FSA People Plan 2023 to 2026
Our people plan: An excellent employee experience
We will provide an excellent employee experience by refreshing our ASPIRE values to reflect the importance we place on inclusion and supporting each other.
Our culture enquiry told us that we feel enabled within our immediate teams and there is an authentic sense of trust and care for others across the agency however, pockets remain in the FSA where people feel less included and relationships with managers can vary.
We’ll provide an excellent employee experience by refreshing our ASPIRE values and behaviours to reflect the importance we collectively place upon inclusion and supporting each other, embedding these in performance objectives, reward and recognition and in our leadership and management development offering to clearly communicate behavioural expectations and help us shape our culture for the future.
We’ll preserve and continue to build on our supportive organisational culture so that you feel welcome, included and accepted here, and want to come back to the FSA if your next career move takes you elsewhere in the Civil Service.
Your feedback in the people survey against the backdrop of a cost-of-living crisis highlights how important it is for you to feel fairly rewarded for your role in ensuring food is safe, food is what it says it is and food is healthier and more sustainable. We’ll help you to understand our total reward package (the combination of pay and benefits) more clearly, and carry out a detailed review to identify key improvements we can make to employee reward within the constraints of Treasury pay guidance.
We’ve been working in challenging times and will continue to do so. We want to ensure we’re ready for the unexpected and supportive of people’s wellbeing so we can engage effectively with our work. We’ll take a more integrated approach to your mental and physical wellbeing by considering the impact of workload during busy times, ensuring opportunities to spend time together in person and improving your experience of equipment and technology to help you in your role, wherever you work in the FSA.
We’ll continue to listen to your views through our employee feedback channels (such as our pulse surveys, the Civil Service People survey and our culture enquiries) and work with our staff networks and trade unions to understand how it feels working in the FSA and use your feedback to continually strive to improve your employee experience.
“The FSA seems to genuinely embrace working flexibly, trusting people, and supporting a healthy work life balance. We understand we are people first and working is just one part of our busy lives. I know that I am far more productive at work because of this. I feel like the FSA continually looks for ways to improve the human connections we make at work, almost completely agnostic of where we are located.”
James Ambrose, Business Analyst, Openness Data and Digital
Table 1: Planned activities for an Excellent Employee Experience
| In year one we will... | We'll know it's worked with... |
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1. Review our reward and benefits package Explore options and provide recommendations to EMT for an affordable, transparent and simple-to-understand reward and flexible benefits package, within the constraints of the Civil Service pay remit rules, to inspire performance, attract and retain people. |
Broader allocation of reward More hits on Edenred Better people survey results for pay and reward |
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2. Further integrate wellbeing into our working environments Work collaboratively with MHIs and Food Business Operators to explore possible improvements to office environments in plants and ensure they are safe, accessible and inclusive. Provide our people with improved tools to keep them safe, connected and effective at work. Implement clearer expectations around when and why we come together in person, and new channels and initiatives to support strong working relationships, peer learning and effective collaboration in an increasingly virtual and geographically diverse organisation. |
Better people and pulse survey scores for wellbeing, fair treatment, recognition and work environment. More people are reporting via ASSURE system. A reduction in long-term sickness absence. Increased in -person team engagement across the organisation. |
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3. Embed our refreshed ASPIRE values Embed our refreshed values throughout FSA awards, people processes and policies, reiterating what is both acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Develop and roll out a new management charter to articulate our expectations of our managers including behaviours, attitudes and core management responsibilities such as providing support to new starters, bringing teams together in person and conducting fair, consistent and regular performance and talent management. Use feedback from our people to regularly review and direct necessary behaviour change. |
Better pulse survey results mapping to each value. Culture cited as a one of the top 3 reasons to stay at the FSA in our pulse surveys or culture enquiry. Long term decline in internal bullying and harassment reports. A rise in leavers citing they would return to the FSA. |
| In year 2 and 3 we will... | We'll know it's worked with.... |
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4. Gather your feedback on culture Conduct our next culture enquiry in 2025 to capture your views and experiences and explore our cultural progress. |
Prevalence of cultural strength and reduction of cultural barrier themes. |