Morale among staff working for Scotland’s third biggest local authority is at rock bottom.
Workers at Fife Council, who have had to cope with savage budget cuts, redundancies and upheaval, have revealed fears for their future and disquiet about the way change has been handled.
Staff made their feelings known in an anonymous questionnaire sent to them by council chiefs.
The results, seen by The Courier, make for sobering reading with only a quarter of staff giving a positive response when asked about change.
More than two thirds thought they did not have a positive future with the council, while a similar number were downbeat when asked what being open and honest got them.
Not surprisingly, senior managers were far more positive about their jobs than non-managers.
Refuse workers, who have had new and unpopular shift patterns imposed on them, are particularly unhappy.
Of the 14 responses received from waste collection staff, not one was positive about change, being open and honest or about coming up with a new idea.
More than 90% had no positive feelings about their future.
The council’s Liberal Democrat leader Tim Brett said the results of the “Reality Check” are concerning.
“Our principal concern is for the staff and what they are saying,” he said.
“Clearly many staff are worried about their futures and the future of council services.”
He added: “We know people don’t like change and sadly change is something that’s going to affect all of us, particularly staff.
“It’s particularly disappointing that many are saying we are not giving them the authority to go and do the job we know they can do.”
Mr Brett said he expected the Labour administration, the chief executive and his senior team to be considering how to address the challenges revealed by the survey results.
The council’s SNP leader, Councillor Brian Goodall, also had a number of concerns.
“The vast majority of the council’s employees are really dedicated to the services they provide and they work hard, trying to deliver the highest possible standards,” he said.
“So it’s a real worry for so many of them to be responding negatively about working for Fife Council.”’Sobering and optimistic’Council chief executive Steve Grimmond said the survey had provided the most significant and insightful feedback ever from the local authority’s workforce.
He told The Courier the results would give management a chance to improve and build levels of trust and morale.
“It’s just the beginning of work that will tell us more about how people feel about working here than any survey we have ever carried out,” he said.
“These initial results are both sobering and optimistic. Many employees are very positive about their workplace, but sadly many are not.
“We know we’ve got a lot of work to do but this is an opportunity to make things better through honest conversation and personal commitment,” he said.
Mr Grimmond said more than 100 volunteers had been trained to hold face-to-face conversations with colleagues over the coming months in a bid to reach even more staff and identify what could be done to improve the council as a workplace.
“The very fact that we’re going through this process will, I hope, help to build levels of trust and morale throughout the workforce,” he said.
“Each service management team is looking at the initial results now and working with our trained staff to plan local conversations for the next phase of our reality check.
“We’ll be sharing improvement plans with employees and councillors as they are developed through 2016.”14% response rate amid anonymity concernsThe survey was carried out in October by a company called Lynchpin Associates and around 14% of council employees took part anonymously.
The council said some employees were put off participating as they were worried their comments would be attributed to them.
Everyone was asked to complete 10 sentences and say whether they believed what they had written contributed negatively, positively or had no impact on the organisation’s culture.
Management teams have been asked to consider the results and set out a prioritised 12-month improvement plan in consultation with staff and unions.