Less than a third of Charity Commission staff feel the regulator is well managed and less than a quarter feel adequately paid, according to a staff engagement survey published yesterday.

Staff were surveyed in October as part of the Civil Service People Survey, which assesses engagement among 103 public sector bodies, and results were published online yesterday.

Of the 227 Commission staff who responded, only 31 per cent said they agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that “the Commission as a whole is managed well”.

Only 22 per cent agreed the board had a clear vision of the Commission’s future, and only 20 per cent agreed that when changes were made they were usually made for the better.

Satisfaction with management was down 12 percentage points on the previous year.

Only 24 per cent said they agreed that “my pay adequately reflects my performance”. Satisfaction with pay was down 4 percentage points.

An overall measure of staff engagement found that “positive engagement” – a composite measure based on 49 questions connected to staff satisfaction – was only 53 per cent. This was down 5 percentage points on the previous year.

Engagement at the Commission was 6 percentage points lower than the average among the bodies surveyed and 11 points lower than at high-performing organisations.

Thirteen per cent of staff said they had experienced bullying and harassment at work and 9 per cent said they had experienced discrimination.

The strongest areas were “Organisational objectives and purpose” and “My work” with 77 per cent and 75 per cent respectively reporting positive levels of engagement. “Learning and development” was the only one which increased, up 2 percentage points on the previous year.

Paula Sussex, the new chief executive of the Commission, promised in a recent interview with Civil Society News to embark on a “huge change programme” which will include changes in personnel and skills at the Commission.