Southend-on-Sea Borough Council ‘Your Voice’ employee survey

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council commissioned M·E·L Research to deliver an organisation-wide employee survey during Autumn 2021. This research was designed to build upon the findings of the last ‘Your Voice’ survey that was run in 2019. The purpose of the 2021 survey was to help the Council understand how levels of engagement and wellbeing have been impacted by the challenges and revised working practices resulting from the pandemic. The survey also sought to provide updated measures of how well the Council’s strategic vison is understood by employees and the extent to which transformational activity in key areas of behaviour are being recognised.

Methodology

M·E·L Research reviewed the 2019 survey content and co-designed new questions to meet the Council’s information needs, ensuring that the language, question wording etc met good practice guidelines. Survey delivery was predominantly via an online survey, with unique survey invites sent to Council employees. Those without a Council email address or no ability to access the internet in their job role were sent paper copies of the questionnaire. Awareness raising was supported by production of a promotional amimation by M·E·L outlining the purpose of the research, how to take part, and how anonymity would be protected.

Outcomes

61% of employees subsequently responded to the survey.

At the end of the data collection period, M·E·L Research worked closely with the Council to provide clear and actionable insight on:

• The key strengths and weaknesses in the Southend Council employee experience
• The direction of travel on key survey metrics and the most notable changes that employee themselves have identified
• The impact of the pandemic on ways of working, line manager behaviours and communication across the organisation.
• Locations within the organisation where there are particular workload pressures/wellbeing risks

Reporting outputs were also provided at a department level to allow leaders across the organisation to understand  the perspectives of their own teams. The M·E·L team presented the key survey messages to the Council’s Senior Leaderhip Network (100+ managers).