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“As our public services face the reality of an end to the years of rapid growth in investment, it is hard to see how the quality of service we all aspire to see – employees and citizens alike – can be achieved without putting the enthusiasm, commitment and knowledge of public service employees at the forefront of delivery strategies.”
The MacLeod Review, 2009
Public bodies face huge challenges as the size of the state contracts and as demand continues to rise for services across the board. Much of the language used has focused on terms like ‘efficiencies’, ‘austerity’, ‘cuts’ and ‘balancing the books’. All of these remain pertinent and are now fully understood by both public servants and the public at large.
Inevitably much of the discussion and debate around the public sector workforce is rooted in negative overtones, with the role of HR and organisation development teams being driven towards the short term agendas required to achieve budget reductions.
Yet, the public sector will depend more than ever on the effectiveness and motivation of employees to deliver high quality services, and at the heart of this proposition is employee engagement.
Holyrood magazine has teamed up with Investors in People Scotland to deliver an event which will focus on the challenge of employee engagement in the public sector.
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A recent Ipsos Mori survey in England showed that councils rated excellent by the Audit Commission are more likely to have higher levels of staff engagement – this is measured by employees being strong advocates of their council. This pattern is repeated when NHS Trusts are assessed.
Both these studies found that certain aspects of engagement seemed to explain more of the difference between the best and worst organisations than others. In particular, differentiating elements appear to be: communication (providing staff with feedback on their performance and listening to their concerns); giving staff autonomy and control, by allowing them the opportunity to show initiative and input into their own job-plans; and having confidence in the senior management team and in their concern for the employee.
This event will focus in the main on the challenges faced by employers and senior management in developing an effective employee engagement strategy which is driven by organisation need, and equally on the benefits to employees and service users of doing just that – achieving tangible and measurable benefits across the board without incurring costs in a period of economic retraction.
We hope you will elect to join us.
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Keynote speakers
Chief Executive, Investors in People Scotland
Permanent Secretary, The Scottish Government
Director, IPA and Vice-chair of the MacLeod Review
Chief Executive, East Lothian Council
Group People and Operation Director, Standard Life plc