NHSSCOTLAND STAFF SURVEY 2013 National Report

7. Overall experience of working for NHSScotland

Presented below are the findings from the 2013 Staff Survey in respect of staff overall experience of working for NHSScotland. Results for each of the five elements of the Staff Governance Standard are shown in the five sections that follow.

Table 1 shows that all six statements in the 'overall experience' section had a percentage positive response of at least 50% for NHSScotland as a whole. This ranged from 50% for the statement 'I would recommend my Board as a good place to work' (Q8d) to 87% for 'I am happy to go the extra mile at work when required' (Q8c). The latter statement had the highest percentage positive response of all the 2013 Staff Survey questions. It was also the highest scoring statement in 2010.

For all six statements in this section the percentage positive response in 2013 was lower than that in 2010. Three of these statements were amongst the six statements to show the largest percentage points decrease on 2010 over the whole survey. The statement 'I am satisfied with the sense of achievement I get from work' (Q8f) showed the second largest percentage points decrease since 2010 (down 11 percentage points), although it should be noted that there was a slight wording change to this question (see Appendix F for more details). The percentage of respondents who agreed that 'Care of patients/service users is my Board's top priority' (Q8a) dropped by eight percentage points in 2013. The percentage of respondents who agreed 'I would recommend my Board as a good place to work' (Q8d) also reduced by eight percentage points in 2013.

Across NHS Boards, there was wide variation in the percentage of positive responses for the six questions in this section. This was most evident for Q8d, with the percentage of respondents recommending their Board as 'a good place to work' ranging from 33% to 77% (see Appendix B for more details). The statement with the smallest range of percentage positive responses (50% to 70%) was Q8f 'I am satisfied with the sense of achievement I get from work'.

Executive Grades/Senior Managers who responded to the survey had the highest percentage of positive responses for three of the six statements in this section. Staff from the three sub-groups of Ambulance personnel who responded to the survey had the lowest percentage of positive responses for three out of the six questions (see Appendix C for more details). Registered Nurses/Midwives who responded to the survey along with Ambulance Management staff were the least likely to agree (53%) 'I am able to do my job to a standard I am personally pleased with' (Q8b).

In summary, all six statements relating to overall experience received a positive response from half or more of all respondents. A high level of employee commitment to their job was evidenced by the 87% of respondents who agreed 'I am happy to go the 'extra mile' at work when required'. Also, three out of four survey respondents agreed 'I still intend to be working within my Board in 12 months time'. The two statements in this section which respondents were the least likely to agree with were the two that related less to their own job and more to the workings of the wider Board. These were: 'I would recommend my Board as a good place to work' and 'Care of patients/service users is my Board's top priority'.

Table 1: Response to questions relating to the overall experience of working for NHSScotland.

Q Indicates a change in question wording from 2010 survey.