Public and Commercial Services Union

30 January 2009

Throughout February the MOD will be inviting you to complete ‘MOD your say 2009’, a brand new survey where you can tell them what it’s like working for the MOD.

With a myriad of change programmes, privatisation initiatives and pay still to be fully resolved, our union already gets plenty of feedback from members. Now is your chance to let the department know what it is like working for the MOD in 2009.

Therefore our union is encouraging all members to complete the survey as openly and honestly as possible.

The results will then identify the key priorities that need to change in your business unit. The department will be held accountable for taking action to address the issues which the survey results say have the greatest impact on employee engagement. Members can be rest assured that our union will be looking to hold the department to account on the results of the whole survey.

‘MOD your say 2009’ is part of a wider civil service programme where all government departments will be conducting a similar survey. The MOD’s results will be compared to other government departments.

‘MOD your say 2009’ survey will come directly to you by email or post, or members will be able to visit the defence intranet front page throughout February and follow the link.

What is happening?

The drive to increase the engagement levels of employees is being led by the cabinet office and will impact all central government departments. All departments will have to participate in an employee engagement census survey by the end of 2009.

The MOD needs a baseline measure of how engaged their employees are and will use the ‘MOD your say 2009’ survey. ‘MOD your say 2009’ will provide survey data down to smaller business units which means that locally they can develop actions that will impact their own business performance.

Why?

This survey is very different from any other survey ever conducted in the MOD. The department are replacing the civilian attitude survey, which measured career satisfaction, with a survey that measures employee engagement. ‘MOD your say 2009’ is a ‘census’ survey and it will provide actionable results down to teams of around a hundred.

Who?

The survey is open to all civilians and their managers, including military managers.

How?

The survey is available, in February 2009, to complete online and on paper.

Results will be available for each level of the business right down to a local business level (in most cases this will be a group of 100 people or more).

Results will only include respondents with active HRMS records who are civilians or managers of civilians.

Aim:

• To measure levels of employee engagement in MOD

Coverage:

• Census ‘not’ sample
• Survey applicable to 85,000+ people
• Survey open to all civilian staff and military staff with active HRMS records.

Technique:

• Where email address data is available on HRMS staff will receive an email link.
• Where staff have not got connectivity (and an address is available on HRMS) a postal survey will be sent.
• Corporate communications and local communications will encourage individuals to access the survey themselves.
• Line managers will urge and encourage their teams to get involved and will forward links and/or print paper surveys as appropriate.

Post-survey activity:

• Results will be published in April 2009
• Our union will be fully appraised of the results and will be part of the ongoing discussions as to how any action plans are developed.
• Management will be able to isolate their own business area scores and compare with results from across the MOD.
• “Your Say… Into Action” will take place in late spring. Management will be expected to work with their teams to generate local action plans.
• Actions generated will form part of overall change programmes in each business area.