A third of Wairarapa cops disengaged

Wairarapa Police Acting Area Commander Mike Sutton said the survey results came as a surprise. Photo / File

Almost one third of Wairarapa police feel disengaged at work, a recent survey has found.

The 2015 Police Workplace Survey found Wairarapa police were less engaged than the rest of their colleagues in the Wellington district, with only 16.7 per cent of staff reporting they felt "engaged" at work.

Kapiti-Mana and Hutt Valley fared better, with 43.5 per cent and 21.2 per cent of staff respectively rating as engaged.

Overall the regional results released this week revealed nearly three quarters of the national police force were either "disengaged" or "ambivalent" towards their job. The survey showed 29.6 per cent of Wairarapa staff felt disengaged, up from 9.7 per cent last year.

About 60 to 70 per cent of Wairarapa's 76 staff completed the non-compulsory survey issued to staff in February.

Compared to last year fewer Wairarapa police "would recommend NZ Police as a great place to work" or agree "I am motivated to do the best I can in my job every day".

Wairarapa Police Acting Area Commander Mike Sutton said the survey results came as a surprise "because I get a good feeling for the good work that staff are doing and a good sense of our morale being pretty healthy".

Consultation with staff was ongoing and work was being done to determine the reasons behind the responses, he said.

Concerns that had arisen so far were communicating clear expectations around performance, and defining roles.

"In the digital age there's probably an overload of communication, and lots of communication from different sources that creates uncertainty around what expectations are around performance. And it's healthy to hear that, because it reminds us as managers that we have to look for different ways to connect with our staff."

The organisation had been through a lot of change and it was important to look at better ways to communicate the reasons for change to staff.

The survey was also a reminder to police to keep looking at ways to reward good work.

"Some of what's in the survey is around recognition and finding different and appropriate ways to recognise good work - because there's a lot of good work going on - and through that process lifting motivation and lifting success.

"We've got some really hard-working staff, some really innovative staff here, that have a sense that they haven't necessarily been recognised for that. And that's always a challenge - how you recognise good work when good work is a your day-to-day job."

Nationally the districts with the highest percentage of staff feeling disengaged are Eastern (which includes Hawke's Bay and Gisborne), and Northland, with 23.5 per cent.

The district with the most engaged staff is Auckland City, where more than a third, or 37.1 per cent, of staff are feeling engaged, and 8 per cent are feeling disengaged.

Police Association president Greg O'Connor told the Times Age's sister publication, the Herald, the results showed how a stagnant police budget was putting pressure on staff.

"With resourcing, people are working much harder and those constrictions are starting to show. My experience with police officers is they think they are doing a job for the public and they tend to be engaged if they think they are doing a good job, so it just goes to show the effect it has when you get to work and aren't able to do the job you want to do."