BLOG 133
YET MORE
STATISTICS!
In pursuance of its commitment to openness, the government
is publishing more and more fascinating information. In Blog 132, I mentioned their “cost per transaction”
statistics. The latest fascinating
document is a staff satisfaction survey.
To avoid others having to plough through it, I thought I would share
some of the information that relates to HMRC.
Accordingly I set out below the questions that particularly
struck me, together with the average response from the whole of the Civil
Service and the responses from HMRC staff only. Apart from the last one, staff were asked to indicate whether
they agreed with the statement made, and the percentage figures shown below is
the percentage of staff that either agreed or strongly agreed with the
statement. On the last question, staff
were asked to allocate points from nil (completely dissatisfied) to 10
(completely satisfied). The percentage
shown is those that chose 7 and upwards.
Civil HMRC
Service Staff
Questions Average
% %
I am interested in my work 89 66
I am sufficiently challenged by my
work
78 57
My manager motivates me to be more
effective in my job 66 59
I think that my performance is
evaluated fairly 62
60
Poor performance is dealt with
effectively in my team 37 36
I am able to access the right
learning and development
opportunities when I need to
58 58
There are opportunities for me to
develop my career in
HMRC 35 36
I am treated fairly at work 78 75
I feel valued for the work I do 62 47
In my job, I am clear what is
expected of me
84 82
I have an acceptable workload 60 61
I achieve a good balance between my
work life and my
private life 68 71
I feel that HMRC as a whole is
managed well 43 21
I believe that the board has a
clear vision for the future
of HMRC 40 24
When changes are made in HMRC they
are
usually for the better 25
14
I am proud when I tell others I am
part of HMRC 53 23
I would recommend HMRC as a great
place to work 46 21
I am trusted to carry out my job
effectively
86 81
My performance is evaluated based
on whether I get
things done, rather than solely follow process 63 47
When I talk about my organisation I
say “we” rather
than “they” 69 48
Overall, how satisfied are you with
your life nowadays? 62 57
The table makes fairly depressive reading, although the
impression that I have is that staff morale within HMRC has not been brilliant
virtually since the merger in 2005. In
this context, perhaps the fact that 34% of staff are not interested in their
work and 43% do not feel themselves challenged, reflects such low morale. However the fact that 40% of staff do not
feel that their work is evaluated fairly and 64% feel that HMRC turn a blind
eye to poor performance is somewhat more worrying. The government ought to be concerned that 64% of HMRC staff see no
opportunities within HMRC for career development. This suggests we may be getting back to the problems HMRC faced
in the 1970s when they worked out that they had become a free training
organisation for the accountancy profession.
The fact that 53% of HMRC staff did not feel valued also strikes me as
fairly shocking.
As taxpayers looking for value for money, we should all have
a concern that a massive 79% of HMRC staff do not believe that HMRC are managed
well, 76% do not think that the Board has a clear vision as to where HMRC is
going and 86% of HMRC staff believe that organisational changes usually make
the position worse.
When I was young, I sometimes toyed with the idea of
spending a few years with the then Inland Revenue but dismissed the thought because
at the time it did not make financial sense to do so. Now that I learn that 77% of HMRC staff are ashamed to say that
they work for HMRC and 79% would seek to dissuade a friend from joining, I feel
relieved that I never did so.
I hope that the Public Accounts Committee are studying these
statistics and will call the management of HMRC to account. I doubt that a commercial organisation would
survive very long if its staff has such a low opinion of the organisation. Obviously the government cannot simply
abolish HMRC but, if its management cannot motivate its staff, the government
should not simply shrug its collective shoulders and leave things to muddle
along. I appreciate that most of the
top management are fairly new to their jobs and that in a large organisation
changes of attitude cannot happen overnight.
Nevertheless, these figures suggest that HMRC is at crisis point. In these circumstances I find it incredible
that last year the Chancellor introduced a Finance Bill that was so long that it
had to be bound as two volumes - the first ever time this has happened - and
that he is constantly forcing HMRC to cope with major changes in law, such as
the new penalty regime and the half thought through introduction of Real Time
Information, to a time scale that the most efficient organisation would not
even attempt to meet.
Last week’s issue of Taxation magazine awarded the title of
Tax Prat of the Year to the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. I am puzzled how they seem to have
overlooked Mr Osborne as a far more deserving recipient of that accolade!
1 Comments:
You need to consider the taxation software that an accounting service provider is using. Well reputed firms such as tax accounting service flint MI, make use of QuickBooks software that facilitates easy transfer of information between accountants, therefore it will be easy to facilitate transition between one accounting firm to another. Quality of work cannot be affected by software being used but you need to make sure that the program being used will not inconvenience your organization in case you find the need to end the contract with a particular accounting company and hire another firm.
Post a Comment
<< Home