The Institute of Public administration presents it’s fourth annual study of the engagement of public sector employees. The “Barometer of engagement” national survey presents an evaluation tool which uses employees’ opinions on key aspects in the administration, including: leadership, teamwork, engagement, self-fulfillment, motivation etc. For the purposes of this study is being used Britain’s model “The Civil Service People Survey”, acclaimed over the last decade.

The Engagement Barometer 2023 survey was conducted between June 28 and July 7, 2023, and 7,868 employees participated - a 9% decrease from the previous survey in 2022. This year, IPA compiled 52 individual reports with survey results for individual administrations.

The 2023 results show a decrease in the Civil Service Employee Engagement Index - 71 compared to 73 in 2022. Indices of factors affecting engagement are down in 2023. The exceptions are the Learning and Development and Remuneration factor indices as shown in the table below.

For another year, the 'Leadership and Change Management' factor has the strongest impact on engagement in the Bulgarian administration. The Leadership factor index is 70, and is sixteen units higher than the UK administration index, which is 54.

As stated, this factor, along with the 'My Work' and 'Learning and Development' factors, has the most significant impact on the engagement of Bulgarian civil servants. This year, the index of "My Work" is equal to that of the British administration (75), while the index of "Learning and Development" is 12 points higher - 67 vs. 55. Unfortunately, for yet another year, the index of the "My Team" factor is lower than the British one - 76 against 82. The latter shows that there is still room for development in the Bulgarian civil service in terms of teamwork and conflict management.

In 2023, a brief assessment of subjective well-being, the so-called PERMA index, was included for the second time in the supplementary section of the survey. This section was added to the original The Civil Service People Survey in 2012 at the insistence of the Office for National Statistics, which measures the subjective well-being of Britons. The idea is that when people feel engaged with their work, they feel happier and more satisfied with their lives in general. The index covers 5 different aspects of wellbeing, and its name PERMA is an acronym of the first letters in English of each of the aspects: P (positive emotions) E (engagement) R (interpersonal relationships) M (meaning) and A (fulfilment). The PERMA index is established as a metric in the UK version of the survey and is again part of our research this year.

Engagement Barometer's Results 2023


The translation of this document was made by AI enabled technologies - DeepL Translator.