Our people
Our vision includes the desire to attract, develop and enthuse
exceptional people. We are doing this through:
- actions that promote high levels of staff engagement
- the provision of personal growth and development opportunities
for our staff
- effective resource planning and flexible ways of working.
We believe that these actions will ensure that we remain
resilient in a tough economic climate and that we continue to
deliver value to our partners and customers through high-quality,
relevant scientific capability.
The capabilities of our people, and the way in which we work
together to respond to customer needs, are key elements of our
ability to "make a difference". We are helping to deliver both
through:
- broadening understanding of our vision and strategy
- making our values an integral part of everyday
life
- embedding dialogue and consultation across the
organisation
- ensuring our managers are visible and providing
leadership
- providing performance management tools, with an emphasis on
frontline "people skills"
- celebrating success, whether at individual or team level.
An important part of employee engagement is doing
interesting and worthwhile work. We provide relevant skills
training to ensure our people are deliverying the very best service
with professionalism and integrity. We encourage continuous
professional development, and the publication of peer-reviewed
work (through our "Science Paper of the Year" competition).
Secondments help to reinforce our core capabilities while
establishing partnerships with leading academic and research
institutes, both in the UK and internationally.
We are fortunate enough to attract people from all over the
globe to work with us. Our staff display an amazing range of skills
and outlooks, and that diversity makes us strong: we are
committed to diversity and equality. In addition, we provide a
flexible workplace - including flexible working patterns,
opportunities for remote working and support for those with caring
responsibilities.
In more general terms and across the organisation, we are
looking after each other through a strengthened health
and safety regime, and effective risk-control systems.
We have also changed the way we share our progress on
sustainability performance. Specific data on energy use, greenhouse
gas emissions, waste and water usage are reported annually,
in our Annual Report and
Accounts.
- The Structure
section provides brief management biographies of those delivering
strategic and operational decisions.
Civil Service People Survey
We hold regular surveys to seek
staff's views about working at Cefas. The Civil Service People
Survey is held annually across 97 civil service organisations. This
provides us with a benchmark to compare performance against the
civil service as a whole, as well as to monitor year-on-year
improvements within the agency. The latest results are as
follows: