Most of our sample of civil servants think Whitehall is working well, but there are clear concerns about accountability over performance
A new YouGov survey of 101 civil servants – all ranked Higher Executive Officer or more senior, and weighted by age and gender – explores their perceptions of the Whitehall machine using the same questions we asked MPs back in March.
The study also examined the attitudes of these civil servants towards working from home and its perceived impact, and expectations for how greater implementation of AI will affect civil service performance.
What do civil servants think is working well and badly about Whitehall?
Most of our sample of civil servants (55%) say the Whitehall civil service is performing well, while 35% say it is working badly.
This stands in marked contrast to our MPs poll, in which we found only 40% saying that Whitehall was working well.
Asked about specific aspects of Whitehall’s performance, most of our civil servants agreed that work is performed to a high standard (61%), and that civil servants “typically seek to fulfil ministerial directions and proactively seek to overcome obstacles to their fulfilment” (69%).
By contrast, the most common negative stance our civil servants took is that “civil servants do not face appropriate repercussions for failing to perform”, a view which 60% expressed.
They are also notably more likely to think that “Whitehall is too prone to groupthink and tends to hire, retain and promote civil servants with orthodox views” (44%); “the Whitehall Civil Service is too risk averse and closed to new ideas” (43%); and that “leadership within the Whitehall Civil Service is very poor” (41%) than to hold the opposing view.
Our survey also asked civil servants to tell us, in their own words, what they consider to be the biggest problems facing Whitehall. Clear themes emerged of problems with under-resourcing, bureaucracy, staff performance and poor incentives.
Civil servants and working from home
Criticism of the civil service’s working from home policy is a popular topic for certain sections of the media, but what do civil servants themselves make of it?
Our civil servants clearly take a positive view. Three quarters (73%) say allowing civil servants to work from home has had a positive impact on their own department, with two thirds saying so about the Whitehall civil service in general (66%).
More specifically, they are also especially enthusiastic about the difference the shift to working from home in the last few years has made in terms of Whitehall’s ability to attract and retain talent (85% say it has had a positive impact), employee satisfaction (83%), and employee productivity (78%).
Most also say WFH has had a positive impact on public service delivery (57%), while approach half think the same for policy development and decision-making (45%) and communication and collaboration (43%).
The only aspect where we did not see such a significant number in favour is performance monitoring, which proved more divisive: 29% felt the impact of working from home had been positive in this regard, compared to 26% who say it has been negative, 31% who describe it as “mixed”, and 9% who think there hasn’t been any impact in the first place.
Asked to come up with the most appropriate work from home policy, 52% of our civil servants said that mandating one or two days in the office a week made the most sense. Only 18% preferred to require Whitehall workers to be present three or four days a week, and none supported demanding everyone turn up every day.
Roughly a quarter (27%) feel the most appropriate policy is to allow all civil servants to work from home as much as they want.
Civil servants’ expectations for artificial intelligence
Much has also been made of the potential for artificial intelligence to transform the civil service.
Here again, our civil servants are optimistic, with 68% saying that the adoption of the technology along the lines outlined by the government will have a positive impact over the next few years.
They are especially likely to think AI will have a positive on improving productivity (75%), with more than half also expecting it to make a difference in terms of saving money (56%) and improving public service delivery (57%).
They are less certain that it will improve policy development and decision-making (32%), but that is more because they tend to think it will not impact this area (43%) rather than thinking it will make things worse (17%).
If you need to know what civil servants and MPs think, understand your reputation or support for an issue, or develop public affairs activity, YouGov regularly run surveys of MPs which enable you to quickly, cost-effectively and accurately understand their views. For more information click here.
Photo: Getty
