RTÉ is to spend an estimated €250,000 over the next five years on staff culture surveys, tender documents show.
This is disclosed in new tender documents where it states that RTÉ requires an external vendor at the estimated cost of €250,000 to provide a multi-annual, verifiable and objective staff survey for its workforce of approximately 1,700 staff.
The tender states that the primary objective of the staff survey is to ascertain feedback "as to the effectiveness of cultural reform, assess leadership culture and organisation transformation objectives".
It states that "the data output will be used to inform further engagement with staff and inform a range of relevant strategic and organisational decisions".
The tender outlines that "RTÉ recognises that workplace culture is an essential element of employee experience and employer brand, organisation performance and stakeholder confidence".
It adds that "staff are a key stakeholder in organisational planning and strategy and in this context RTÉ wants to contract a specialist supplier that can assist in executing a suitable survey with a focus on cultural reform, and providing verifiable data, insights and direction that can be used to help inform further engagement and cultural development".
A spokesman for RTÉ said that "this five-year tender follows RTÉ's staff engagement survey in May this year, carried out by Culture Amp, which was the first in what will be an annual independent survey".
He said: "RTÉ had a really strong response to the survey with more than 1,300 RTÉ staff taking time to share their views.
"The commitment to an annual survey directly responds to the recommendations made by the Expert Advisory Committee in its 2024 Report, underscoring RTÉ's commitment to restore trust and implement meaningful change based on its independent expert guidance."
The spokesman said that "the findings have been helpful in giving RTÉ a clear understanding of what is working well and where we need to make improvements".
He added that "understanding staff sentiment through this survey is a central part of RTÉ's efforts to build a stronger, more responsive organisation that truly reflects our commitment to reform, and to create a culture aligned with how the organisation needs to evolve".
He said that "the survey, alongside our ongoing work on organisational values, forms the foundation of our broader Cultural Framework published earlier this year".
He said that the estimated value quoted of €250,000 is to include the full five years of the proposed contract.
The tender states that the survey will guarantee anonymity for staff participation.
The issuing of the tender documents follows this week’s publication of the RTÉ 2024 annual report which showed that RTÉ recorded a surplus of €5.2m last year as revenues increased by 10% to €380m with licence fee and Government funding accounting for €222m of overall revenues.
The closing date for tenders for the staff culture survey is 4 December with RTÉ anticipating awarding the contract in January.
