NHSSCOTLAND STAFF SURVEY 2013 National Report

8. Well Informed

Ongoing and open communication with staff is key to establishing and maintaining employee engagement. It is good practice to keep staff up-to-date on what is happening in their organisation and to inform them of any planned future changes that could affect them, before these changes happen. Staff were asked for their views on the effectiveness of the communication within their organisation and how well informed they felt.

Table 2 shows that the majority of respondents replied positively to the three statements in this section relating to their specific role: 'I am clear what my duties and responsibilities are' (Q3d), 'I understand how my work fits into the overall aims of my Board' (Q3e) and 'My line manager communicates effectively with me' (Q3b).

All three of these statements had a lower percentage positive response in 2013 compared to 2010. This included a decrease of ten percentage points for Q3e.

'I am clear what my duties and responsibilities are' had the second highest percentage positive response of all survey statements (83%). Across the 22 NHS Boards, this ranged from 74% to 90% (see details in Appendix B). Doctors in training who responded to the survey were the most likely to agree with this statement (92%) and Maintenance/ Estates staff (68%) the least likely to do so (see details in Appendix C).

Less than half of respondents gave a positive response to the two statements in this section that related to their wider organisation. Of the staff who responded to the survey, a minority agreed that 'I am kept well informed about what is happening in my Board' (Q3a) and 'When changes are made at work, I am clear how they will work out in practice' (Q3c). The former statement also showed one of the largest decreases in percentage positive response when compared to the 2010 survey (down ten percentage points). This was also lower than the 2008 survey (49%), but higher than the 2006 survey figure of 41% (see details in Appendix E).

Across NHS Boards, the percentage of respondents who agreed 'I am kept well informed about what is happening in my Board' ranged from 32% to 66%. The percentage of respondents who agreed 'When changes are made at work, I am clear how they will work out in practice' ranged from 23% to 58% (see details in Appendix B). Executive Grades/Senior Managers were the most likely to agree 'I am kept well informed about what is happening in my Board' (82%) and Ambulance EMDC (Emergency Medical Dispatch Centre) staff who responded to the survey the least likely to do so (17%). Executive Grades/Senior Managers were also the most likely to agree 'When changes are made at work, I am clear how they will work out in practice' (64%) and again the lowest percentage of positive responses (15%) came from the Ambulance EMDC staff who responded to the survey (see details in Appendix C).

Overall, the results showed that the majority of staff who responded to the survey felt that they were well informed in relation to their own work area. However, fewer respondents felt that they were kept well informed in respect of the wider Board or understood how organisational changes would work out in practice.

Table 2: Response to questions relating to the 'Well Informed' Staff Governance dimension.