FireCultureMonitor Proof of Concept
Emerging national insights into culture, wellbeing and leadership across Fire and Rescue ServicesWelcome to the FireCultureMonitor Proof of Concept page.
This page presents early aggregated findings from participating Fire and Rescue Services, providing an emerging picture of workplace culture, wellbeing, leadership, inclusion and organisational trust across the sector.
The FireCultureMonitor is an independent, research-led initiative developed through the CultureSpark Programme at the University of Huddersfield. It has been designed to support Fire and Rescue Services to better understand the organisational conditions that shape staff experience, workforce wellbeing, leadership climate and culture change.
These early insights demonstrate how the Monitor can help services identify strengths, highlight areas for improvement, and support evidence-informed action across the fire and rescue sector.
Understanding the Index Scores
Turning Employee Feedback Into Actionable Insights
The index scores below reflect aggregated feedback from employees across participating Fire and Rescue Services. They are organised across three core dimensions: Stress and Wellbeing, Leadership and Engagement, and Culture, Belonging and Equity.
Each dimension provides a lens through which to understand the key aspects of workplace experience, helping identify both organisational strengths and areas for growth.
Index scores range from 0 to 100, where higher values represent more positive outcomes. For example, higher scores on indexes such as Job Demands, Job Control, Manager Support, Peer Support, Work Relationships, Work Role, and Change reflect healthier, less stressful work environments with stronger organisational support.
These standardised scores allow for comparison across services, departments, staff groups and organisational benchmarks. As the FireCultureMonitor develops, this approach will support evidence-based action, shared learning and a stronger national understanding of culture and wellbeing across Fire and Rescue Services.
This proof of concept should be interpreted as an emerging sector profile rather than a definitive national benchmark. As more services participate, the Monitor will build a richer and more robust evidence base for national learning and service-level improvement.
Stress and Wellbeing
Understanding Employee Wellbeing and the Work Environment
This dimension combines internationally recognised frameworks to explore psychological wellbeing, work-related stress and the conditions that support a healthy working environment.
Psychological wellbeing is measured using the WHO-5 Wellbeing Index, while work-related stress is assessed through the Health and Safety Executive’s Stress Management Standards Indicator Tool. This explores demands, control, manager support, peer support, relationships, role clarity and organisational change.
Together, these indicators help identify opportunities to reduce workplace stress, strengthen protective resources, and foster healthier, more supportive working environments across Fire and Rescue Services.
Psychological Wellbeing Index
Job Demands Index
Job Control Index
Manager Support Index
Peer Support Index
Work Relationships Index
Work Role Index
Change Index
The proof-of-concept findings suggest that staff experiences are strongest in local and relational aspects of work, including peer support, work relationships and role clarity. However, the lower score for organisational change, alongside a moderate wellbeing score, indicates that wellbeing should be understood as a system-level issue shaped by work design, communication, change management and organisational support.
Leadership and Engagement
Inspiring Teams and Strengthening Connection
This dimension explores how leadership is experienced across the Service and how it relates to trust, motivation, and connection at work. It includes measures of Transformational Leadership, Job Satisfaction, Turnover Intentions, and an Engagement and Commitment Index derived from affective commitment. An Advocacy Index reflects how likely employees are to recommend as a great place to work. Together, these insights provide a rounded picture of leadership climate, morale, and organisational connection.
Line Manager Leadership Index
Middle Manager Leadership Index
Senior Leader Leadership Index
Job Satisfaction Index
Turnover Intentions Index
Advocacy Index
Engagement & Commitment Index
Emerging insight
The proof-of-concept findings highlight a leadership gradient. Staff report stronger experiences of line manager leadership than middle manager or senior leadership. This suggests that local leadership may provide an important foundation for culture change, while wider organisational trust, visibility, communication and strategic leadership remain important areas for development.
The findings also show that leadership and engagement cannot be separated from wellbeing and culture. Staff connection to the organisation is shaped by whether people feel supported, listened to, treated fairly and able to trust the direction of change.
Culture, Belonging, and Equity
Fostering Inclusion and Fairness
A thriving workplace culture is one where fairness, inclusion and psychological safety are part of everyday experience.
This dimension examines how equitable, respectful and safe the workplace feels to those within it. It explores whether employees believe they are treated fairly, feel valued, can be themselves at work, and can raise concerns or speak openly without fear of negative consequences.
It draws on measures of procedural justice, equality, diversity and inclusion, psychological safety, inappropriate behaviour, and the overall sense of safety, trust and belonging within the workplace.
Equity & Trust Index
Inappropriate Behaviour Index
EDI Engagement Index
Safe and Inclusive Workplace Index
Psychological Safety Index
Core Code of Ethics Climate Index
Code of Ethics Behaviour Index
Emerging insight
The proof-of-concept findings show a mixed picture. Scores for equality, diversity and inclusion, psychological safety and some aspects of belonging are comparatively positive. However, procedural justice is the lowest scoring area in the emerging profile, suggesting that fairness, transparency and trust in decision-making are important priorities for improvement.
The findings also show that inappropriate behaviour remains a material issue. While most respondents did not report direct experience of inappropriate behaviour, the proportion who had experienced or witnessed it is significant enough to require attention.
This highlights the importance of looking beyond broad inclusion scores alone. A workplace may have positive indicators of belonging or psychological safety while still needing to address fairness, conduct, accountability and confidence in organisational processes.
Emerging Findings
What the Proof of Concept Shows
The FireCultureMonitor proof of concept demonstrates the value of a consistent, research-informed approach to understanding culture and wellbeing across Fire and Rescue Services.
The emerging profile suggests three key messages.
First, local and team-level relationships appear to be important strengths. Peer support, work relationships, work role clarity and line manager leadership are among the stronger areas in the aggregated findings.
Second, organisational-system issues appear to be the main areas of risk. Procedural justice, organisational change, senior leadership and wellbeing are lower scoring areas, suggesting that staff experience is shaped not only by interpersonal behaviour, but also by how decisions are made, communicated and implemented.
Third, culture cannot be understood through a single measure. The Monitor shows how wellbeing, leadership, engagement, fairness, inclusion and psychological safety interact to shape the overall experience of working in Fire and Rescue Services.
Dashboards and Downloads
Explore Insights and Drive Action
Interactive dashboards and downloadable reports provide more detailed analysis for each dimension, helping the Service explore patterns and inform improvement. These tools are designed to support open discussion and reflection, turning feedback into evidence-based actions that strengthen wellbeing, inclusion, and leadership across the organisation.
Take Part in the Next Phase
Building a National Evidence Base for Culture and Wellbeing
The FireCultureMonitor is now moving from proof of concept towards wider sector participation.
Services taking part in the next phase will receive tailored analysis, service-level insights and practical recommendations to support culture change, leadership development, wellbeing strategies and organisational learning.
The aim is not simply to measure culture, but to help Fire and Rescue Services understand and improve the conditions that shape staff experience.
Interested in your Service taking part?
Get in touch to discuss how the FireCultureMonitor can support your Service’s culture and wellbeing journey.