Employee health and wellbeing

Employee perceptions of their leaders

There has been improvement in employee perceptions of how senior managers and executives provide clear direction for the future of their organisation.

There is a need, however, to strengthen the communication between the executive group, senior managers and employees.

This should focus on informing employees about the priorities of their organisation.

It is important that the executive group and senior leaders not only create opportunities to brief employees, but it is also critical that employees are able to provide feedback and ask questions of the executive and senior leaders. The extent to which employees perceive such opportunities to be authentic is critical to creating an engaged workforce.

Perceptions of senior managers and the executive group: 2022–2023
	% positive 2022	% positive 2023
Senior managers provide clear direction for the future of the organisation.	50%	51%
Senior managers keep employees informed about what's going on.	52%	53%
Senior managers create an environment where employees feel heard.	46%	48%
The executive group communicates a clear direction for the future of the organisation.	49%	49%
The executive group keep employees informed about what is going on.	49%	49%
The executive group creates an environment where employees feel heard.	38%	39%

Source: Working for Queensland 2022 and 2023.

Back-to-top

Change management

The Queensland public sector experienced two Machinery of Government (MoG) changes in 2023. Change in the sector, however, is not limited to MoG changes. At a broader level, change could be for the purpose of improving what already exists, transitioning from old processes and systems to new ones, or it could be transformational change which significantly impacts the direction and identity of an organisation.

Change can be focused on one or all these areas: policy and strategy, governance and people, and operations and finance.

There are many benefits associated with a well-executed organisational change. Change can result in improved processes for policy coordination, productivity, or cultural integration. On the other hand, poor change management could result in loss of corporate knowledge, financial costs, administrative confusion and risks to the management of an organisation’s records.

Respondents to the 2023 Working for Queensland survey reported relatively low satisfaction levels with the way change is managed:

29% agreed that staff are always or often consulted about significant change at work directly affect them
31% agreed that they always or often have the opportunity to provide feedback on change processes that directly affect them.

The overall change management score based on the 2023 Working for Queensland survey results is at 30% which shows one percentage point improvement compared to 2022.

Back-to-top

Work demands

Job demands are elements of a job that require sustained physical or mental effort and are therefore associated with certain physiological and psychological costs.

Demands are commonplace and expected in all types of work, whether that work or effort is paid, volunteer or leisure. That said, it is important to monitor work demands so that they can be managed and mitigated when necessary. The experience of excessive demand, over sustained periods of time, negatively impacts individual, team and organisational health and performance.

Examples of demands are high workload, physical demands and emotional demands which can contribute to burnout, and ultimately higher unscheduled absenteeism, poor performance and negative health outcomes.

Working for Queensland survey data is used to understand how often respondents experience various demands. While metrics previously discussed were asked on an agreement scale, the work data is asked on a seven-point frequency scale – from never and rarely to often and always.

Demands need to be managed through good work design and other positive elements of the work environment (e.g. flexible work, supportive leadership and teams willing and able to work together).

There has been a slight decrease in types of demands that employees in Queensland public sector are experiencing.

Frequency of experience of demands: 2022–2023
	Never & rarely	Once in a while, some of the time, fairly often	Often & always
I need to work long hours to meet performance expectations
2022	31%	46%	24%
2023	34%	48%	18%
I am given unachievable deadlines
2022	48%	37%	15%
2023	49%	39%	13%
My work is emotionally demanding
2022	18%	52%	30%
2023	24%	49%	28%
My work is physically demanding
2022	48%	38%	13%
2023	55%	34%	11%
I am overloaded with work
2022	22%	56%	22%
2023	28%	52%	20%
My work leaves me feeling emotionally exhausted
2022	30%	48%	22%
2023	33%	46%	22%
My work leaves me feeling physically exhausted
2022	44%	42%	14%
2023	49%	38%	13%

Source: Working for Queensland 2023, % of respondents.

Back-to-top

Burnout

There is a relationship between excessive or unreasonable demands and perceptions of feeling burned out.

Some demands may have a stronger relationship with burnout than others. This means that if they are experienced more often by employees, it is very likely that employees will feel burned out. Others have a weaker relationship with perceptions of feeling burned out.

This does not mean that these types of demands are not important and can be left unchecked.

It is important to monitor demands and to explore what positive aspects of the work environment can be used to mitigate the impact of each demand.

Physical demand has a strong correlation with burnout, with employees in frontline roles more greatly impacted.

The sector is performing well on this specific demand with only 13% experiencing it often and always.
18% of employees working in frontline roles feel physically exhausted often and always.