Education Support’s 2023 Teacher Wellbeing Index, has once again, highlighted some of the key challenges facing education staff – teachers, leaders, and support staff.
The headline results show that:
Stress is at an all-time high, with 78% of school and college staff, 89% of senior leaders and 95% of headteachers experiencing work related stress.
21% of teachers and 24% of leaders are facing acute stress.
39% of staff had mental health issues due to work, another all-time high.
35% of staff and 40% of senior leaders also reported signs of burnout.
55% of staff said their institution’s culture negatively impacted the mental health and wellbeing of staff.
71% of staff agreed that inspections negatively impact the mental health and wellbeing of staff and 73% believed they do not improve student outcomes.
With stress, depression, and anxiety accounting for 51% of all work-related ill health in 2021-22 (HSE, 2022), it’s clear to see the impact that poor staff wellbeing has on outcomes – and it has taken a further downturn in the past 12 months. Sadly these findings will come ad no surprise to most of us working in education.
What can we do to improve education staff wellbeing?
We know the long-term answer includes reform, structural change, much greater funding and increasing the capacity of leaders to lead – both their available time and knowledge.
Yet if we look for any major changes to be implemented by the Government, I suspect we will have a very long wait.
So, what can leaders do to provide greater support to those they lead and how can they help staff better look after their own wellbeing?
To help, we’ve put together a guide for education leaders to share some steps they can take to address this and reduce or prevent workplace stress.You can read it here
"Welbee is a great tool for assessing staff wellbeing and a time-saver for school leaders. Providing leaders with access to high level data to assess and support well-being, which gives them the visibility to support positive interventions and outcomes."
ERA Judges 2022
Welbee, from School Wellbeing Accelerator – an easy-to-use online evaluation and staff wellbeing improvement tool, designed to help senior leaders and HR directors create mentally healthy schools, retain and motivate staff, reduce costs and drive up student attainment – has been named the Best Wellbeing Solution at the Education Resource Awards 2022.
Welbee, which enables school leaders to measure workplace wellbeing and how effectively leaders manage the risks of workplace stress, features a 10 minute online staff survey, recognised by the Department for Education’s Staff Wellbeing Charter, that utilises the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Management Standards to compare overall scores with those of other schools and organisations
"Welbee focuses on what happens after the survey."
Innovator, Mark Solomons, CEO, was praised for the solution’s focus on ‘what happens after the survey’, which – unlike others – ‘recommends actions for Senior Leaders’, making it quick and easy to celebrate where things are going well and concentrate effort where it is needed most. Key findings, presented through the Welbee dashboard, score each school on how well staff are coping, whether the school has a good working environment, whether staff feel empowered, the degree of flexibility they have, how well they are supported by their managers, colleagues and peers, whether they know what is expected of them and if they feel included in managing change.
Data filters, heatmaps and analytics also help senior leader’s to quickly identify who to support, as well as those who are coping well, and to improve engagement and effectively address concerns through two-way anonymous staff conversations. Progress and the impact of actions can also be tracked enabling senior leader’s to focus on what works for them, to build wellbeing into the culture of the school and improve retention, reduce absences, achieve better financial performance and further raise student outcomes.
“85% of schools that use Welbee report an improvement in staff wellbeing scores after running their second or subsequent surveys,” said Mark Solomons. “Investment in wellbeing contributes significantly to improved health and wellbeing for teachers, all staff and students, and ultimately, to more positive learning outcomes, as shown in a 2021 report from the Teacher Development Trust and in other research from the education and health sectors.”
The Judges commented that Welbee is ‘a great tool for assessing staff wellbeing’ and ‘a time-saver for school leaders’. They went on to praise Welbee for ‘providing leaders with access to high level data to assess and support well-being, which gives them the visibility to support positive interventions and outcomes.’
Concluding, Mark Solomons, said, “I’d like to say a huge thank you to all our customers and the way they have supported and underpinned our development with their brilliant feedback. And of course to our fantastic team, whose passion and commitment to the company and the schools we serve is just incredible – thank you.”
The Education Resources Awards (ERA) – organised by Brilliant Marketing Solutions and the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) – highlight the quality and diversity of educational products and resources, excellent educational establishments and the most dedicated members of the teaching profession and supplier industry, all working together to encourage the very best in education.
Staff wellbeing is a hot topic and deservedly so. With increasing challenges surrounding teacher retention, recruitment, absences and mental health, schools that actively address wellbeing hold a significant advantage,
In response to increasing pupil numbers, a shortage of graduates taking up teaching, and an exodus of qualified staff from the profession, the Department for Education (DfE) launched its Teacher recruitment and retention strategy, and an expert group was established to advise on staff wellbeing in schools and colleges.
For many people, the last two years have been the most stressful of their lives, and for those on the front line, including teachers and school leaders, this has taken a huge toll on their wellbeing.
The outlook for the teaching profession is challenging and we need to lay down strong staff wellbeing foundations if we want to improve recruitment and retention and deliver better student outcomes.
In a recent article for the headteacher magazine we set out some of the challenges being faced and the steps to build the right wellbeing foundations – pages 76 and 77.
How can we improve staff wellbeing to achieve the best for schools and pupils? Here are my eight top tips, created in association with three inspirational school leaders.
We have just published the results of our first national staff wellbeing survey, covering the English regions and home countries. Nearly 8000 staff members took part, including teachers, support staff and leaders.
There are a number of key findings, and I am going to focus on one of them in this article. While staff in SEN schools gave the overall highest scores, and did so in the majority of the Management Standards measured by the survey, the difference in scores between staff across most sectors and phases was not significant. One thing that stands out, is that scores between Academies and Local Authority maintained schools, are similar.
The results are not determined by the type of school, college or MAT. It is the leadership of them that matters most. The behaviours of leaders, how they communicate, and the support processes established, such as appraisals and 1 to 1s, are what make the biggest difference. It is all about the culture.
There really has never been a better time for leaders to focus on their own wellbeing and that of those they lead. It is time to properly put staff first. It is the only sustainable way of achieving the pupil outcomes needed and the 'catch up' that is being planned.
Many leaders and staff members were exhausted at the end of the 2021 school year, given the additional efforts everyone put in, on top of what was already a high workload. And when we talk about staff, we have to make sure we include senior leaders too. They are often forgotten and seen as the people to look after the wellbeing of others.
Since March 2020, we have all had to navigate the many risks from Covid, learn many new skills, and all of those in education have done a fantastic job continuing to educate and support young people. Many are feeling, with justification, their work has not had the recognition it deserves from government and the wider public.
And before Covid we were already at a crossroads:
Teacher shortages with demand outstripping supply in some locations and subjects.
The challenges of retention, with teachers and other staff leaving (retirement and Covid related impact is predicted to accelerate this).
Rising mental ill-health and stress being the biggest cause of long-term absence.
And while most research is on teachers, I know from the work we do with schools that it is important to include all staff.
How do we best improve school climate and staff wellbeing in schools?
As staff members, it’s always good to see cakes on the table, when we are asked to attend that after school staff meeting. Or perhaps it’s free fruit in the staffroom, or the breakfast when we have an early morning start.
Staff may have the opportunity to take part in activities, for example a wellbeing day or even a wellbeing week. It might be yoga, other exercise, team building or some form of training on self-care.
There is nothing wrong with any of these. If your school or college already has the right climate and staff wellbeing foundations in place, and supports staff throughout the year, then these will add to what you are already doing. They are just not the place to start or to focus on first.
If staff do not feel supported or valued, do not have good relationships with their line manager or do not enjoy their work, then after they have eaten their cake, practiced yoga or participated in a wellbeing day, what has changed!
Climate and staff wellbeing is all about the culture that leaders create!
It is like building a house.
It is about putting down the right foundations. This means establishing effective behaviours and having the right supporting processes in place, so staff always feel valued and supported.
Yet I see many organisations spending time on building the middle and top floors first. They provide the cakes, fruit, yoga and wellbeing days as their solution.
It is understandable as it is much easier treating symptoms and providing sticking plaster solutions than addressing the real causes. It may give a short term adrenaline shot, a boost, yet we need long-term solutions.
And while it is important we have additional support for those that need it, these are not the place to start, or the things to do, until firm foundations are in place.
Over the year, we have teacher day, stress awareness week, and World wellbeing week. I understand the purpose of these to raise awareness, yet they add to the feeling that these are not part of everyday life – as they should be.
Awareness of stress, wellbeing and appreciating teachers and other school staff should be for every working day!
Before looking at problems and solutions, let’s ask the questions, why improve staff wellbeing?
While there has been limited research in schools into staff self-reported wellbeing, there has been significant research across sectors. One school study showed a statistically significant link between staff self-reported wellbeing and student progress and exam results.
There has been much more research carried out in the health sector and this has proved a causal link. The higher that hospital staff report their own wellbeing, the higher the outcomes across a wide range of performance and financial goals.
These include staff absenteeism, staff retention, staff cover, patient satisfaction, infection and mortality rates. So we can very confidently say that the higher that hospital staff self-report their wellbeing, the fewer patients will die.
So next time you need a hospital visit, it may be worth checking out how well staff view the climate in which they work.
This research also showed the associated financial costs of poor climate and poor staff wellbeing can be significant. And that it is important to monitor staff wellbeing and target resources to areas known to be problematic.
Other benefits of improving staff wellbeing, in addition to raising student outcomes include:
Reducing staff absence and the need for cover, and therefore ensuring continuity of teaching.
Improving staff attraction and retention and reducing the need for recruitment, training and development.
Reducing management time spent on those other unproductive tasks we just don’t need, such as staff friction, poor performance or grievances.
If you want to improve climate and culture for staff where should you start?
You need to know where you are now, if you are to make the right plans and track progress. Know your numbers!
Start with existing school data, and use existing systems and information where possible, as we don’t want to add significant (or any) workload. Hopefully you are already collecting this in some form and data to consider includes:
Staff sickness and absence rates.
Staff turnover.
How often your support schemes or counselling provision or occupational health is used.
Information on staff grievances, disputes or instances of poor behaviour; and
School performance trends.
In all of these you are considering both the current situation and how this might compare to the national position, where known, or what you might expect it to be, as well as changes you can see over time.
In addition you can seek staff feedback through group discussions, conversations and through targeting specific situations. These include return to work interviews, welfare discussions, exit interviews, regular check-ins and 1 to 1s.
These all give you clues to the likely wellbeing of your staff, the climate in which they are working and possible solutions.
To add to this you should use a staff survey, like the one we used for our National Survey Report. Whether you are going to do it yourself or it is being run by a third party, there are some key points to think about.
It should have an evidence base and make sure it has benchmarks so you can see your comparative performance. This is because not all scores are equal when using a Likert scale. We tend to think of 3 as OK, 4 as good, and less than 3 as needing attention. However, it is probable that in some areas a score of 4 will leave you with significant headroom for growth, while a score in the low 3s in another area could be in the top decile of schools and waste time and effort if you focus on it.
Use the same questions and repeat. There is a tendency for some leaders to change questions to suit external or internal experiences. While you might add a few new ones, avoid wholesale changes, otherwise you cannot track changes.
Use a survey that measures working conditions and climate.
Think about how you will achieve a high participation rate. Make sure the survey is anonymous and that you explain why you are doing it and what is in it for staff members. That is about how you will act on their feedback. Ideally give staff time to take it at work – it sends the right message about the importance you place on their wellbeing.
Finally think about how you will share results with staff and engage with them in solutions. It cannot be about you solving everything!
The survey we use and recommend, and that meets these requirements is based on the internationally known Health and Safety Executive's Indicator Tool. This defines the characteristics and culture of a school, where the risks from work related stress and poor workplace wellbeing are being effectively managed and controlled.
It is also one recommended within the references of the UK's Department for Education staff wellbeing charter.
It covers the six key areas of work design, that if not properly managed, are associated with poor health and wellbeing, lower productivity, increased sickness absence and lower staff retention. By measuring staff against these, we can determine how they view their working environment and act, where required, to improve it.
The six standards covered are:
Demands - How well staff are coping with things like their workload, deadlines and the pressures they are under.
Control – Are staff empowered in their roles? The degree to which they have a say in what and how they do things.
Support – The degree to which staff feel supported by their managers and peers?
Relationships – Are relationships in school and between staff effective, and issues, such as harassment or bullying dealt with quickly?
Role - Do staff know what is expected of them and how this fits with the work of their function and aim of the school?
Change – Are staff consulted on change and do they have the opportunity to question leaders about it?
The results will allow you to Focus on those things that will improve your foundations and will be embedded in your culture, so staff wellbeing is simply part of what happens every day.
So what has the biggest impact on staff wellbeing and school climate?
There are all the usual things about workload, having a greater say in what you do and opportunities for progression and development. These are important, and perhaps the most important aspect is how these are lead and managed in school.
Schools and colleges will always be busy environments and workload will always be too high. Leaders have to help themselves and others understand this, as there is no light at the end of the workload tunnel. There is simply too much to do and staff have to become comfortable with this. To prioritise, undertake the most important work and accept it is OK to go home with work outstanding and pick it up in the morning.
This doesn’t mean we should not be taking steps to drive out unnecessary work and work that has little impact on student, staff or school outcomes.
Leaders and leadership are the key ingredient!
“The thing that is causing people to get ill at work and adversely affect their quality of working life is line managers who are not socially and interpersonally skilled. They don’t have the soft skills that are needed.”
These are the words of Professor Sir Cary Cooper, one of the UK's leading experts on workplace wellbeing.
Tackling this, before adding wellness programmes and perks, and making sure wellbeing is something that is part of your school culture and everyday behaviours is the solution.
It is what cakes and yoga cannot deliver! The long-term consistent performance and culture that is needed. Getting this right is at the centre of your house foundations and will ensure it stands for a long-time.
Yet we know how challenging this is within schools and for leaders. On first appointment and throughout middle leadership structures, many leaders have to continue to do their previous job, for example continuing to teach in the classroom.
They have such limited time, so how do they spend enough time checking in with staff, coaching others, or developing as a leader?
In addition potential leaders are often not given the opportunity to develop much needed skills before appointment and receive limited support after. And when it does happen it’s usually squashed into short and rushed twilight or inset sessions. Even when training takes place, it is often limited when it comes to the behaviours needed to effectively and consistently lead people. It does not provide sufficient focus on those missing soft skills mentioned by Professor Cooper.
This is often not the fault of leaders and the current system is 'broken'. We need change if we are to more easily improve the wellbeing of staff. While we need to campaign for increased resources, capacity and training, it is likely down to school leaders to take action.
It is about giving leaders the tools and resources they need to support the wellbeing of those they line manage. For those interested in the new wellbeing charter, whether or not you are under the jurisdiction of the Department for education, this is commitment 3.
To improve this, one place to look is at an interesting piece of research from London University. Over a five year period they identified 12 competencies, that if leaders had them, would prevent and reduce stress in the staff they led.
If leaders demonstrate these then they will engage their teams and create an environment where more people thrive. Staff will also copy and take greater ownership of their own wellbeing.
The behaviours within these competencies include, among many others:
Doing what you say you will
Not talking about people behind their back
Not taking feedback as criticism
Being consistent in your behaviours and moods
And praising more than you criticise
Asking leaders to self-assess against these competencies is the easy bit (we provide this in our toolkit). Supporting them to choose to adapt and change behaviour is much harder. People have deep and long-held beliefs and need to understand why they should change, as well as regular and deliberate reflection and practice to develop new habits.
Senior leaders have to be role models, so others copy, and as line managers they have to coach their middle leaders. Without this people will very quickly return to their default position.
Introducing the above behaviours across your school, college or MAT is a great step, and a cornerstone on which to build a people strategy that will reduce absences and costs and improve retention and results.
Yet simply sharing these does not address the fact there is not enough capacity or time available for leaders. Time is the one thing none of us have control over, unless you happen to have a time turner like Hermione in Harry Potter! And there is no simple answer for this!
What we do have control over is what we focus on, our priorities and to decide what is most important. The good news is that making these changes, does not add work, it just means doing things differently.
If you choose to put staff first and focus on culture, wellbeing simply becomes part of what happens every day. The more effectively you do this, the less you will need to talk about it and make specific plans. By all means add cake, yoga and other self-care activities but make sure they are not the first or only things you do.
Build those strong foundations and systemise how you go about improving it. Measure, set your goals and plans, implement, follow up, embed, track and finally repeat. Make this simply a part of what you do.
That is what we have built within our own platform to support schools, colleges and MATs. If you are interested in seeing how we provide support to systemise improving staff wellbeing to support a culture where staff and pupils will thrive, you can see more details, sign-up or book a demo here.
When are you planning to run your next staff wellbeing survey?
The DfE have launched their Education Staff Wellbeing Charter. Commitment 11 says that organisations should “Hold ourselves accountable, including by measuring staff wellbeing.”
It goes on to say, “We will measure the wellbeing of staff using recognised tools and metrics and be transparent about results. We will monitor trends over time, and act in response to changes.”
For English schools and those inspected by Ofsted, it will help you in addressing the new leadership and management judgement – well not so new in terms of its introduction in September 2019, though relatively new in terms of the number of schools inspected. As Ofsted visits return, expect staff and student wellbeing to be a priority. For those under other inspection regimes, I still expect a greater focus on this important area.
Most importantly, after the last 14 months adding to the many problems of teacher retention, absence and mental health, the schools that address this well, are going to have a significant advantage, as are their pupils.
If you want to improve and create an even better climate for your staff, you do need to know where you are now. Like a Sat Nav, it is no use knowing the destination, without understanding where you are starting from.
Whenever you decide to run your next survey, how do you go about running it, to ensure it is as effective as it can be and take appropriate and continuing action?
In the rest of this article I will share the steps needed to run a robust and effective process and one where staff are likely to participate and share their feedback openly. I’ll also share the pros and cons of doing it yourself (DIY) and using a third party.
If you choose DIY, the guidance and suggestions below will help to make sure you do the best job possible and use the findings from your survey to improve your practice for staff (and students).
Staff Wellbeing Survey Checklist
It is all about planning your survey and this goes beyond what questions to ask and when you will run it. You can use the headings below as a checklist. Read all the steps first, as some are interlinked and they are not necessarily in chronological order, as some should be done in parallel.
1. What date will you launch and close your survey?
This step is simply the starting point and many people running surveys do not think about the end to end process that is needed. The most important part is not the survey, but what happens afterwards. So choosing your date for launch allows you to work backwards to your current time and forwards beyond the survey to ensure you have got everything below covered and in place.
One question I am regularly asked is “When is a good time to run the survey?” The problem is that there is not usually a good time, as there is always something else going on. Quiet times simply do not happen in schools and colleges, as you well know.
Instead I ask them to focus on better times and when not to do it. Don’t run your survey in those weeks when there is much more than the simple busy week. Avoid weeks with parent consultations, report writing, or when there are important deadlines.
Beyond this, choose what works best for you. It doesn’t really matter whether you launch in autumn, spring or summer term. Some schools like to fit in with their SDP process for updating plans, others to start the year with it.
If you have not run a survey, or only run one which has not created a school baseline or focussed actions, I would suggest starting as soon as you are able to put your plans together. And in the next best time!
Other things for you to consider are; who will manage the survey, keep on top of participation, ensure it launches and closes on time, and make sure the other elements covered below are delivered.
The CEO, where there is one, Principal, Headteacher and Senior leaders will all need to own the results, (and brief staff) and it will be useful to ensure there is someone appointed to manage the process.
If you have a wellbeing team or committee, you will want their involvement, however this should not remove the need for senior leader support or take away from accountability for managing and delivering the survey.
2. What survey or questions will you use?
Ideally you should use a survey or questions that have an evidence base, are independently evaluated, for example for their psychometric qualities, and look at the key areas for workplace wellbeing. These are the areas you have the greatest impact on and are able to address to create a culture and environment where your staff (and students) want to work and can do their best work.
We recommend the Health and Safety Executive Indicator Tool. It focuses on the six primary stressors identified in the Management Standards approach and the questions are based on the best available evidence linking work design to health outcomes. It was developed to provide a broad indication of how well staff rate performance in managing the risks associated with workplace wellbeing and work related stress.
The other place to look for free survey questions is the What Works Wellbeing Question Bank. Try and find those that have grouped questions and are clear on what they are measuring, and those in the question bank are evidence based and some have benchmarks. Some survey’s simply state they have been developed by psychologists, so look for the evidence behind why questions are asked.
If you decide to create your own questions, be aware of these possible limitations:
Avoid leading questions that guide people towards a particular answer, by words they use or the way they are asked.
Accept you may get answers that are difficult to interpret or are unclear in outcomes, as opposed to those developed through an evidence-based approach.
You are unlikely to be able to benchmark your scores against other schools. When using a Likert scale, often all scores are not equal. Yet we tend to think of 3 as OK, 4 as good, and less than 3 as needing attention. However, it is probable that in some areas a score of 4 will leave you with significant headroom for growth, while a score in the low 3s in another area could be in the top 10% of schools and waste time and effort if you focussed on it.
3. How will you deliver the survey to staff?
You have two main choices.
Use paper and pen – some schools still do this. It may be easier for those that are less technologically skilled and has one major disadvantage relating to anonymity (see the next section on achieving a high participation rate).
Deliver it online. The two main tools I see schools using are Survey Monkey and google forms. Both of these can be used for free, though to get a good level of filtering may need a paid account for Survey Monkey.
Whatever method you use, you will need to analyse the results and put them into a useful format to ensure you can use the findings and move to action.
4. What will you do to ensure a high participation rate?
Obtaining a high response rate is important to ensure your results correctly reflect the situation in your school, college or MAT.
As a crude rule of thumb, for a survey of this type, a response rate of over 50% could be considered adequate; over 60% desirable, over 70% good and more than 80% very good. When we work with schools, we always aim to achieve a minimum of 80%, though it is not always possible and particularly in the largest schools.
It is important to get the balance right between encouraging participation and ‘forcing’ people to take part, as the latter will probably mean responses are less likely to be as open as you would want.
With a response rate of less than 50%, the data should be considered as indicative only, and treated with extreme caution.
There are several things you can do to encourage a good response rate before you start your survey. Not least is that staff should feel it is important, that their views matter and that they will be listened to and acted on. Below are some steps you can take.
Publicise the survey, engage with staff and union representatives and include supportive comments from the CEO, Principal, Headteacher and other senior leaders.
Ensure that all staff understand:
The purpose of the survey – why you are doing it?
Why they should take part – what’s in it for them?
How and when they will be asked to take the survey.
How and when they will get feedback on results (at least at a summary level).
How you intend to address findings.
Ensure there really is anonymity of responses and staff believe this. Using a paper system is likely to compromise this as staff will correctly think that their responses maybe known or identifiable. While you may intend to maintain anonymity, this will be less obvious to staff. Using on-line methods (or a third party) is likely to re-assure many staff, but not all. The greater their belief that their responses are anonymous and they will not be identified, the greater the likely number of staff who will take part and the greater likelihood that responses will be frank and honest.
You should insert a formal statement of anonymity at the beginning of the survey, as well as communicating this in writing and verbally ahead of the survey. You also need to make sure that the behaviour of all leaders is congruent with this message. It is always possible that a staff member may identify themselves through comments, and if this does take place you must maintain confidentiality and not pursue any individual action. Failure to practise this, as well as demonstrating a lack of integrity, will have repercussions for future survey participation, engagement and the degree to which staff will trust you.
Give people enough time to complete the survey. This is usually 10 / 15 minutes, though it will depend on the survey and questions chosen, how many there are and whether the survey automatically moves to the next question as the previous one is answered.
Ensure line managers understand that the process is important and that they encourage their staff to take time to complete the survey.
Allow staff to complete the survey in work time, where possible, rather than expecting them to complete it in their own time. We know that this provides much better response rates and sends the right message about wellbeing.
Continue to publicise the survey throughout the process.
Provide contact for questions or support.
5. How and when will you engage with and brief staff?
Set out ahead of the survey, the information listed above, and makes sure all staff are covered. It is difficult to communicate too much, as long as it is done well, and the right amount needed is usually more often than most school leaders realise.
You might start with a briefing in a staff meeting, follow this up in writing, add it to notice boards and weekly updates and create a countdown. Reiterate anonymity and why it is so important to you. Try and engender a feeling of personal responsibility in taking up the opportunity to provide feedback. Wellbeing is subjective so staff members should not rely on the feedback of others.
Brief all leaders about the key role they have, to encourage the participation of their team members before and during the survey.
6. How will results be collated and analysed?
Running your own survey will mean you need someone or a group to pull together and analyse results. Whether or not you are able to put them into nice tables and charts, you will still need to interpret what these mean.
You may have some staff who are good with data, though you will also need the involvement of those who lead practice across the school. This is likely to be one of the biggest and most time consuming jobs, if you want to use the feedback you have received for action.
Not doing this well, the lack of comparative data with other schools or not understanding what good and less good looks like, are often the reasons why surveys lead to little action, improvement or sustained changes. There was good intent and unactionable results. So plan how you will do this prior to launch.
7. Book time in to review results as a team and as close as possible to closing the survey.
Don’t wait until the survey is closed to book time in or work out how you will do this. To ensure results are shared with staff and action taken, plan this and all steps ahead of launch, at least in outline.
Where it needs people to meet, ensure this is already planned into the diary and stick to the agreed timelines. It demonstrates to staff how important you are taking their feedback and that you listen.
When you get to reviewing results, you will want to identify areas to celebrate, for quick wins, for longer term action and where you might need further discussion or investigation.
It is also where you should look at wider school data and the trends you are seeing, which is something you are probably doing regularly, and will have considered prior to the survey. These are likely to include such things as:
Absence statistics, the reasons for absence, the impact of cover (on wellbeing and financially) and feedback from return to work and welfare interviews.
Attrition or Retention statistics (and feedback from effective leaver interviews).
Use of Employee Assistance Schemes (if you have one) and any other support provided, such as counselling – this will usually be headline and anonymous information.
Grievances, behaviour issues (students) and relationships.
Changes in school and student outcomes.
8. Plan to involve your wellbeing team, council or committee (if you have one)
If you have a wellbeing group (whatever you call them), what will their role be? They will be important as supporters, communicators and champions and used well will make a significant difference.
Use them effectively and make sure members are the right ones, and they will support you in providing two way feedback and enabling change. If it is merely a talking (or even moaning) shop then change it.
What a wellbeing group cannot do, is own the response to feedback. This has to come from the senior team.
9. Plan when and how to feedback results to all staff.
You should book in when you will feedback to staff before you launch. If you wait until further down the line, it is more likely to get pushed back, or worse still, missed.
Start with quick or brief feedback first, and as soon after closing as you can. This can be in verbal or in written form and simply needs to thank staff for taking part, remind them of the next part of the process (when they will get fuller feedback) and possibly highlighting one or two headline findings (including celebrations).
Providing fuller feedback is best done face to face, where possible, and in a way that engages staff in action. This should not be about the senior team delivering things for other staff. The senior team are also part of the staff and their wellbeing is also important.
To give focus you may give a summary of results, highlight areas to celebrate and no more than two areas for focus (for now you can say these were the most important findings). You can add more once these have been tackled, if there are any.
Ask what are we going to do to improve this? Whether using a staff meeting or inset day, give some time for staff to share their solutions, so that agreed actions become shared as a school.
Failing to share results, whatever the feedback, means staff are less likely to participate in future surveys or engage with actions. It will also destroy trust.
Failing to ask staff to help create actions and making these shared, means all the workload and accountability falls on senior leaders, reducing their wellbeing and the likelihood of improvements and change.
10. Plan how you will respond to specific staff comments?
Within your survey you should ask a very small number of open comment questions. If you ask too many, you are unlikely to get sufficient responses. Two is a good number, within a larger survey of multiple choice questions.
You might ask a general question about what is going well and what can we do better and then a more specific one.
This will give you some very useful comments to underpin scores and likely actions. You are looking for trends and you can summarise these and share with staff as appropriate. What you can’t do, when doing your own survey, is reply to individual comments.
Finally, remember to not take anything personally. Sometimes difficult, and even in the best schools it is impossible to please everyone and you shouldn’t try! Fair and appropriate action and effective leadership behaviours are the key aim.
11. After feedback and engagement with all staff, finalise goals and actions
Once you have been through the above process you need to set out clear actions.
The step before this is one usually missed by many school leaders – setting goals. As a result of taking action what is it you want to achieve and why. This important for staff buy-in they will want to understand the ‘why’ and be bought in emotionally, as well as practically.
Then be clear on the measurable outcomes and finally what needs to be done to achieve these. It is in implementation where many plans fail! Particularly in not continuing to focus and embed them before moving on to something else.
12. Add actions to the school development plan.
Add actions to the SDP, monitor in the usual way (as long as this is effective) and build what you are doing into business as usual. Staff wellbeing should simply be a part of what happens every day.
Track progress, amend as needed, and use school data, observations, staff discussions and all the items listed in step seven above.
13. Repeat the survey
Ideally use the same evidence backed questions again so you can see exactly what has or hasn’t changed. Scores may go down as well as up, and depending on what may be happening at the school and in the outside education and wider environment, this is both possible and likely.
If you manage this well over time and keep a focus on implementing shared actions as a staff body, your results will improve and deliver the many evidence proven benefits.
Running Your Own Survey
Can you run your own survey? The simple answer is yes and I hope the steps set out above will help you to do this as effectively as you can.
Should you run your own survey? That requires more thought. If it is your only option then go ahead.
If you have an option to consider alternatives, then is it the best approach to use stretched and skilled resource from your own school to undertake something where they are unlikely to have the right knowledge and experience? What are the opportunity costs and what are the costs of staff time in setting up, managing and analysing results.
Below is a table of pros and cons of running your own survey versus letting a third party, like us, take care of it for you.
Figure 1: DIY vs Third Party
Thank you for reading and whether you choose to run your survey or allow a third party to support you, please take the time to do it well.
Staff are your most important asset and putting them first has significant benefits for them, your students and the school, both now and for the long-term.
If you have any questions, including those on running your own survey then please let me know. I am keen to help. Our mission is to support all schools to make staff wellbeing simply a part of everyday culture, whether they are a customer or not.
The annual investment you need to make is linked to the size of your school and therefore the value and return you will receive. The prices below exclude VAT.
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Price
Up to 200 pupils
201 - 500 pupils
501 - 1000 pupils
1001 - 1500 pupils
1501 - 2500 pupils
2501+ pupils
*additional savings available for MATs and groups of schools working together – ask us for more details.
Select Pricing Options
Price:£247
*additional savings available for MATs and groups of schools working together – ask us for more details.
The annual investment you need to make is linked to the size of your school and therefore the value and return you will receive. The prices below exclude VAT.
Drag The Slider Below For Pricing Options
Price
Up to 200 pupils
201 - 500 pupils
501 - 1000 pupils
1001 - 1500 pupils
1501 - 2500 pupils
2501+ pupils
*additional savings available for MATs and groups of schools working together – ask us for more details.
Select Pricing Options
Price:£97
*additional savings available for MATs and groups of schools working together – ask us for more details.
The annual investment you need to make is linked to the size of your school and therefore the value and return you will receive. The prices below exclude VAT.
Drag The Slider Below For Pricing Options
Price
Up to 200 pupils
201 - 500 pupils
501 - 1000 pupils
1001 - 1500 pupils
1501 - 2500 pupils
2501+ pupils
*additional savings available for MATs and groups of schools working together – ask us for more details.
Select Pricing Options
Price:£397
*additional savings available for MATs and groups of schools working together – ask us for more details.
