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Staff Consultation is Ultimate Answer for Luton
Luton Borough Council has more than doubled the response rate for its employee research after a five year gap, using a consultative approach initiated by ORC international. Forty-two per cent of staff responded to the recent survey, against only 17% in 1999.
Staff were involved at all stages, from pre-survey consultancy and questionnaire design through to post-survey action planning, helping to achieve employee 'buy-in' as well as ensuring that the survey addressed their needs.
ORC International ran three pre-survey focus groups involving a cross section of staff, highlighting the issues that mattered most for use as themes in the questionnaire. These included topics such as communication, work/life balance, organisational clarity and training and development.
Once the survey was completed and the data analysed, feedback was communicated through presentations, workshops and team meetings. Staff were then invited to attend action planning workshop sessions where survey results were discussed in detail and new ideas generated for action.
According to Council Chief Executive Darra Singh, 'the decision to frame the employee survey as a consultation exercise has helped obtain a clearer understanding of the main concerns of staff. Corporate personnel and service managers within the Council are now using this newly acquired insight to help implement targeted actions which will contribute to the continuous improvement of our services'.
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