changes made. In this section of the survey, staff were asked for their views on how well their organisation involves them in decision-making.

Table 4 shows that approximately half (49%) of all staff who responded to the survey agreed 'I have sufficient opportunities to put forward new ideas or suggestions for improvement in my workplace' (Q5b). However, a smaller proportion of respondents (37%) agreed 'I am confident my ideas or suggestions would be listened to' (Q5c). In response to the statement 'I have a choice in deciding what I do at work' (Q5d), 38% of staff who responded agreed this was 'always' or 'often' the case. Only one in four respondents (26%) agreed that 'Staff are always consulted about changes at work' (Q5a).

Three of the four statements in this section (Q5a, 5c and 5d) appear in the list of the five lowest scoring statements within the whole survey (see Section 6.2 Lowest scoring statements). Q5a elicited the lowest percentage positive response of all the attitudinal statements in the 2013 survey.

Q5a was also the lowest scoring statement in 2010 (comparable data were not available for 2006 or 2008). All four statements in this section had a lower percentage positive response in 2013 compared to 2010.

For all questions in this section, there was a range in the percentage of positive responses across NHS Boards (see details in Appendix B) and across Staff Groups (see details in Appendix C). Executive Grades/Senior Managers who responded to the survey were the most likely to respond positively to each of the four statements. Ambulance Vehicle Crew and Ambulance EMDC staff who responded to the survey were the least likely to give a positive response.

Overall, of the five elements of the Staff Governance Standard, 'Involved in decisions' was the area where staff who responded to the survey replied in the least positive manner. All four statements in this section had a percentage positive response below 50%. Three of the statements in this section were amongst the five lowest scoring statements within the survey as a whole. Within this section, respondents were most positive about the opportunities they had to put forward ideas or suggestions for improvement in their workplace. However, they were less positive with regard to their confidence that these ideas or suggestions would be listened to, that they would always be consulted about changes at work and that they had a choice in deciding what they did at work.

Table 4: Response to questions relating to the 'Involved in Decisions' Staff Governance dimension.