The National Audit Office (NAO) report the unsurprising fact that staff morale at HMRC is at "a low ebb", because of ongoing change programmes.
HMRC will spend £2.7BN over the next three years to provide a more efficient, customer focused organisation. The NAO report that 18 months into the programme, HMRC had spent £851M, and achieved estimated benefits of £2.4BN.
However, it warned:
"In any change programme, staff satisfaction might be expected to decline and recent surveys indicate morale remains at a low ebb.
The department needs to more actively demonstrate the benefits to its staff and manage the expectations of customers as many of the improvements for them are scheduled for 2011 and beyond."
NAO chief Tim Burr said:
"This is an ambitious programme of change with the potential to provide significant benefits in terms of tax yield and improvements for the department's customers.
To succeed, the department must determine what it expects the programme to achieve with the resources available."
Sounds to me rather like shutting the stable door after the horse as bolted, as the objectives of the programme should have been identified before initiating it.
Tax does have to be taxing.
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One of the "efficiencies" of the merger of the Inland Revenue (IR) with Customs & Excise (C&E) is that HMRC now has managers from IR managing C&E staff and managers from C&E managing IR staff. This wholesale stupidity has created a culture of deep distrust between staff and managers as the latter haven't got a farking clue what the staff actually do or need to carry out their jobs and when the staff speak up they are castigated and accused of rocking the boat, being negative and causing trouble. The management's answer to all this is to disguise the fact that they are clueless by micro-managing and bullying staff, fault-finding on minute points of trivial, non-technical detail, while constantly harassing and haranguing staff for endless, pointless, meaningless stats and wall-to-wall reports and spreadsheets. Meantime sick leave for things like stress and depression is skyrocketing while morale has never been lower. Is it any wonder HMRC is an utter shambles?
ReplyDelete"...managers from IR managing C&E staff and managers from C&E managing IR staff..." it just doesn't get any more ridiculous than this!!!. Hands up all of you who fancy a cheap flight to Bermuda on a jumbo jet built by shipyard workers... why isn't your hand up?
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic contribution from Mr Anonymous - it sounds like EXACTLY the same kind of office that I work in! I acn confirm that every word you say is true - we are DOOMED!!
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about low morale-the senior manager at Fountain Court in MiddlesBROUGH (Lisa Kyle)has come with the solution; laminated A4 'smiley faces'; a green 'happy' face, an 'amber' neutral face, and a red 'unhappy' face. The idea is that each team in the office sticks to the wall the face that shows best how they are feeling that day. Given the pitiful training, weak management and decreasing job security in the Revenue, perhaps one picture, that of Edvard Munch's 'The Scream', would be most appropriate...
ReplyDeletePerhaps they could have a dark purple "bloody enraged" face for use when they see their directors get a bonus at the end of the year for the stunning success that is HMRC. Shameful, where did this idiot get her training, McDonalds?
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