Following Chief Operations Officer Dr Sharon Ellis’s email of 28 July, I am writing to share with you the next steps in relation to our staff survey.
The Senior Executive Team discussed a management report of the survey yesterday. While we are still waiting for some further analysis of the data, the Faculty Vice-Principals and Chief Officers in Professional Services will be sent the high-level results for their areas shortly. They will then be in touch with Heads of School/Institutes and Professional Services Directors to discuss next steps and the approach to action planning.
We received over 3,200 responses to the survey, which closed on 27 May. This represents 63% of our staff members. We are very grateful to everyone who took the time to fill the survey in, as it gives us important information to use to plan for the future. However, just over a third of our staff have not participated and next time we will look to ensure that a much higher percentage of staff contribute to ensure everyone has a voice.
The last staff survey we ran was in 2019, before the pandemic. That survey focused on particular areas including equality, diversity and inclusion, wellbeing, and engagement. We took action as a result of that survey, which is reflected in some of the positive scores that can be seen in this new survey. The new, current survey is much broader than the last one, and therefore provides baseline information across a wider range of activity.
On the basis of our initial analysis, looking at the results at University level, there are some real positives to draw upon. The results show, for example, that there is a clear increase in colleagues reporting they feel comfortable being themselves at work, that they feel varied viewpoints are valued and that career development is supported. There is also a significant reduction in the percentage of colleagues reporting that they have experienced or witnessed bullying and harassment in the last 12 months. The results across a range of questions regarding line management, feeling part of a team and collaboration across the University are also positive.
There are also some areas where the results suggest we have work to do. These include the visibility of senior role models to whom all staff can relate and, much as scores relating to line management are positive, a perception that we are not always fast enough to deal with poor performance. The scores relating to leadership at all levels across the University and communication of the vision and strategy also indicate there is work to do in these areas. We need to unpack these results in our faculties and professional services directorates to understand what is behind them, and what actions we need to put in place to improve them.
We are also able to look at the results from different groups of staff. Results across the University show that staff at lower grades are reporting consistently higher scores compared with others. Staff from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds gave predominantly higher scores than white colleagues. These trends at University level need to be investigated further at local level, to see what is driving the differences and ensure that all our staff have a consistently positive experience.
These are our results, and it is important that we are all involved in the action planning to drive positive change and further improve everyone’s experience of working at our University. With that in mind, I have asked the different area leads to involve staff right across their areas in the action planning. I have also commissioned a group of colleagues, led by Dr Sharon Ellis, to form a steering group to oversee action planning at University and local level. Alongside your local leadership, Sharon will keep you updated with progress.
Thanks again to everyone who filled this important survey in. Please do engage with the action planning within your areas: by working together we can deliver actions that will improve the experience for all our staff within our wonderful University.
Professor Colin Bailey, CBE, FREng, BEng, PhD, CEng, FICE, FIStructE, MIFireEPresident and Principal