A leaked survey shows significant dissatisfaction among former AusAID employees after the merger with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Just 33 per cent of former AusAID staff feel like they are “part of the team” in their new roles, something 70 per cent of their new DFAT colleagues say.

Over 4,000 staff responded to the survey, which was taken while the re-structure was underway, and ahead of anticipated cuts in the May budget.

The agencies were merged to synchronise the aims of the aid and foreign affairs programs, though AusAID staff reportedly consider it more of a “hostile takeover” by DFAT.

More than one-in-five ex-AusAID respondents said they were looking leave the agency within the next two years. Eleven per cent of those who had been at DFAT before the integration said the same.

The leaked figures show a drop in the level of pride in working at DFAT – 7-out-of-10 staff in the reformed DFAT said they were proud of working there.

This has declined from the 2012 response, where 85 per cent of DFAT staff and 90 per cent of AusAID staff said they were proud to work for their respective employers.

The proportion who considered DFAT as “a good place to work” has dropped to 57 per cent from around 70 per cent two years ago.

DFAT Secretary Peter Varghese said the reduced satisfaction of ex-AusAID staff was something that needed to be addresses. In a note attached to the survey, he said he was committed to improve the department's efforts in keys areas of assistance.

Spokespeople for DFAT have said that it was a particularly tumultuous and stressful time when the survey was taken, and job satisfaction would likely be higher today.

DFAT has estimated about 200 staff will have to take voluntary redundancies by the end of this financial year, and reports say about 60 per cent of those redundancies so far have been former AusAID staff.