EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

A wide-ranging employee survey for head office staff was completed during the summer of 2016. The survey was undertaken in partnership with HR benchmarking institute Great Place to Work. The survey findings show that our staff value workplace camaraderie and take pride in their work.

The process also led to new ambitions to improve leadership and management as well as workplace communications, in response to concerns expressed in the survey.

Overall we achieved a score of 67 per cent against the survey’s benchmark trust index - broadly commensurate with the KPI of 70 per cent. Work is now underway to undertake a broader employee engagement survey that also encompasses our programme countries.

To further develop our organisational culture we teamed up with Dutch learning centre Academie voor Organisatiecultuur. A learning session for all head office staff was held where the organisation’s history and culture was discussed and the role of individual staff members in contributing to our culture was examined.

Measures to further develop our organisational culture were agreed at the end of the year, including training staff representatives in ‘Deep Democracy’ methodology. This methodology establishes, among other things, the free and equal right of every person to participate in a work and decision-making process.