A survey into council staff satisfaction has exposed a culture of slipping standards at Oldham Civic Centre, with 50% of council workers saying they would not recommend Oldham Council as a place to work.
Liberal Democrat Group Leader and Leader of the Opposition, councillor Howard Sykes MBE said, “These results show that a long-term culture of falling standards is developing under Labour’s leadership of Oldham Borough Council. 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.”
Sykes’s comments come after 2021 staff survey data revealed that the council’s performance as an employer had dropped sharply across the board when compared with the last staff survey which was completed in 2016.
“I have been asking for the results of the survey for months and it has just not been supplied. I now know why. I then find it has been quietly published on the council intranet,” stated councillor Sykes.
The results show that only 50% of Oldham’s council workers would recommend the council as “a great place to work” – down from 63% in 2016.
Only 54% said they were proud to tell others that they work for Oldham Council – down from 73%.
Less than a third of staff felt that 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.
“These figures are damming and some of the worst I have ever seen, but they will not be a surprize to those who work for the council, stated councillor Sykes. “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.
