The NSW Public Service Commission’s annual ‘People Matter Employee Survey’ (PMES) has been released, reporting that more than a third of NSW Public Servants feel burnt out by their work.
Releasing the 2022 PMES results, the PS Commission (PSC) acknowledged the NSW public sector played a major role in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as multiple major natural disaster events.
“The impacts of these circumstances are reflected in the PMES results,” the PSC said.
“Employee engagement across the sector has fallen in 2022 after increased levels in the previous two years,” it said.
“Despite this, the continued and resilient efforts of the sector are evidenced in the results of the 2022 NSW State of the Customer Report showing 75 per cent of customers were satisfied with their experience of government services.”
The Commission said 205,704 public servants completed this year’s survey, a response rate of 49 per cent.
The PMES found 38 per cent of respondents felt burnt out by their work, 34 per cent did not feel burned out and 28 per cent returned neutral responses.
Highlighting the questions with the highest and lowest favourable scores, PSC said 86 per cent of respondents felt comfortable notifying their manager if they become aware of any risks at work and 84 per cent supported their organisation’s values.
The Report found 84 per cent of public servants understood what was expected of them to do their jobs well, while 82 per cent believed customers’ needs were considered when planning their work.
PSC said however that only 39 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement ‘change is managed well in my organisation’.
It said only 44 per cent of public servants believed senior managers supported the career advancements of all employees.
The same percentage agreed with the statement ‘my organisation makes fair recruitment and promotion decisions’.
The Commission’s 48-page 2022 PMES Report can be downloaded at this PS News link.
