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The second of our 2021 staff pulse surveys closed last week (19 October) and now People Insight, the third-party provider who ran the survey, is collating the data so we can begin work on developing action plans.

The survey ran from 28 September and closed on 19 October, 2021 and 36% of our target audience completed the confidential survey, which was below the response rate from the last survey which ran earlier in the year.

Staff were invited to give an honest view of working at Sussex and say what they think could be done differently or better.

Director of Human Resources (HR) Siobhan O’Reilly said: “I’m pleased our colleagues have had the opportunity to provide feedback. This is invaluable to allow us to make Sussex a better place to work.

"Although the response rate is lower than we would like, it is encouraging that over 1,600 members of staff have taken the opportunity to share their views and a lower response rate is in keeping with other universities’ experience at this time.

"We know the results cannot be assumed to represent the views of all staff, the data allows us to collectively translate the results into meaningful action plans – both at a local and institutional level.” 

The next key steps are:

• On 8 November, the University Leadership Team (ULT – which consists of the University Executive Group, Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellors, Heads of School and Divisional Directors) will receive the institutional-level staff survey results, which will have already been carefully scrutinised and redacted where appropriate to ensure that they cannot be linked to individuals or small groups (< 10) of staff.
  
  
• Week beginning 8 November – a member of staff from each Division and School will take part in training on using the data dashboard for their School/Division. This will support local action planning.
  
  
• Week beginning 15 November- the main findings from the survey will be shared with all staff.
  
  
• Heads of School and Divisional Directors will then share their local results with teams for discussion and local action planning. Local teams will also be asked to suggest institutional level priorities. Schools and Divisions will then have 4 weeks to decide on their own local actions and also agree on feedback they want to give for institutional actions.
  
  
• During the final week before Christmas we plan to collate our University-wide and School/Division action plans. This means we will be ready for dissemination in the New Year.

Now that we are running short pulse surveys twice a year, we will be able to hear more regularly from staff, enabling us to respond to issues as they emerge.

The findings from staff surveys are also vital to our equalities work, helping us to develop our equalities action plans and make measurable improvements in addressing any existing inequalities.

Progress of work with the staff survey will be monitored by the People, Culture, and Inclusion Committee and by the University’s Executive Group.

You can find out more:  

• Read more about the Staff Survey
• Action taken following previous surveys

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