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Engaging for success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement
Case Study
Department for Work and Pension
The Engagement results from the Department for Work and Pension’s 2008
survey highlighted that 18 per cent of staff were ‘disengaged’.As a large
Department, this meant nearly 20,000 people; most were in frontline delivery
roles in Jobcentre Plus offices or contact centres, and most were in junior grades.
The organisational context at that time included implementing an efficiency
challenge involving a 30 per cent reduction in staff over three years whilst
streamlining and modernising services to customers. In response DWP outlined a
series of Engagement Priorities which looked at increasing the capability, motivation
and accountability of first line and middle managers , increasing the visibility and
impact of all senior managers and puttingtools in place to involve employees in
discussing the vision for DWP and how it could deliver an excellent customer service.
To realise these priorities, DWP has introduced a number of engagement
initiatives including the Making a Difference Programme for first level leaders
and the Back to the Floor Programme for senior leaders.
The Making a Difference Programme is designed as the catalyst to enable
participants to better engage with, lead and deliver business direction. It emphasises
leadership is not just about senior managers and that it is the participants who have
the greatest influence on people and who are seen as the DWP leaders people look
to. Full implementation began in February 2009 and up to 10,000 people are
expected to take part. Stephen Hanshaw (Jobcentre Plus) believes his Making a
Difference journey has better equipped him in engaging people in change. “We had
lots of opportunities to discuss the barriers which can affect our ability to lead our
team through change, and share ideas for overcoming these.”
‘Back to the Floor’ gives senior leaders the opportunity to experience a
customer-facing role for up to a week, working with staff and discovering at first
hand the issues they face in delivering to the Department’s customers. Katherine
Courtney (Director of DWP Customer Insight) believes the insights she gained
from her Back to the Floor experience have enabled her to influence change for
the better. “In my role it is important for me to see things from the customer’s
perspective. I try to ‘walk in the customer’s shoes’ as often as I can. Back to the
Floor was a great opportunity to spend time ‘walking in the staff ’s shoes’. Seeing
the real help we provide customers when they need it most reminded me why I
joined DWP in the first place. I was able to influence issues arising from lone parent
customers transitioning from Income Support to Job Seekers Allowance.”
The Department’s recent survey results show some positive movement in their
engagement scores.
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