In a week which saw the Daily Fail pronounce that morale in the Police Service has never been so low, I thought I’d take a look.
The somewhat smaller print reveals that we are talking about Police Staff, but I’m sure Police Officers’ morale is not much better, however this study was based on a sample of only 3,335 people across the country.
70% of the staff surveyed (from 999 call takers to detention officers and crime analysts) claimed that an increased workload is the main reason why they are stressed,
76% of them have felt increasingly stressed over the last year.
Around 60% blamed job insecurity for their worries, with three quarters of those surveyed saying they have seen job cuts and redundancies in their area of work since 2010 (no surprises there then).
Almost two thirds (63%) said job cuts had hit morale, while 55% suffer from anxiety, 48% say they are demotivated and 47% suffer from insomnia.
Half had concerns about lack of support from management while 52% were worried about their pay and cost of living. A further 35% said they had a “bad” work-life balance.
I had a quick look at staff satisfaction surveys a while ago so I thought I’d take a look back myself, however, there’s so much data to plough through that I’m restricting my study to the Met, the largest single Police Force in the country.
The first thing that struck me was that having remained constant between 2007 and 2010, the questions were revised in 2011 and again in 2012, so I presume they’ll keep rewriting the questions till they get the answers they require.
There were some surprises though, to be honest, between 2007 and 2011
I am encouraged to share my ideas and suggestions has gone up from 50% to 63%
I am treated with fairness and respect has gone up from 55% to 63%.
In my team we build trust by listening and responding has gone down from 77% to 68%
In the new questions for 2011 there were some good, and some really bad responses;
I have confidence in the management team leading the organisation – 28%
I willingly do more than is normally required of me at work to help the organisation to be successful – 83%
I understand how I can contribute to the success of the organisation – 70%
I still intend to be working for the organisation in two years time – 71%
and strangely – I am optimistic about my own future here 37%
The organisation is good at retaining the right people – 16%
I get a sense of personal fulfilment from what I do – 66%
In the all new 2012 version there are some corkers
Taking everything into account, senior leaders in the MPS are doing a good job – 21%
I feel that decisions made by senior leaders in the MPS are based on true evaluation of what is best for the organisation and the communities we serve – 19%
I have trust in the senior leaders in the MPS to lead with integrity – 27%
If I contacted the MPS as a member of the public, I would be confident of receiving a good service – 34%
Processes for career development in the MPS are fair – 19%
There are many, many more psychobabble questions and answers and the responses, to be fair, are actually graded between Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree, so the figures above only represent some sort of average.
I’m guessing from the latest published survey responses that the MPS SMT are rapidly thinking up some new questions as there are some big questions there that have had poor answers.
So, on the whole, I’d say that the Met is probably 4/10 happy, maybe 5 on a good day. Could do better.
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