Confidential survey reveal: Almost half of staff not motivated to work at council

Almost half of Gold Coast City Council staff say are no longer motivated to work there with some describing it as a “nightmarish hellscape”. FIND OUT WHY

Almost half of Gold Coast City Council staff say are no longer motivated to work there, with some describing it as a “nightmarish hellscape” impacting on their long term mental health.

City whistleblowers have reached out to this masthead to provide stunning commentary, along with details of their confidential employee engagement Pulse survey.

“The workplace has become a nightmarish hellscape of autocracy, stripping back of employees’ self-worth, increases in mental health issues and overall disengagement and discontent,” a whistleblower said.

The council has responded by saying it is proud of the high survey take up rate among staff – and the results shows Gold Coast City is outperforming rival local authorities.

Councillors have been briefed on the survey, but the findings are yet to be made public.

The key takeaways from the survey reveal:

* 49 per cent of staff do not believe the organisation’s purpose motivates them.

* 45 per cent do not feel like they belong to the organisation.

* 39 per cent would not recommend the City as a place to work.

* 32 per cent are not proud to be working for the City.

* 29 per cent do not want to be working for the City in the next two years.

* 81 per cent of staff feel they are going over and above what is asked of them.

Gold Coast City Council CEO Tim Baker (pictured top right) has discussed the Pulse survey results with councillors.

Councillors and staffers agree the results show the impact of the reform program which new CEO Tim Baker was hired to deliver, seeing the biggest overhaul of departments in decades.

A whistleblower acknowledged that many residents and ratepayers would have little sympathy for council worker. However work changes had taken a mental toll, with employees “exhausted” from extra demands.

“The organisation has had its flaws and challenges, as any large bureaucracy does, but morale is so low, and valuable hard-to-find ‘critical skills’ employees are leaving the organisation in seemingly high numbers,” the whistleblower said.

“Although Tim Baker may present carefully curated figures of lower staff turnover than our peers, I can assure you that the turnover of highly skilled, competent, and difficult-to-source staff is very high – and this is offset by the retention of more general skill staff.”

A City spokesman said the council was “incredibly proud of our engagement score”. Benchmarked results indicated Gold Coast City staffers were more highly engaged than 75 per cent of other councils in Australia, the spokesman said.

“The results show that 71 per cent of our staff would like to be working at the City in two years and 81 per cent report going above and beyond in their roles to serve our community,” the spokesman said.

Gold Coast City Council CEO Tim Baker — introduced efficiencies to save ratepayer money on arrival.

The City’s overall engagement score of 66 per cent indicates that most staff feel engaged, connected and satisfied with working at council, the spokesman added.

“We are proactively working to improve engagement as we continue to transform the City Administration into a high-performing customer focused organisation that delivers value for money services to our community,” the spokesman said.

“Allegations staff have not been briefed are false. The CEO briefed all staff on the results on November 7 in an online forum which was recorded and posted on our Staff Hub along with the survey results.”

However, some staffers say they want to see the raw data to the survey released to all employees.

“I can confirm that many responses were in fact scathing and negative,” a whistleblower said.

Another whistleblower, who had their contract terminated, said the reforms were swift. “Five minutes into the top job and heads are rolling,” the whistleblower said.

In 2022, Mayor Tom Tate applauded Mr Baker for finding more than $18 million in savings. He had arrived in February with a plan to get directors to slice two per cent from their operational budgets – as opposed to their capital budgets.

Councillors met behind closed doors last Tuesday and unanimously agreed to ticking off on a four-year contract for the CEO which contained secret clauses.

City councillors met behind closed doors to discuss CEO Tim Baker’s contract. Picture: John Gass.

A council insider said councillors expected the cultural survey would show some drop in satisfaction given the reforms undertaken.

“That’s why councillors (in closed session) made the point there should be improvements after that,” a council insider said.

“If the CEO can’t over the next contract improve that situation, there will be a different discussion next time (about his contract).”

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