Scottish Government

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE CENTRAL RESEARCH UNIT

General Research Findings No. 10

Investigation of Work Pressures within the Scottish Executive

Angela Puri, ORC International

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Main Findings

• The main sources of work pressure within the Scottish Executive are due to high workloads, tight deadlines and a lack of resources.

• Nearly a third of respondents (29%) do not feel that they are given realistic deadlines and 27% of respondents do not believe that the amount of work they are given is reasonable. Over a third (39%) of respondents do not feel they have time to do their job effectively and 33% of respondents work in excess of their conditioned hours. The main reasons for working overtime are pressure of work, shortage of staff and personal preference

• Issues surrounding feeling in control, being worried about making mistakes and being able to maintain a positive frame of mind about work concerned over a third of all respondents.

• A number of constructive options are used to deal with pressure arising from work. Eighty-seven per cent of respondents prioritise tasks and 64% of respondents use time management techniques.

• Six per cent of respondents indicated that they have used the counselling service provided by the Scottish Executive.

• Respondents are clear about who they report to and feel that their line managers communicate effectively (75%) and are supportive (77%). They also feel that they are given enough autonomy to do their job efficiently by their managers (78%).

• Respondents participating in the focus groups and one to one discussions suggested work related pressure could be reduced through improved communication, investment in resources (especially more staff to deal with the high workloads) and management commitment to tackling work related pressures.

• The survey enabled the Scottish Executive to be compared with other government organisations. The Scottish Executive scored above the Government average in 9 of the 13 areas that were compared.

Introduction

The aim of the Scottish Executive investigation of work pressures was to inform the design and implementation of appropriate interventions to reduce the levels of stress experienced and to remove the adverse effects of stress within the organisation.

The investigation was carried out in two parts. The first phase of the work used a self completion questionnaire to measure staff attitudes to a range of issues with special emphasis placed on staff experience of work related stress. The survey was sent to all Scottish Executive ¹ employees. The results from the questionnaire were analysed and key issues were identified. These provided an insight into staff perceptions generally and across different groups within the organisation. Stage two of the investigation provided a more in-depth qualitative analysis. A number of one-to-one interviews and focus groups were conducted to investigate in detail the issues identified in the survey and possible remedial action to address these.

Participants for the second stage of the investigation were all self selected.

Methodology

A web-based questionnaire was designed by ORC International in conjunction with the Scottish Executive Steering Group, and structured around the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) guidelines on workplace stress ². The questionnaire was distributed to staff via a link to the electronic version of the questionnaire in an e-mail. For staff within the Scottish Executive who did not have access to the Internet, paper questionnaires were distributed. The online survey was sent out on the 3 ^rd December. The paper version of the survey was distributed on the 5 ^th December. Both surveys were officially closed on the 21 ^st December.

In total, 2,686 employees completed the questionnaire, giving a response rate of 44% (this is an aggregation of both the online and paper survey).

The questionnaire contained a mixture of positively and negatively worded statements and covered a range of different issues, including possible factors contributing to, and resulting from the impact of work-related stress. It also looked at methods used to deal with work pressure. The sections of the survey comprised of; Your Job, You & the Organisation, Line Management, Work-Life Balance, Sources of Work Pressure, How You Deal with Pressure and Your Reactions to Pressure.

Out of the 111 statements in the questionnaire, 13 could be compared with external benchmark questions ³. The benchmark scores enable the Scottish Executive to be compared against the average favourable score for other Government organisations (Government benchmark average), and against organisations in general ( Perspectives benchmark average).

The survey also included an open comments question. This gave respondents the opportunity to raise further issues of concern that they felt had not been adequately covered in other areas of the questionnaire, and to provide qualitative information to add context and understanding to the quantitative data.

The results from the quantitative phase of the research were used in further analyses to uncover some of the underlying contributors to stress and pressure in the Scottish Executive. The analysis included Key Driver Analysis ⁴, CHAID Analysis ⁵ and Linkage Work ⁶.

Following the main survey, the second phase of the research commenced. Eight focus groups and eighteen one-to-one interviews were held with staff who had volunteered to participate further in the research.

Results

Key Strengths of the Scottish Executive

Respondents appear to have good working relationships with colleagues, with 80% of respondents indicating that the people they work with co-operate to get work done.

Respondent's perceptions of line management also appear to be quite positive with 78% feeling that their manager gives them sufficient authority to do their job. In addition, 77% feel that they receive support from their line manager when they need it.

Thirteen questions on the survey could be compared with ORC International's external database, Perspectives. The Scottish Executive scored above the average when compared to other government departments and organisations on nine of these, whilst three were below the government average (as illustrated in Table 1).

Areas in Need of Improvement

A third (32%) of respondents feel that the level of pressure in their job has a negative effect on them.

Only 38% of respondents believe that their life and commitments outside of work are respected by their organisation.

Only a quarter (25%) of respondents indicated that they rarely or never work in excess of their conditioned hours, indeed only 5% of respondents from Band C indicated that they never or rarely work excess hours.

Over half (57%) of all respondents indicated that they worry about making mistakes, and only 34% of all respondents feel that it is safe to stand up and challenge the way things are done within the Scottish Executive.

A fifth (22%) of respondents believe that the Scottish Executive considers work-related pressure implications when developing work plans and organisational changes. In addition, 34% of respondents believe that the organisation is not committed to tackling the issue of work-related stress.

Table 1: Scottish Executive compared to the Central Government Benchmarking Averages.

The scores relate to the number of respondents who gave a favourable response to the statements

Statistical Analysis

A 'Key Driver' analysis was conducted to identify the factors from the survey that have the greatest impact on the way that respondents answered the following statement,

'I feel that the pressure I experience at work is reasonable'

• The analysis indicated that the 'pressure of workload' was the most important component in terms of the impact it had on respondents perceptions about whether the pressure they experience at work is reasonable (i.e. those that were satisfied with their workload were more satisfied with the pressure they experienced)

A CHAID analysis (Chi-Square Automatic Interaction Detection) analysed the demographics from the survey, grouping respondents together in a way that was consistent with the level of pressure they experienced.

• The analysis found job band to be the demographic question with the greatest variations in responses, followed by length of service and department. The greatest impact, in relation to pressure is felt in Bands B3, C and Senior Civil Service who appear to be the least satisfied that the pressure they experience at work is reasonable.

Linkage work was also conducted with the aim of linking the output of the survey with other measures provided by the Scottish Executive. From the measures provided the following were calculated:

• % Staff turnover;
• % Self-certified absence;
• % Certified absence

However, the findings were inconclusive suggesting that there may be factors outside of this study which potentially influenced the perceptions of working conditions e.g. reasons for absence, length of absence or productivity. Although these particular HR measures did not link with survey responses, there may be other, more refined measures, which could be used in the future.

Qualitative Research Findings

Following the main survey and the statistical analysis, the second phase of the research commenced. The focus groups and one-to-one interviews took place in office locations in Glasgow and Edinburgh over a period of 5 days. The purpose of the qualitative phase of the research was to explore some of the issues behind the survey findings in more depth. As such, participants were informed of some of the key issues arising from the survey, at the start of each session. The ensuing discussions then addressed these issues to explore perceptions, experiences and suggestions from the participants to improve these areas of concern.

The main themes/patterns emerging from these discussions were:

• Working Hours and Reasons for Working Long Hours - Respondents differed in their opinion on whether a long hours culture existed within the Scottish Executive. However, where respondents indicated long hours as a source of pressure, the reasons for working excess hours were mainly due to high workloads and lack of resources/staff.

• Other Sources of Pressure in the Workplace - These included issues like inconsistencies in staff development and training, high targets, having to be reactive to work pressure rather than being in control of ones workload (i.e. firefighting all the time) and communication problems.
• Perceptions of the Scottish Executive as an Employer - Although many respondents commented on the organisation delivering a good public service, bureaucracy and an autocratic management style was cited by some respondents as being prevalent within the Scottish Executive.
• How Respondents Deal with Pressure - Methods included time management, prioritisation of tasks and adopting a positive mental attitude in their approach to work.

Conclusion

The main sources of work pressure within the Scottish Executive were due to:

• High workloads

• Tight Deadlines and

• Lack of resources

The pressure of workload was also found by the key driver analysis as having the greatest impact on whether respondents feel the amount of pressure they experience at work is reasonable.

Respondents appear to view the organisation less favourably than they do line management and colleagues, which is a common finding. However, it would appear that some respondents do not feel that there is a commitment from the Scottish Executive in relation to work-life balance and management of work-related stress issues. When results were further explored, it is concerning to see that some senior managers do not perceive the Scottish Executive as being committed to work-life balance and work pressure issues. For example, only 27% of respondents in the SCS believe that the organisation is committed to tackling the issue of work related stress.

Results regarding reactions to pressure and the perception of the organisation may benefit from further research. It would be useful to explore ways in which the Scottish Executive could address respondents' fear of making mistakes and the reasons why some respondents do not feel safe to stand up and challenge the way things are done in the Scottish Executive.

For actions relating to the findings to be effective, intention and commitment to tackle these areas must be driven by senior members of the organisation, and actions must be communicated throughout the whole organisation.