Using data to create a culture of wellbeing
It benefits the entire school community when staff are engaged in decision-making. It also promotes a better learning environment for students, which raises student attainment; and a better working environment for teachers, which increases teacher retention.
How are your staff feeling?
Putting staff wellbeing at the heart of your school is essential. It can be tough to navigate and to build an understanding how your staff are feeling, as it’s something not all teachers feel comfortable talking about.
You need to ask your staff what’s affecting their wellbeing and what underpins those feelings. Regular, short and anonymous surveys can give you a good idea of what your staff think of specific issues in your school.
Essential wellbeing questions
Staff wellbeing survey tools such as Staff Management’s wellbeing surveys can help you gather data and highlight problem areas, but also encourage staff to communicate the changes they want to see.
Turning wellbeing data into action
Regular surveys help you to:
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Track wellbeing trends over time
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Create action plans and wellbeing policies based on real-time data
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Measure where action plans or policies have improved wellbeing – and where progress is still needed
This enables you to provide the right support to make sure staff wellbeing, retention and student outcomes are at the heart of everything you do.
Opening conversations
With Staff Management’s wellbeing surveys, you can respond to anonymous comments without needing to know who they’re from, opening lines of communication with your staff while preserving their anonymity. You can offer help and advice for those who've indicated that they're struggling or stressed, showing staff you're listening and trying to make improvements.
“It has allowed us to open up a genuine dialogue with staff members who can still stay anonymous while being assured that their points are being noted. It empowers staff to have very honest conversations with us that are unlikely to occur in person."
Kerry Clarke, director of learning development, Beechwood Park School
Action plans
Data from wellbeing surveys enables you to develop and implement action plans to address the issues and challenges staff are facing within your school. Once an action plan has been put in place, staff can see leadership are listening to feedback and that their opinions matter.
"I read the results as part of SLT and note down any action points. We set up an action plan for 'communication' which was rated the least effective and gave staff chance to comment upon improvements. As a result staff feel like they are listened to and have a say and we are actioning or providing reasons why some of their suggestions are not possible. As a result this has increased staff morale".
Carla Bennett, headteacher, Sherford Vale School
Shift your school culture with Staff Management
Engage staff with anonymous wellbeing surveys that show you care and enable you to create a data-driven action plan.
Our bank of questions covers 21 categories, is tailored to education and was developed by a psychologist – plus you can add customised questions to meet your specific needs, for total flexibility.