Almost half of Oldham Council staff 'not proud' to work for the authority

Cllr Howard Sykes

An internal survey for Oldham Council staff has shown that only 54% are proud to be part of the organisation.

Half of staff say they would not recommend Oldham Council as 'a great place to work', down from 63% on the last survey which was carried out in 2016.

The survey also revealed that less that a third of staff felt they had received worthwhile training and development, with only 31% indicating that the training they had received over the last year had helped their career – down from 57% in 2016.

Liberal Democrat Group Leader and Leader of the Opposition, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE said the results show that a long-term culture of falling standards is developing.  

"The Labour administration has failed to get the basics right under successive council leaders and we now have a mountain to climb to get our staff back on board.

"These figures are damning and some of the worst I have ever seen, but they will not be a surprise to those who work for the council.  These results lift the lid on Labour’s Civic Centre culture of complacency and the administration now has mountain to climb to reverse them.
 
"The Labour leadership has been dragging its feet in publishing these results and now we know why.  We have just had our second change of Labour leadership in as many years.  Without a motivated and trained workforce there is no chance of improving customer services and some of the basic services the council taxpayer expects and deserves." he added.

Deputy Chief Executive of Oldham Council, Sayyed Osman, said: "Oldham Council staff have worked incredibly hard throughout the pandemic, with our colleagues working under pressure to deliver consistent front-line services for our residents, amid staff shortages and worrying health headlines. Our staff members have been resilient and hard-working, and we’ve seen many positive outcomes from such a challenging period.

"We know from benchmarking across other local authorities that there has been a drop in staff satisfaction across the public sector overall. However, we’re very pleased that the majority of our people feel Oldham Council is a great place to work and are happy to recommend the Council as an employer.

"We will continue to build on this and have put staff training and wellbeing firmly on our agenda."

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