Thank you to everyone who completed our first Staff Pulse survey to help identify areas of progress since last year’s longer engagement survey. 649 people (65% of staff) responded last month to 17 short ‘rating’ questions, providing a snapshot of progress over the past six months. There were some very clear signs of improvement and the results also highlighted areas where we still have a lot of work to do, such as addressing bullying and inappropriate behaviour, improving understanding of the Unitec strategy and improving the perception of ELT’s performance.
Mary Johnston, Executive Director People & Safety said: “We introduced the pulse check survey to check how well you feel your previous feedback is being used to improve our working environment. These results make it clear that we all have some real achievements to celebrate, while other areas of work still need to be prioritised.
“The responses to the open question about the single most important thing that we still need to address were detailed and varied, and reflect many of the same themes that were raised last year. It’s great to see where progress has been acknowledged and the ELT is committed to working in consultation to address more of these issues. ”
Here’s how we did
The great news is:
- 90% of staff are clear about how they support students’ success
- 78% know how their role contributes to a successful EER
- 74% feel a sense of commitment to Unitec
We’ve also seen some real improvements over the past six months:
- 68% of staff believe the level of communication has improved
- 57% believe that they better understand how their role contributes to a successful EER
- 53% believe the ELT’s performance has improved (although its starting point is low with 37% agreeing with the original statement).
There are two main areas that are rated poorly and where the perception of change is low:
- Unitec’s commitment to encouraging staff development
- Unitec’s commitment to addressing bullying and inappropriate behaviour
And a few other findings:
- While staff commitment to Unitec hasn’t changed much (39% report any perceived change), this comes from a relatively strong starting point with 75% reporting a sense of commitment.
- 7 out of 10 staff are committed to Unitec and also feel valued in their roles. This level of loyalty is higher among non-academic teams
- Those less satisfied with the performance of the ELT are more likely to be academic staff and those with longer tenure
- While both academic and non-academic staff share a good understanding of how they support student success, non-academic staff in particular believe their understanding has improved over the past six months (54%)
What’s next?
The team level results will be shared with Deans, HoPPs and senior support managers over the next week or so. They’ll also get to see all the verbatim results from their team (as long as an individual can’t be identified from their comment) so that they can incorporate the feedback in to their engagement action plans.
All verbatim comments will also be shared with the ELT and Council.
We’ll continue to track progress against these areas with a second Pulse survey in July/August, before the next full engagement survey at the end of September.
