The Veterinary Medicines Directorate saw its people survey score for management visibility rise by 12 points in a year. Its programme strategy manager David Lewsey explains how he did it
Among the many bodies overseen by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, an executive agency that regulates drugs for animals. Based in Surrey, its 180 staff include both scientists and administrators.
In the 2012 staff survey, its scores were mostly pretty good – but responses around staff engagement and management visibility lagged behind. Programme strategy manager David Lewsey (pictured) decided to act.
His first step was to hold a series of workshops with staff. Directors were not invited to these initial gatherings, making them a safe forum for people to air concerns. Lewsey took the results to managers, and secured agreement on the adoption of a range of measures.
The first action was to reintroduce a quarterly staff meeting, attended by all directors. “These are well attended and lots of issues are covered,” says Lewsey. “We have opened things up and made people feel that their voice is being heard.” A parallel measure included creating an intranet to provide staff with more information about planned projects.
Addressing people’s concerns that managers weren’t listening to them, Lewsey has played a key role by acting as an intermediary between staff and senior managers. He now attends the scheduled meetings held by individual teams within the organisation, operating both as an advocate for management and a receptacle for staff concerns. This dual role requires a sensitive approach, he says: “My role is to talk to staff about what their concerns are and what management knows, and to assuage their worries. I have to be trusted by both sides.”
The main obstacle to change was overcoming institutional inertia and cynicism, he says. Staff were initially sceptical that anything would change, but that’s been broken down: “It is about being the naïve one with the energy saying: ‘We are committed to change, but you have to help’. The focus has been on getting all staff to play their part in change process.”