Transparency data

Civil Service People Survey 2021: technical guide

Updated 17 October 2022

Technical Summary

Coverage

In 2021, 101 Civil Service organisations took part in the survey. The section ‘Participating Organisations’ provides more details on coverage.

A total of 527,569 people were invited to take part in the 2021 survey and 327,388 participated, a response rate of 62%. Half of participating organisations achieved a response rate of 76% or greater.

The census approach used by the survey (where all staff are invited to participate) allows us to produce around 12,000 reports for managers and teams so that action can be taken at all of the most appropriate levels across the Civil Service.

Note, these figures do not reconcile with Official Statistics about the size of the Civil Service due to different decisions about who is invited to participate in the People Survey and who is counted in Official Statistics.

Coordination and delivery of the survey

The survey is coordinated by the Civil Service People Survey Team in the Cabinet Office. The team commissions a central contract on behalf of the Civil Service and acts as the central liaison between the independent survey supplier and participating organisations. The 2021 survey was the second delivered by Qualtrics.

Questionnaire

Most of the questionnaire used in the Civil Service People Survey is standardised across all participating organisations. The section ‘Questionnaire and Question Development’ provides more details on the questionnaire.

Data collection methodology

The questionnaire is a self-completion process, with 99% completing online and 1% on paper. Completion of all questions in the survey are voluntary. Fieldwork for the 2021 survey opened on 28 September 2021 and was closed on 3 November 2021.

Analysis

The framework underpinning the analysis of the Civil Service People Survey is based on understanding the levels of employee engagement within the Civil Service and the experiences of work which influence engagement. The ‘Employee Engagement’ section provides more details on the engagement index, while the ‘Wellbeing indices’ provides more details on the wellbeing indices.

Publication

Results from the 2021 People Survey will be published on GOV.UK.

Participating Organisations

The Civil Service People Survey can be considered both as a single survey and as a large number of separate surveys.

The People Survey can be considered a single survey because:

• it is commissioned by the Cabinet Office, on behalf of the UK Civil Service, as a single contract with a single supplier
• the majority of questions respondents are asked are the same, irrespective of the Civil Service organisation they work for
• the data is collected and collated and analysed as a single activity
• the survey takes place at the same time across all organisations

However, the People Survey can also be considered a collection of separate surveys because:

• the core questionnaire includes a ‘variable term’ meaning that certain questions include the name of the organisation. Rather than ‘Senior managers in my organisation are sufficiently visible’, respondents in the Cabinet Office are asked ‘Senior managers in the Cabinet Office are sufficiently visible’ while respondents in the Crown Commercial Service are asked ‘Senior managers in the Crown Commercial Service are sufficiently visible’
• organisations are able to select up to three sets of additional questions that focus on topics of particular interest/relevance to that organisation
• organisations define their own reporting hierarchy and structure

For the purposes of the People Survey an ‘Organisation’ is typically a government department or executive agency, and it is usually the case that an executive agency participates separately from its parent department.

However, in some cases it may be more practical or effective for a department and its agencies to participate together as a single organisation. Alternatively, it may be that particular sub-entities of a department participate as a standalone organisation, even though they may not be a legally or fully organisationally separate entity from their parent department.

Organisations participating in the 2021 Civil Service People Survey

Below are listed all 101 ‘participating organisations’ that took part in the survey, grouped by departmental/organisational family. Where a family has a single entry, that represents when that family has a single survey. Where a family has a number of bodies listed next to it, then each of those bodies has completed a separate survey.

Department or organistion	Agency or public body that completed a separate survey
Attorney General’s Office	- Crown Prosecution Service - HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate - Serious Fraud Office
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy	- Acas - Companies House - Competition and Markets Authority - HM Land Registry - Intellectual Property Office - Met Office - The Insolvency Service - UK Space Agency
Cabinet Office	- Crown Commercial Service - Government Property Agency
Charity Commission
Ministry of Defence	- Defence Electronics and Components Agency - Defence Equipment and Support - Defence Science and Technology Laboratory - Submarine Delivery Agency - UK Hydrographic Office
Department for Culture, Media and Sport	- The National Archives
Department for Education [footnote 1]
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs	- Animal and Plant Health Agency - Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science - Rural Payments Agency - Veterinary Medicines Directorate
Estyn
Food Standards Agency
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office	- FCDO Services - Wilton Park
Government Actuary’s Department
Government Equalities Office
Government Legal Department
Department of Health and Social Care	- Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency - UK Health Security Agency
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services
HM Revenue and Customs	- Valuation Office Agency
HM Treasury	- Government Internal Audit Agency - National Infrastructure Commission - UK Debt Management Office
Home Office [footnote 2]
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government [footnote 3]	- Planning Inspectorate
Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education
Department for International Trade
Ministry of Justice	- Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority - HM Courts and Tribunals Service - HMPPS: Headquarters - HMPPS: Her Majesty’s Prison Service and Youth Custody Service - HMPPS: Probation Service - Legal Aid Agency - MoJ Arms Length and Other Bodies - Office of the Public Guardian
National Crime Agency
National Savings and Investments
Office of Rail and Road
Ofgem
Ofqual
Ofsted
Scottish Government	- Accountant in Bankruptcy - Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service - Disclosure Scotland - Education Scotland - Food Standards Scotland - Forestry and Land Scotland - National Records of Scotland - Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator - Registers of Scotland - Revenue Scotland - Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service - Scottish Forestry - Scottish Housing Regulator - Scottish Prison Service - Scottish Public Pensions Agency - Social Security Scotland - Student Awards Agency for Scotland - Transport Scotland
Territorial Offices [footnote 4]	- Scotland Office - Office of the Advocate General - Wales Office - Northern Ireland Office
Department for Transport	- Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency - Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency - Maritime and Coastguard Agency - Vehicle Certification Agency
UK Export Finance
UK Statistics Authority	- Office for National Statistics
Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat)
Welsh Government
Welsh Revenue Agency
Department for Work and Pensions	- Health and Safety Executive

Questionnaire and question development

Questionnaire structure

The Civil Service People Survey is comprised of three sections:

• core attitudinal questions
• local optional attitudinal questions
• demographic questions

The core attitudinal questions

The core attitudinal questions cover perceptions and experiences of working for a Civil Service organisation; future intentions to stay or leave; awareness of the Civil Service Code, Civil Service Vision and the Civil Service Leadership Statement; experiences of discrimination, bullying and harassment; and ratings of individual subjective wellbeing. The core attitudinal questions also include an opportunity to provide free-text comments.

The core attitudinal questions includes the five questions that are used to calculate the survey’s headline measure, the ‘Employee Engagement Index’. A large number of the core attitudinal questions have been grouped into nine themes using factor analysis (a statistical technique to explore the relationship between questions), that are associated with influencing levels of employee engagement – taking action on these themes will lead to increases in employee engagement. You can read more about employee engagement and the Civil Service People Survey in the section called ‘Employee Engagement’.

The majority of the core additional questions are asked on a 5-point scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree.

Local optional attitudinal questions

The core attitudinal questions are a set of common questions that provide an overview of working for an organisation, and are generally applicable to any working environment.

However, there may be topics that particular organisations want to explore in more detail, therefore each participating organisation can select up to three short blocks of additional attitudinal questions that have been standardised.

Demographic questions

The core demographic questions collect information from respondents about their job and personal characteristics such as their working location and age. These questions are used to filter and compare results within organisations by different demographic characteristics so that results can be better understood and action targeted appropriately. The vast majority of demographic questions are standardised across the survey to enable analysis not only at organisation-level but also across the Civil Service.

Questionnaire development and changes over time

Prior to 2009, government departments and agencies conducted their own employee attitudes surveys, using different question sets, taking place at different times of the year, and at different frequencies. In addition to the economies of scale afforded by coordinating employee survey activity, a single survey allows for a coherent methodology to be applied that facilitates effective analysis and comparison.

2007 to 2008: Pathfinder studies and harmonisation

Pathfinder studies were conducted with Civil Service organisations over 2007 and 2008, to inform the development of a core questionnaire for a pilot of the ‘single survey’ approach. The questionnaire used in the pilot was a pragmatic harmonisation of previous questionnaires used in staff surveys by Civil Service organisations, while ensuring it covered key areas identified by previous studies of employee engagement. Employee engagement is a workplace approach designed to ensure that employees are committed to their organisation’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success, and are able at the same time to enhance their own sense of well-being. There is no single definition of employee engagement or standard set of questions; for the Civil Service it was decided to use five questions measuring pride, advocacy, attachment, inspiration, and motivation.

The development of the Civil Service People Survey questionnaire was done in consultation with survey managers and analysts across all participating organisations. This development process consisted of a substantial review of the questionnaire (including cognitive testing) to ensure it used plain English and that the questions were easily understood by respondents. The ‘single survey’ approach meant that organisations could retain trend data, by using questions they had previously measured, while ensuring that the questionnaire was fit for purpose in measuring employee engagement in the Civil Service and the experiences of work that can affect it.

2009: The first People Survey and factor analysis

Following a successful pilot of the ‘single survey’ approach in early 2009, the first full Civil Service People Survey was conducted in autumn 2009. The results of the pilot and the first full survey were used in factor analysis to identify and group the core attitudinal questions into 10 themes (the employee engagement index and nine ‘drivers of engagement’).

Factor analysis identifies the statistical relationships between different questions, and illustrates how these questions are manifestations of different experiences of work. For example, the question ‘I have the skills I need to do my job effectively’ might, at first glance, seem to be a question about learning and development but factor analysis of the CSPS dataset found that this was more closely related to other questions about ‘resources and workload’. The themes have shown relatively strong consistency in structure across organisations and across time.

2011: Taking action

In 2011, the first change to the core questionnaire was undertaken to add a further question to measure whether staff thought effective action had taken place since the last survey.

2012: Organisational culture and subjective wellbeing

Five questions on organisational culture were added to the core questionnaire in 2012. They were included to help measure the desired cultural outcomes of the Civil Service Reform Plan.

Four new questions on subjective wellbeing, as used by the Office for National Statistics as part of their Measuring National Wellbeing Programme, were also added to the core questionnaire in 2012:

• overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
• overall, to what extent do you think the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
• overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
• overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?

These were piloted with five organisations in the 2011 survey prior to their inclusion. The wellbeing questions are measured on an 11-point scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means not at all and 10 means completely.

2015: Civil Service Leadership statement and organisational culture

In 2015, eight questions related to the Civil Service Leadership Statement were added to measure perceptions of the behavioural expectations and values to be demonstrated by all Civil Service leaders. This section was reduced to two questions in 2016 as analysis of the 2015 results showed us that six questions were highly correlated with the ‘leadership and managing change’ theme questions, meaning questions could be removed without losing insight.

Depending on how respondents answered the Leadership statement questions they were given a follow-up question asking them to list up to three things that senior managers and their manager do or could do to demonstrate the behaviours set out in the Civil Service Leadership Statement.

2016: Organisational culture

One of the questions added in 2012 on organisational culture (‘My performance is evaluated based on whether I get things done, rather than on solely following process’) was removed in 2016 as stakeholder feedback suggested that it offered little insight and removing it would reduce questionnaire length while having minimal impact on the time series.

2017: Questionnaire review and theme changes

In 2017 the Leadership statement follow up questions were amended to ‘Please tell us what [senior managers] in [your organisation] do to demonstrate the behaviours set out in the Leadership Statement’ and ‘Please tell us what managers in [your organisation] do to demonstrate the behaviours set out in the Leadership Statement’ and asked to all respondents. Each was followed by one text box. The follow up questions were not asked in paper surveys.

Six questions were removed as they were found to be duplicative or difficult to take action on (B06, B30, B40, B56, B60 and B61 in 2016). This change caused a break in the time series for three of the nine headline theme scores (Organisational objectives and purpose; Resources and workload; Leadership and managing change). Our independent survey supplier recreated trends for these theme scores for 2009 - 2016, so that organisations would still be able to see their 2017 results compared to equivalent 2016 theme scores, and theme scores in previous years.

Five new questions were then introduced in 2017 to improve insight into key business priorities. This included two questions on the Civil Service Vision, and three relating to organisational culture.

A response option was added to question J01, asking about gender, to allow individuals to say ‘I identify in another way’.

2018: Discrimination, gender identity, function and free-text comments

Following stakeholder consultation in 2018, two additional response options - ‘Marital status’ and ‘Pregnancy, maternity and paternity’ - were added to question E02, ‘On which of the following grounds have you personally experienced discrimination at work in the past 12 months?’

The wording of two response options, to question J01 ‘What is your gender identity’, were changed from ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ to ‘Man’ and ‘Woman’ respectively, to differentiate identity from sex at birth (which is asked in question J01A).

The wording of question H8B was changed from ‘Does the team you work for deliver one of the following Functions?’ to ‘Which Function(s) are you a member of?’ This was because our analysis found that respondents could be working in teams that delivered multiple Functions, some of which were not directly related to the work they did themselves.

A new preamble was added before question G01 ‘What would you like [your organisation] to change to make it a great place to work?’ in light of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to explain how we would use the free text comments provided by respondents.

2019: Diversity, discrimination, bullying/harassment, wellbeing and locations

To get better insights on experiences of discrimination, bullying and harassment in the Civil Service, and drawing on findings from Dame Sue Owen’s review to tackle bullying, harassment and misconduct in the Civil Service, a number of changes were made to this set of questions. For question E02 (the grounds of discrimination) new categories have been added and the language of some existing categories has been refined. New questions on the nature of bullying/harassment experienced and what the current state of the situation is have been added as follow-up questions for those who said they were bullied or harassed. The response options for E04 (the source of bullying/harassment) and E05 (whether they reported their experience) were also amended to improve insight gained from these questions.

Two additional demographic questions were added to improve our understanding of the health and wellbeing of civil servants. One new question asks about respondents’ self-assessed mental health (‘In general, how would you rate your overall mental health now?’). The other new question asks respondents about workplace adjustments (‘Do you have the Workplace Adjustments you need to do your job?’).

The existing response options for the questions asking about which region of England, Scotland or Wales work in have been expanded to include a broader range of areas (e.g. including three other major cities in Scotland [alongside Glasgow and Edinburgh]; these are Inverness, Dundee, and Aberdeen). For those working in Northern Ireland a question asking if they work in Belfast or elsewhere has been added. As workforce and organisational change programmes relating to location and place continue to develop, the location question will be kept under review in the coming years.

Seven new questions were added to help baseline the socio-economic diversity of the Civil Service workforce by 2020. This was a public commitment made in the 2017 Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. The measures were developed over a two year period in consultation with academics and other organisations. These questions did not appear in paper surveys.

Finally, to manage questionnaire length, the sections on the Civil Service Vision and Civil Service Leadership Statement were reduced to one question each.

2020: Bullying/harassment and wellbeing

The option ‘unhelpful comments about my mental health or being off sick’ was added to question E03A regarding the nature of bullying and/or harassment.

Questions W05 (‘In general, how would you rate your overall physical health?’), W07 (‘How often do you feel lonely?’) and W08 (‘The people in my team genuinely care about my wellbeing’) were new to the survey in 2020 and have been added to the wellbeing results, along with J04B (‘In general, how would you rate your overall mental health now?’), which is published here for the first time.

Questions on sex, gender, ethnicity, disability, caring responsibilities, religion and sexual orientation were amended to bring them in line with the latest GSS Harmonised Standards and the 2021 Census.

Questions on function and occupation were revised to align with the most recent published career frameworks. A more comprehensive list of geographical locations was included, drawing on the ONS list of towns in England, and locations provided by the Scottish and Welsh Governments.

The response options for E01 and E03, whether the respondent has experienced BHD, have reverted to Yes, No and Prefer not to say, rather than Yes in my organisation, Yes in another organisation, Yes in a non-Civil Service organisation.

The response option ‘I moved to another team or role to avoid the behaviour’ for those who said they had experienced bullying or harassment was removed due to data sensitivities, but response options to indicate whether appropriate action was taken or the individual felt victimised remained.

The wellbeing section of the questionnaire was expanded and respondents with long-term health conditions and carers seeing new follow-up questions.

A question on hybrid working and a new section on Civil Service Reform and Modernisation were added.

2021: Miscellaneous changes

The Civil Service Reform questions were modified to reflect the changes in the reform agenda and include new aspects related to flexible working.

The Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination questions were amended to allow staff to tell us about their experience and collect more evidence of where bullying, harassment and discrimination occurs.

The accelerated development programme’s response options were updated to reflect new offers.

Function and occupation response options were revised in consultation with each Head of Function or Profession. This will enable more cross-departmental comparisons.

The list of geographical locations was updated to align with the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES) and Civil Service Statistics publication and ONS guidelines.

The Diversity and Inclusion questions were reviewed with policy leads to ensure consistency and harmonisation across the questions.

Employee engagement

Our analytical framework focuses on how employee engagement levels can be improved.

By taking action to improve our people’s experiences of work via:

• my work
• organisational objectives and purpose
• my manager
• my team
• learning and development
• inclusion and fair treatment
• resources and workload
• pay and benefits
• leadership and managing change

…we increase levels of employee engagement, which raises organisational performance and employee wellbeing.

The results of the People Survey have shown consistently that leadership and managing change is the strongest driver of employee engagement in the Civil Service, followed by the my work and my manager themes. The organisational objectives and purpose and resources and workload themes are also strongly associated with changes in levels of employee engagement.

Measuring employee engagement in the Civil Service

Employee engagement is a workplace approach designed to ensure that employees are committed to their organisation’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success, and are able at the same time to enhance their own sense of well-being.

There is no single definition of employee engagement or standard set of questions. In the Civil Service People Survey we use five questions measuring pride, advocacy, attachment, inspiration and motivation as described in the table below.

Aspect	Question	Rationale
Pride	B47. I am proud when I tell others I am part of [my organisation]	An engaged employee feels proud to be associated with their organisation, by feeling part of it rather than just ‘working for’ it.
Advocacy	B48. I would recommend [my organisation] as a great place to work	An engaged employee will be an advocate of their organisation and the way it works.
Attachment	B49. I feel a strong personal attachment to [my organisation]	An engaged employee has a strong, and emotional, sense of belonging to their organisation.
Inspiration	B50. [My organisation] inspires me to do the best in my job	An engaged employee will contribute their best, and it is important that their organisation plays a role in inspiring this.
Motivation	B51. [My organisation] motivates me to help it achieve its objectives	An engaged employee is committed to ensuring their organisation is successful in what it sets out to do.

Calculating the engagement index

Like all of the other core attitudinal questions in the CSPS, each of the engagement questions is asked using a five-point agreement scale.

For each respondent an engagement score is calculated as the average score across the five questions where strongly disagree is equivalent to 0, disagree is equivalent to 25, neither agree nor disagree is equivalent to 50, agree is equivalent to 75 and strongly agree is equivalent to 100. Like all questions in the survey this cannot be linked back to named individuals.

The engagement index is then calculated as the average engagement score in the organisation, or selected sub-group. This approach means that a score of 100 is equivalent to all respondents in an organisation or group saying strongly agree to all five engagement questions, while a score of 0 is equivalent to all respondents in an organisation or group saying strongly disagree to all five engagement questions.

	Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree	Score
	100%	75%	50%	25%	0%
I am proud when I tell others I am part of [my organisation]	✓					100%
I would recommend [my organisation] as a great place to work		✓				75%
I feel a strong personal attachment to [my organisation]		✓				75%
[My organisation] inspires me to do the best in my job			✓			50%
[My organisation] motivates me to help it achieve its objectives				✓		25%

Total: 325%

Respondent’s individual engagement score (total divided by 5): 65%.

Sum of engagement scores (65+25+70+35+50+100+90+40+20+35): 530% Engagement index for the group (530 divided by 10): 53%

Comparing the index scores to percent positive scores

Because the engagement index is calculated using the whole response scale, two groups with the same percent positive scores may have different engagement index scores. For example comparing one year’s results to another, or as illustrated in the example below comparing two organisations (or units).

In the example below two organisations (A and B) have 50% of respondents saying strongly agree or agree. However the index score for the two organisations is 49% in A and 63% in B.

The index score gives a stronger weight to strongly agree responses than agree responses, and also gives stronger weight to neutral responses than to disagree or strongly disagree responses.

Figure 1 shows the distribution of the responses in each organisation. Table 1 shows how the calculations on the previous page translate these response profiles into index scores. Finally Figure 2 contrasts the percent positive scores between the two organisations with their index scores.

Figure 1: Organisational results

Organisation A

Answer	Percentage
Strongly agree	10%
Agree	40%
Neither agree nor disagree	10%
Disagree	16%
Strongly disagree	24%

Organisation B

Answer	Percentage
Strongly agree	22%
Agree	28%
Neither agree nor disagree	34%
Disagree	12%
Strongly disagree	6%

Table 1: Calculating the index score

Answer	Weight	% (Organisation A)	Score (Organisation A)	% (Organisation B)	Score (Organisation B)
Strongly agree	100%	10%	10%	22%	22%
Agree	75%	40%	30%	28%	21%
Neither agree nor disagree	50%	10%	5%	34%	17%
Disagree	25%	16%	4%	12%	3%
Strongly disagree	0%	24%	0%	6%	0%
Total		100%	49%	100%	63%

Figure 2: Comparison of percent positive and index approaches

Organisation	Percent positive score	Index score
Organisation A	50%	49%
Organisation B	50%	63%

Wellbeing indices

The Proxy Stress Index and the PERMA Index

Using existing People Survey questions to provide additional wellbeing measures

High employee engagement is often conceptualised in terms of the benefits it can bring to organisations. Through the inclusion of four subjective wellbeing questions in the People Survey since 2012, as used by ONS, we are trying to understand the benefits that high engagement can bring to our employees as individuals.

Results products include two indices based on existing questions in the People Survey, which have been shown as important elements of wellbeing.

The Proxy Stress Index

This index aligns to the Health and Safety Executive stress management tool. It uses the 8 questions from the People Survey shown below. It is calculated in the same way as the Employee Engagement Index. We then ‘invert’ the final index so that it is a measure of conditions that can add to stress rather than alleviate stress, i.e. a higher index score represents a more stressful environment.

• demands - B33: I have an acceptable workload
• control - B05: I have a choice in deciding how I do my work
• support 1 - B08: My manager motivates me to be more effective in my job
• support 2 - B26: I am treated with respect by the people I work with
• role - B30: I have clear work objectives
• relationships 1 - B18: The people in my team can be relied upon to help when things get difficult in my job
• relationships 2 - E03: Have you been bullied or harassed at work, in the past 12 months?
• change - B45: I have the opportunity to contribute my views before decisions are made that affect me

The PERMA Index

This index measures the extent to which employees are ‘flourishing’ in the workplace; it is based around the 5 dimensions: Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment. The index is computed using the 5 questions from the People Survey shown below and combining them in the same way as the Employee Engagement Index.

A high score for an organisation represents a greater proportion of employees agreeing with the statements below and rating two well-being questions as high.

• positive emotion: W01: overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
• engagement: B01: I am interested in my work
• relationships: B18: the people in my team can be relied upon to help when things get difficult in my job
• meaning: W02: overall, to what extent do you feel that things you do in your life are worthwhile?
• accomplishment: B03: My work gives me a sense of personal accomplishment

Calculating the Proxy Stress Index

1. Ensure an individual has responded to all eight questions the index is based on.

2. Recalculate the scores as percentages:
   -for ‘B’ questions: 100% if Strongly Disagree, 75% if Disagree, 50% if Neither agree or disagree, 25% if Agree, 0% if Strongly agree
   -for bullying and harassment: 100% if Yes, 50% if Prefer not to Say, 0% if No

3. Add together the scores for all 8 questions answered by the respondent, and divide them by 8. This gives you the respondent’s mean score.

4. For a team or organisation level Proxy Stress Index score, the Proxy Stress scores of all the individuals in the group should be added up, and that score divided by the number of individuals in the group.

Lower Proxy Stress Index for a team indicates a greater capacity to prevent and manage stress in that team.

Rounding should take place at the final stage, if needed.

	Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree	Score
	0%	25%	50%	75%	100%
Demands: B33. I have an acceptable workload					✓	100%
Control: B05. I have a choice in deciding how I do my work			✓			50%
Support 1: B08. My manager motivates me to be more effective in my job			✓			50%
Support 2: B26. I am treated with respect by the people I work with			✓			50%
Role: B30. I have clear work objectives		✓				25%
Relationships 1: B18. The people in my team can be relied upon to help when things get difficult in my job				✓		75%
Change: B45. I have the opportunity to contribute my views before decisions are made that affect me			✓			50%

	No	Prefer not to say	Yes	Score
	0%	50%	100%
Relationships 2: E03. Have you been bullied or harassed at work, in the past 12 months?	✓			0%

Total score (sum of 8 question scores): 400%

Respondent’s individual Proxy Stress score (total score divided by 8%): 50%

Sum of individual proxy stress scores (65+25+70+35+50+100+90+40+20+35): 530%

Proxy Stress index for the group (530 divided by 10): 53%

Calculating the PERMA Index

1. Ensure an individual has responded to all five questions the index is based on.

2. Recalculate the scores as percentages:
   -for ‘B’ questions: 0% if Strongly Disagree, 25% if Disagree, 50% if Neither agree or disagree, 75% if Agree, 100% if Strongly agree
   -for ‘W’ questions of 0 to 10: assign a score of 0% if 0, 25% if 1 to 4, 50% if 5 or 6, 75% if 7 to 9, and 100% if 10.

3. Take a mean of the percentage scores for each question, by totalling them and dividing by five.

4. For a group PERMA score, the PERMA scores of all the individuals in the group are averaged.

Higher PERMA Index scores represent higher levels of flourishing and engagement at an individual or team level.

Rounding should take place at the final stage, if needed.

	Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree	Score
	100%	75%	50%	25%	0%
Engagement: B01. I am interested in my work		✓				75%
Relationships: B18. The people in my team can be relied upon to help when things get difficult in my job	✓					100%
Accomplishment: B03. My work gives me a sense of personal accomplishment			✓			50%

	10	7/8/9	5/6	1/2/3/4	0	Score
	100%	75%	50%	25%	0%
Positive Emotion: W01. Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?		✓				75%
Meaning: W02. Overall, to what extent do you feel that things you do in your life are worthwhile?				✓		25%

Total score (sum of 5 question scores): 325%

Respondent’s individual PERMA score (total score divided by 5): 65%

Sum of individual PERMA scores (65+25+70+35_50+100+90+40+20+35): 530%

PERMA index for the group (530 divided by 10): 53%

Publication including rounding of results

Publications

To help leaders, managers and staff understand and interpret the People Survey results for their organisation, a number of benchmarks and comparisons are published on GOV.UK:

• median benchmark scores (2009 to 2021)
• mean civil servants’ scores (2009 to 2021)
• organisation scores (2021)

Civil Service Benchmark (median)

The Civil Service benchmark scores are the high-level overall results from the Civil Service People Survey.

For each measure it comprises the median of all participating organisation’s scores for a given year.

In 2021 there were 101 participating organisations, so the benchmark score represents the figure for which 50 organisations will score at or above, and 50 organisations will score at or below.

Civil Service mean scores / All Civil Servants

The Civil Service mean scores are the simple aggregate scores of all respondents to the Civil Service People Survey. This might also be referred to as the score for ‘all civil servants’.

These scores are not used as the high-level figure for the Civil Service overall as they are strongly influenced by the largest civil service organisations. The Civil Service benchmark (median) score is a more accurate measure of organisational performance.

However, the mean scores may be more appropriate when looking at the largest organisations, and/or when looking at cross-Civil Service demographic analysis (e.g. how do women’s scores vary from all civil servants).

Notes for published results

Calculation

The result for each of the headline themes is calculated as the median percentage of ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’ responses, across all organisations, to all questions in that theme.

Survey flow

Question C01 has four response options and respondents can only select one of the four options. The benchmark score is the median proportion of responses to each option.

Question E02 was only asked to those who had responded ‘yes’ to question E01. The score for question E02 is the number of responses to that category as a percentage of those who selected at least one of the multiple choice options. As respondents were able to select more than one category the scores may sum to more than 100% and the proportions for individual categories cannot be combined.

Questions E03A, E04, E05 and E06A-D were only asked to those who had responded ‘yes’ to question E03. The scores for questions E03A and E04 are the number of responses to that category as a percentage of those who selected at least one of the multiple choice options. As respondents were able to select more than one category the scores may sum to more than 100% and the proportions for individual categories cannot be combined.

Please note that the trends for E02, E03A and E04 since 2009 have been re-calculated so that the scores for these questions are the number of responses to that category as percentage of those who selected at least one of the multiple choice options.

Localisation

‘[my organisation]’, is used in the core questionnaire to indicate where participating organisations use their own name. For example, ‘the Cabinet Office’ in place of ‘[my organisation]‘.

Question changes

Questions in the core questionnaire have been added to or amended over time. ‘Blank’ is used to indicate where the question was not asked in earlier years or where the response options have changed enough to disrupt the time series.

A small number of changes were made to the core people survey questionnaire in 2021.This includes amends to the questions on the Civil Service Reform and the response options for the bullying, harassment and discrimination section, a revised list of options for the accelerated development programmes and functions and professions. The list of geographical locations and the diversity and inclusion questions were amended to ensure consistency and harmonisation.

In 2020, the option ‘unhelpful comments about my mental health or being off sick’ was added to E03A regarding the nature of bullying and/or harassment.

Questions W05, W07 and W08 were new to the survey in 2020 and have been added to the wellbeing results, along with J04B, which is published here for the first time.

All results in CSPS reporting products are rounded to three decimal places

Figures in the CSPS reports published on GOV.UK are displayed as integers with three decimal places. To ensure the figures are as accurate as possible the reports and tools apply rounding to the figures at the last stage of calculation and are rounded to three decimal places. Sometimes this will mean that the figures shown may not be identical if calculations are performed using the figures displayed in the report, however any difference would not be larger than ±1 percentage point.

Table A presents a demonstration of rounding for the question results: only if the third decimal would be a 0, the integer will be shown with only two decimal places.

Table A: Demonstration of rounding when presenting question results

	Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree	Total	Positive responses
Number of responses	103	166	177	95	24	565	269
Ratio of responses	18.230	29.381	31.327	16.814	4.248	100	47.611
Figure displayed in reporting	18.23	29.381	31.327	16.814	4.248	100	47.611

1. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government took part in the Civil Service People Survey 2021. The organisation was reformed as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in September 2021, meaning that not everyone who is currently in DLUHC had a chance to complete the survey as MHCLG. ↩

2. The Scotland Office and the Office of the Advocate General, the Wales Office and the Northern Ireland Office conduct a single survey covering all three organisations. ↩

3. The Department for Education and its agencies (the Education and Skills Funding Agency, the Standards and Testing Agency, and the Teaching Regulation Agency) conduct a single survey across all four organisations. ↩

4. In 2021 the Home Office surveyed as a single organisation instead of five (Home Office: Policy and Enablers; Border Force; Immigration Enforcement; UK Visas and Immigration; HM Passport Office). ↩