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Engaging for success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement
The council’s ‘hard nosed, warm hearted’ approach was developed to ensure
that employees knew what was expected of them and that the council was
business-like, and highly efficient, with clear objectives and priorities.
The approach is also about celebrating diversity, placing compassion and
flexibility at the heart of everything the council does, accepting risk and
listening and trusting people to try new and innovative ways of working.
Employees who have an emergency, whether it is a washing machine breaking
down or an immediate caring issue, know that they can phone in ‘stuck not
sick’ with flexible managers who will allow them time off to deal with their
emergency, and they will be trusted to make up the time later.
The South Tyneside approach has led to:
●● an excellent rating by the Audit Commission in Comprehensive Performance
Assessment.
●● positive results including growing satisfaction by residents with South
Tyneside as a place to live, up four per cent between 2006 and 2008 to 77
per cent. A total of 77 per cent of residents in the Place Survey felt that the
council was working to make the area safer, up 12 per cent since 2006.
●● Within the council, sickness absence dropping from an average per employee
of 14 days in 2001 to 9 days in 2008.
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