Surrey County Council: Employee Survey

Surrey County Council commissioned an organisation-wide employee pulse survey as part of an established tracker survey programme that began in 2020. The programme was designed to provide regular, consistent insight into staff engagement, wellbeing, inclusion and organisational culture, and to enable the Council to monitor change over time.

The March 2025 survey represented the first pulse wave of that year and was intended to provide senior leaders with current evidence on employee experience during a period of organisational change. The findings were used to inform discussions at Corporate Leadership Team and Directorate Leadership Team level and to support workforce planning, leadership development and internal communications.

Approach

The project involved the design, delivery and analysis of an online employee pulse survey as part of the Council’s ongoing tracker series.

The questionnaire retained core questions from earlier waves to support longitudinal analysis, while remaining aligned with current organisational priorities. Employee engagement was measured using the Civil Service People Survey engagement model, with five agreement-scale questions covering pride, advocacy, attachment and motivation. Responses were converted to a 0–100 scale and combined to produce an overall engagement index score for the organisation and for sub-groups including Service Area.

Survey questions were structured into thematic sections aligned with Surrey County Council’s cultural outcomes and workforce priorities. These included employee engagement, inclusive and compassionate behaviours, experiences of discrimination, being ambitious and outcome focused, collaborative and trusting behaviours, and inventive and dynamic ways of working. Additional sections covered health and wellbeing, equality, diversity and inclusion, leadership visibility and communication, career development, learning and progression, and experiences of bullying, harassment and unacceptable behaviour.

Quantitative analysis was conducted at an organisation-wide level and by Directorate. Where question wording remained consistent with previous waves, trend analysis was undertaken to identify changes over time. Sub-group analysis was used to highlight variation in experience across the organisation.

Open-ended questions were included at key points in the survey. These were analysed thematically, with verbatim comments reviewed and coded to identify the main drivers behind levels of agreement and disagreement with core measures.

Outputs

The project produced a comprehensive senior-level report presenting findings from the March 2025 pulse survey.

The report included overall engagement scores, results by theme, Directorate-level comparisons, and trend data showing movement since earlier waves of the tracker survey. Findings were presented in a structured and consistent format to support interpretation by senior leaders. Areas of relative strength and challenge were clearly identified across engagement, leadership, communication, wellbeing, inclusion and career development.

Qualitative findings from open-ended questions were integrated throughout the report to provide context for the quantitative data. Verbatim employee comments were used to illustrate key themes, including reasons for pride or dissatisfaction, perceptions of leadership visibility, experiences of workload pressure, and views on organisational culture and change.

In addition to the overall report, Directorate-level outputs were produced, including comparative charts and heatmaps, to support local analysis and action planning. These outputs enabled Directorate Leadership Teams to identify specific areas of strength and concern within their services and to track their position relative to the organisational average.

Collectively, the outputs provided Surrey County Council with a robust, longitudinal evidence base to support strategic decision making, monitor progress over time and inform future waves of the employee pulse survey programme.