15 April 2008
HMRC faces up to engagement challenges
Being informed doesn't always take the discomfort out of change.
While this week marks 3 years for the existence of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), last Friday, the department's staff satisfaction levels were put under scrutiny by the Financial Times.
The paper reported on results (published earlier this year) from HMRC's Winter 2007 staff survey, recalling that "almost three quarters of staff say their experience of working for HMRC had deteriorated in the past year."
Identifying problem spots
The department was formed by a merger of the Inland Revenue and Her Majesty's Customs and Excise and came into formal existence back in April 2005. Since then, it has carried out regular, detailed staff surveys, the latest of which had 20,062 respondents.
And it's a good job that employees' feelings are being investigated, as the surveys have highlighted some cause for concern – the most recent survey showed that almost 70% of respondents weren't satisfied with the department, and only 17% would recommend HMRC as a good place to work.
Better "upward" communication
The bi-annual survey is split into sections, one being "Business decisions and direction –
How well are we communicating and enacting the changes going on within the business?"
Here, results were slightly more positive: 58% of employees agreed that they're confident their feelings and thoughts on important matters are communicated upwards to line managers, and 55% feel they understand why the department is changing.
However, understanding change is very different to liking it – 70% of respondents didn't believe that change was managed well in the department and 78% couldn't envisage the changes actually improving the department.
We're not shying away from the hard messages this survey delivers. Senior managers have already begun to act on the survey’s findings.
Tackling the issue head on
In response to these results, an HMRC representative told the Hub, “We're not shying away from the hard messages this survey delivers. Senior managers have already begun to act on the survey’s findings, in particular by increasing their involvement and dialogue with front-line staff around the country, and by ensuring many of the changes made over the last year are working properly.
“Despite the difficulties, there are some encouraging results from the survey, including 4 out of 5 people taking pride in delivering great performance, a 14% rise in people's motivation to do a good job and an increase in the number of people who believe their team is well managed."
Avoiding a downward spiral
We approached Hub expert Bill Quirke (pictured right) to comment on HMRC's engagement issues and advise on what it and other companies facing similar post-merger challenges can do to make employees feel more confident.
Quirke believes that the situation is in danger of becoming a downward spiral. "Employees are projecting today’s bad experiences onto their expectations for the future," he says.
"In any merger, high and good expectations at the outset are usually undermined by the difficulties of integration. Employees only tend to experience the bad, and don’t get enough visibility of the good. They now need to see examples of where the change has been good."
How comms can help
Quirke believes that part of the
communication job is to share the positive achievements of the merger, even if they're only small.
"When times get tough, the grapevine tends to feed only negative stories. There will be success stories of how good processes have been adopted, and where the promised improvements of customers have materialized. Employees need to hear these.
Communication has to show where things are improving, and that we’re on the way out of the valley of despond.
"Communication also has to show where things are improving, and that we’re on the way out of the 'Valley of Despond'. Otherwise, employees will see every further piece of bad news as evidence that things will get worse in the future," says Quirke.
It's been 3 years since the merger and despite good efforts from the internal and change communications team at HMRC, the survey results show that it clearly takes a long time for people to feel settled following major organizational change.
Have your say
How would you address post-merger problems? How do you think the department can boost morale?
Also, are HMRC employees' responses typical of the culture found in public sector organizations?
Share your thoughts on these issues with other comms practitioners by joining the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.
Other recommendations:
TOP TIPS: 11 ways to empower staff during change
Guiding principles during a merger
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