FEWER than half its employees say they are proud to work for Huntingdonshire District Council. And barely half feel they are fulfilled in their jobs. Yet a survey of more than 1,000 staff showed that more than two-thirds felt valued in their work and in c

FEWER than half its employees say they are proud to work for Huntingdonshire District Council. And barely half feel they are fulfilled in their jobs.

Yet a survey of more than 1,000 staff showed that more than two-thirds felt valued in their work and in charge of the way they did it, three-quarters felt they had a good work-life balance and four out of five felt part of a team.

The employee opinion survey has been carried out every other year since 2003 and shows a generally - but slowly - improving trend of employee satisfaction.

But managers are concerned that the number of employees who say they feel fulfilled in their jobs has remained static at around 54 per cent, coupled with the 49 per cent score for employees saying they are proud to work for the council and the 56 per cent who recommend HDC as an employer to work for.

They say these figures are not high enough. Nor is 48 per cent who feel they are kept informed of council activities.

The "proud of" HDC figure masks the fact that only eight per cent disagreed with the statement that they were proud to work for the council and no one at all disagreed strongly. By contrast eight per cent were fiercely proud and 41 per cent proud. It was the 42 per cent who had no opinion either way that skewed the figures.

More than one in 10 strongly agreed that they felt fulfilled in their work, with a further 43 per cent agreeing. With 27 per cent ticking the "don't know" box, fewer than one in five felt unfulfilled.

Personnel chief Phil Duerden believes many of the 30 per cent of staff responding to the anonymous questionnaire work part-time in the council's five leisure centres.

"If they had been asked whether they were proud to work for St Ives Leisure Centre or wherever, they would probably have said yes. But they don't have the same affinity for the council," he told The Hunts Post.

"As far as being fulfilled, I think the result is because of all the additional work and projects that are going on, such as the headquarters replacement. Some people are feeling overloaded with work at the moment.

"But overall we were pretty pleased with the results, though we know we have to do better."

* Of the 414 surveys returned, 40 per cent were from male employees, including those on temporary or casual contracts, and 60 per cent from females. Almost half had worked for HDC for at least six years.