A ccomprehensive independent survey has found that staff motivation and commitment in the City of Cape Town has improved in the past five years.
“This administration is committed to being both a well-run and a world-class city. One of the most important building blocks in reaching that goal is having a staff complement committed to helping the people they serve and constantly looking for ways to improve their performance,” said City of Cape Town Executive Mayor, Alderman Patricia de Lille.
“The results of this survey demonstrate that the City is providing a highly professional, efficient service to the people of this city. The City will continue to undertake these surveys to improve on our performance with the aim of constantly improving,” said Mayor de Lille.
Results of the Siyamamela (We are listening) survey amongst City staff members shows a 12.9% increase in the percentage of truly loyal employees who will go the extra mile for City customers. This is the third time that the survey has been conducted amongst City staff and the trend in staff morale has shown a positive upward trend throughout this period.
One of the benchmarks which was introduced in the 2009 survey was to test staff’s level of engagement. Employees who are “fully engaged” are defined as being truly motivated, who go above and beyond the call of duty to delight their customers.
They are considered as the best ambassadors for their organisation. In 2009, 29% of staff were defined as “fully engaged” while in the 2011 survey this figure has increased to 37%. The South African normative benchmark for fully engaged is 33% for all industries and 23% for the public sector. The City is therefore well above the industry norm and the leading municipality in the country in this regard.
Improved staff morale has a positive influence on service delivery. Local government is a service organisation whose service is delivered by people, more than machines or products.
The survey by Ipsos-Markinor revealed the following:
- A 12,9% improvement in the “truly loyal” indicator for the 2009 to 2011 period – from 31% to 35%
- A 40% overall improvement in the “truly loyal” indicator since the first survey in 2007 – from 25% to 35%
- A 27,5% improvement in the “fully engaged” category between 2009 and 2011 – from 29% to 37%
- A 31% reduction in the number of staff falling into the “disgruntled seeker” category – down from 21% in 2009 to only 16% in 2011
- 75% of City staff indicated that they are proud to work for the City. This is a strong indicator of their personal commitment to the vision of the City and has increased consistently over the three surveys.
Executive Mayor Patricia de Lille said the findings were very encouraging.
“I am particularly pleased to see that during the period that this survey has been conducted, we have seen a continuously positive trend in staff morale.
“The survey is not self-serving. We are a very large organisation with over 25 000 staff and a total budget exceeding R20 billion and we serve 3.5 million residents. We are conscious that we are working with ratepayers’ money to provide services to all our residents. The primary tool of delivery we use is people and we need to create an environment where they feel engaged and motivated. It is therefore important that we understand what drives our employees to be motivated and what needs our attention for improvement.
“This is the most extensive survey of its kind in South Africa and the only known one in local government. The City of Cape Town takes service delivery and the staff who deliver it, seriously. We are very pleased that with this third survey we are able to now benchmark ourselves against other organisations. It is gratifying that the City compares favourably, while we acknowledge that we still have areas for improvement. We have clear action plans to create greater feelings of accomplishment for our staff and also ensuring even greater fairness in the workplace. We are tremendously pleased with the progress we have made in the five years since the first survey was done in 2007,” said Mayor de Lille.
