2020 staff survey

Here are the results of our 2020 staff engagement survey.

Download the 2020 staff survey results presentation (PDF 383KB).

The annual staff survey is an opportunity for employees to say how they feel about working at the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

The survey was carried out by an independent research company in October 2020. This year we were unable to take part in the Civil Service People Survey (CSPS), which has now been limited to central government organisations. Despite this, we matched the majority of CSPS questions so that we can continue to compare our results with those of other organisations.

73% of our workforce took part in the 2020 survey, offering their feedback on a range of topics including:

  • management and leadership
  • change in the organisation
  • learning and development
  • the working environment
  • overall engagement with the organisation.

Our overall engagement index score was 66%, which is a slight increase on the previous year. This was a positive result given the many challenges that the pandemic had presented during the months leading up to the survey. We also saw significant improvement in people’s perceptions of learning and development, pay and benefits, and pride in working for PHSO.

Making a difference

While the survey results highlight successes that we want to build on, there are some areas where further work is needed. These include:

  • how we involve staff in decision-making
  • making sure staff feel trusted to deliver
  • encouraging staff to come up with new and better ways of doing things.

We also saw some variation in scores for individual departments within the organisation.

We are involving colleagues across the organisation as we address survey themes and continue to build on our strengths.