Social Security Scotland – insights research programme: overview

5. Initial Findings

5.1. Client insights - satisfaction following general telephony contact

After any phone call with a client advisor, clients can stay on the line and answer a series of three questions about their experience with Social Security Scotland.

Of those who left a rating, 95% felt their call had been answered quickly [Question 1] 91% felt they got everything they needed from the call [Question 2] and 94% rated the service positively [Question 3].

Chart 1: Client experience ratings following telephone calls - November 2018 to December 2018

Total number of responses to Question 1: 221
Total number of responses to Question 2: 220
Total number of responses to Question 3: 216

5.2. Client insights - satisfaction following applications

Social Security Scotland launched the Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment on 10^th December 2018 – the first application-based grant for the organisation. Following both online and telephony applications, a questionnaire offers applicants the opportunity to make ratings on how the experience has been for them. 

Of online applicants who left a rating, 98% rated the service as Very good or Good. For telephony applicants, 100% of those who left a rating rated the service as Very good or Good.

Chart 2: Client experience ratings - BSG applications December 2018

Total number of ratings following a telephony application: 227
Total number of ratings following an online application: 283

In addition to making a rating, clients have the opportunity to leave an open text comment about their application experience. These comments were thematically analysed by analysts, and coded as positive, neutral, negative or mixed. The vast majority of comments (96% for telephony applications and 85% for online applications) were positive.

Chart 3: Client experience - open text comments following online BSG applications - December 2018

Total number of comments following a telephony application: 47
Total number of comments following an online application: 75

An analysis of the number of times keywords appeared within open text comments was also conducted. The most commonly used keywords (with 5 or more occurrences) are displayed in the tables below.

Keywords – online applications	Number of comments	% comments containing this keyword
easy	49	65%
straight forward	17	22%
simple	12	16%
quick	12	16%

Keywords – telephony applications	Number of comments	% comments containing this keyword
helpful	16	34%
service	10	21%
good	7	15%
quick	7	15%
happy	5	11%
easy	5	11%

5.3. Staff insights – workforce information 

Social Security Scotland collect diversity data via e-HR, the organisation’s employment record system. Information on age and gender is complete, as these fields are mandatory. At the end of December 2018, the largest proportion of Social Security Scotland staff (28%) fell into the 30-39 age bracket, and the majority of staff (60%) are female. 

In e-HR, staff can voluntarily disclose information on other protected characteristics. At this early stage in the organisation’s development, many employees have not yet entered their diversity information into the system, and as such, the e-HR data do not present a fully accurate picture of staff diversity characteristics. Work will be undertaken within the organisation to improve e-HR diversity declaration rates. Diversity data were also collected as part of the annual staff survey in October 2018. The survey achieved a high number of returns (197), resulting in a response rate of 97%. The majority of those who completed the survey also disclosed their diversity information. Although the survey is based on an earlier snapshot of staff than the e-HR data, the information is more complete, and is therefore the focus of the results discussed below.

Early indications from staff survey data suggest that Social Security Scotland staff are representative of the Scottish working population. For example, 22% of those who completed the survey reported having a long-standing physical or mental health condition, illness, impairment or disability, compared to 19% in the Scottish working age population. Regarding ethnicity, 8% of staff survey respondents identified as ethnic minorities, compared to 4% in the Scottish working population. 7% of survey respondents identified as LGBO, compared to 2% in the working population. 

The tables in Annex C present e-HR and staff survey data on Social Security Scotland’s workforce diversity characteristics. Population comparator data is also presented. Comparator data for the working age population of Scotland comes from a number of different sources which are the most up to date at the time of producing this report. Caution should be exercised when comparing Social Security Scotland figures with those of the general population. For example, a significant proportion of the 16-29 age group of the Scottish population may be 

students and, therefore, not in the labour market. Also, data taken from population surveys may not be directly comparable to Social Security Scotland data because of differences in the questions asked and the options available to respondents.

5.4. Staff insights – engagement

Social Security Scotland conducted a standalone staff survey in October 2018, one month after they organisation went live. The survey replicated the formal UK-wide Civil Service People Survey, which Social Security Scotland plan to participate in from 2019 onwards. 

The standalone survey received a very high response rate of 97%, and the results were very positive, with an overall engagement score of 85% positive.

Percent positive scores for each of the 10 survey themes can be found in the table below.

Survey theme	Percent positive score
Engagement Index	85%
My work	83%
Organisational objectives and purpose	95%
My manager	81%
My team	90%
Learning and development	74%
Inclusion and fair treatment	89%
Resources and workload	81%
Pay and benefits	75%
Leadership and managing change	82%

Full organisational level findings can be found in an associated PDF report, published here.