Working Well Staff Survey and Apprenticeship Latest




Apprentices and Working Well Staff Survey

Before I write about our latest staff survey, I’d just like to say a couple of words about where we are with apprenticeships. Hopefully you’ll have picked up on the push we have at the moment to recruit apprentices. We currently have 105 employed at Somerset County Council, which is absolutely amazing especially when you consider that we only had about 20 when we started this programme last year. Huge thanks to all those who have helped with this and, of course, to those who have chosen Somerset County Council to develop their careers.

We’ve had the results back from our Working Well Survey and again, thank you to everyone who has helped with this and taken the time to provide feedback. The survey asked staff about their working environment including their immediate working area and the facilities in buildings, how these affected their health and wellbeing and where the Council needs to make improvements. 40% of staff completed the Survey.

On the whole, colleagues are satisfied with their working accommodation, although this obviously varies according to location. There are some issues around storage, kitchens and toilets which we need to look at, but 81% rated their working environment as satisfactory or above. There is good and bad feedback on Smart office working, so opinion continues to be split. Whilst the principles of open-plan working will remain, there is a feeling that we need to be more sensitive to the needs of some professions and teams so work will be done on that.

The most common issue raised around other facilities was the lack of adequate shower, changing and storage facilities. Some of you will know this is a subject very close to my heart, so a group of us are on the case and looking at how we can improve provision. We’ve got to find a better way of encouraging people to use alternative means of getting to work and to feel they can be active at lunchtimes.

Our Working Well Champions and, more recently, our Mental Wellbeing Ambassadors have been doing some great work promoting activities and initiatives. Disappointingly, only 43% of staff know where or how to find one, so a promotion campaign has been launched and mental health ambassadors are available to attend team meetings. This work will feature heavily in 2018, building on the work done in Children’s Services on Mindfulness and the really good reception this has had with social work colleagues.

My personal view is that whilst we need a ‘baseline’ from which to operate, we should be responsive to one another’s needs in the working environment and that these needs may well change at different stages of our lives. An organisation must be aware of this and flexible in its approach, to help colleagues with the choices they might want to make and their health & happiness. This will be a big part of my focus on Wellbeing over the coming months.

I’ll let you know how we’re getting on with this work and may well be asking for help and involvement from you.

Finally, I’ll be running another series of workshops in the New Year, focused on culture (can’t get enough of that) and the new people strategy. Further details will be published soon, alternatively if you would like me to come to a team meeting, get in touch and we can arrange a time.

Whatever you’re doing and wherever you’re doing it, I hope the weekend is good to you. Here's a picture of some office-cakes to help you along:

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