NRW staff survey aims to 'get under skin' of negativity

Workers at Wales' biggest quango are to be issued with a new type of staff survey, after previous questionnaires drew "disappointing" results.

Just 11% of respondents to the 2016 Natural Resources Wales (NRW) People Survey said they had confidence in senior managers' decisions.

The new survey will provide "more detail" about how to make improvements.

NRW's chairwoman said they needed to "get under the skin" of the negativity that staff were feeling.

"We could have repeated the survey exactly the same but we felt that we needed more detail," Diana McCrea told the assembly's Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee.

• 'Handing over the baton' at environment body

• Only 10% of staff think NRW is managed well

She claimed the new survey's format was "well-established", having been used by the Wales Audit Office and staff of the Future Generations Commissioner.

Plans are in place to issue the questionnaire to NRW's 1,900 staff in January 2018.

The organisation was formed in April 2013 from the merger of three former environment bodies.

NRW took over the functions of the Countryside Council for Wales, Forestry Commission Wales and the Environment Agency in Wales, as well as certain Welsh Government responsibilities.

Asked whether there had been an improvement in staff morale since the last survey was conducted in 2016, Ms McCrea said she was "not sure".

"I wouldn't like to judge the mood of our staff," she said.

"We have passionate staff, who have high expectations of working for NRW and for delivering for the environment.

"Their commitment and passion really has to be recognised. And they've faced unprecedented change over the last few years - it's been one change after the other, bringing the three organisations together. I think we probably underestimated that.

'Evade'

"We're not at the end of our journey yet, there's more change to come. We recognise that our staff have had a tough time and we thank them for keeping the day job going."

The NRW is a watchdog for rivers, forestry and the countryside in Wales

But the Welsh Conservatives accused NRW of "attempting to evade accountability" by making changes to its survey.

Welsh Conservative leader, Andrew RT Davies, said: "After two damning staff surveys in as many years, it is vitally important that NRW staff and the taxpaying public are properly able to judge how senior management have responded to their criticisms.

"Moving to a new survey based on a more qualitative approach, which isn't comparable to the last survey, makes judging progress very difficult."

Responding to the criticism, Kevin Ingram, NRW interim chief executive said addressing the issues staff raised was a priority.

"Our previous staff surveys gave us a clear indication of how people were feeling but did not say enough about why," he said.

"Our new approach is a well-established method to help us understand this better so we can tackle the real underlying issues. It will also retain an element of comparison with previous surveys, which is important."

He said there was an option of returning to the civil service questionnaire in the future.