NSW Health’s Director General, Dr Mary Foley, has today released the results of the 2013 YourSay Workplace Survey, which demonstrate a modest improvement in workplace culture across the NSW Health system.

More than 43,000 staff and volunteers responded to the survey – about 32 per cent of NSW Health’s workforce (headcount). This is a seven per cent increase in responses since the survey was first conducted in 2011.

“I’m pleased to see that more employees are taking part in the survey and feel confident that their views are taken seriously,” Dr Foley said.

Dr Foley said she would have liked to have seen a greater overall improvement from the 2011 survey results, but is confident that NSW Health’s Organisational Culture Change strategy will help staff to create a more positive workplace culture.

“Improvements in workplace culture have not been uniform across the system, but we have learnt valuable lessons from those Local Health Districts and agencies where there has been a marked improvement,” Dr Foley said.

Dr Foley said she was pleased to see many Local Health Districts and health agencies improve on their results from 2011 in key areas including good team morale and workplace culture.

“It is encouraging to see that the Southern NSW and Murrumbidgee Local Health Districts have both made impressive progress on their 2011 results, receiving a higher positive response across all survey questions and making significant improvements in their employee engagement and workplace culture indexes,” Dr Foley said.

“NSW Health recognises the invaluable and diverse roles carried out by our staff, who manage one of the world’s biggest health systems.”

“I congratulate all the staff across NSW Health who have worked hard to improve their workplace culture and I encourage them to continue implementing strategies for further change,”

“Chief Executives of Local Health Districts and other health agencies will be examining their own results closely and implementing local action plans to build on the progress they have made to date, and target those areas requiring greater attention highlighted in the survey.”

"I take all incidents of bullying and harassment very seriously and have made my views very clear: these behaviours have no place in our health system,” Dr Foley said.

“Removing bullying, harassment and any other unacceptable behaviour within our workforce is a key priority for me,” Dr Foley said.

View the YourSay survey results