Guidance to help complete the Quarterly Public Sector Employment Survey

An employee is anyone aged 16 years or over that your organisation pays directly from its payroll(s), in return for carrying out a full-time or part-time job or being on a training scheme. Each employee should have a contract of employment.

Please report the number of employees, rather than the number of jobs or posts.

There is a difference between counting employees (which is a measure of people) compared with jobs or posts (where one person may have more than one job). For example, where an individual works for a local authority-run leisure centre they may work as a lifeguard and a fitness instructor.

If an employee has more than one job within your organisation, please categorise the employee based on the characteristics of the post in which the employee works the most hours, that is, permanent or casual, full-time or part-time.

Please report the number of permanent employees, temporary employees, casual employees and employees with a fixed-term contract.

Include:

• agency workers paid directly from the organisation's payroll(s)

Exclude:

• agency workers paid directly from the agency payroll

• self-employed and contract workers not paid directly from the payroll

• voluntary workers

Include:

• all those paid in the pay period in which the reference date lies

Exclude:

• employees if they are not being paid in the pay period in which the reference date lies

Exclude:

• directors who do not receive a salary

• former employees only receiving a pension

Include:

• employees with fixed-term contracts of more than 12 months as permanent employees (regardless of the amount remaining on the contract)

• employees with fixed-term contracts of 12 months or less as temporary employees, and report together with casual employees

Contracted hours are used for the basis to calculate full-time equivalents (FTE). The number of hours worked should be those that the employee is contracted to work for each week, so breaks should be excluded in the calculations. Contracted hours of those people on leave (for example, maternity leave) should be those that they were working before they left.

Include:

• all those on paid maternity or paternity leave

• all those on paid sick leave (being paid either in full or part)

• all those on paid special leave and those employees on short-term unpaid leave (for example, for bereavement, or parental leave) if they are absent on the reference date and they are on leave for a period less than their pay period

Exclude:

• those employees on unpaid leave if they are on leave for a period longer than their pay period

• all those on career breaks

Include:

• overseas workers, for example, those employees working in the Armed Forces, Diplomatic Service and the British Council serving abroad

Exclude:

• locally engaged staff as these are not considered UK residents

Part-time employees should be defined as those who work less than standard contracted hours, that is, your organisation’s normal weekly hours.

Include:

• employees on secondment or loan only if your organisation is paying 51% or more of their wages; if the costs are split equally, the sending rather than the receiving organisation should count the employee

• employees initially paid by your organisation and then reimbursed; this includes all seconded employees where the parent organisation continues to pay their salary but is reimbursed by the host organisation

• secondments in to your organisation (including those from the private sector) where your organisation is paying 51% or more of their wages from your payroll

Exclude:

• employees seconded out to the private sector