In 2009, Ipsos MORI conducted the first of a series of Staff Engagement Surveys. The main objective of the three-year involvement of Ipsos MORI is “to identify and explore the issues which are important to staff and the impact of these issues on their working life”.

The 2009 survey questionnaire was agreed in close consultation with Culture and Sport Glasgow. It drew strongly on the questionnaire developed for their first staff survey (conducted by another organisation in 2008) and included many Ipsos MORI normative questions in order to compare staff views against those in other organisations.

Ipsos MORI’s involvement was to go beyond survey management and the provision of results. As well as basic survey reporting (including CMT and senior manager presentations, detailed tables and an Ipsos MORI report), we conducted additional analysis to determine the underlying drivers of the CSG ‘Engagement Index’, we provided written departmental summaries and a ‘desk-top’-published all staff newsletter outlining Ipsos MORI’s interpretation of the key findings and implications for the organisation.

In 2010, Ipsos MORI will conduct a series of ‘pulse surveys’ among key groups of staff on specific issues or about specific challenges. In 2011, Ipsos MORI will repeat the full staff survey to assess progress made over the previous two years.

Technical details

All 2,645 staff were invited to participate in the survey either by completing a paper or online questionnaire.

Approximately 1,400 staff received an email invitation from Ipsos MORI containing a unique link to the online version of the questionnaire hosted on the Ipsos MORI server. A further 1,300 received a paper copy of the questionnaire and a reply-paid envelope in which to return their completed questionnaire directly to Ipsos MORI. At no point was anyone at CSG able to view questionnaires completed by other members of staff.

A total of 1,232 questionnaires were completed and returned between 9 November and 4 December 2009 (an overall response rate of 47%).