Processes Staff survey


Staff survey

Use staff surveys to gain an insight in how they are feeling about your service and what you could do to improve.

Staff survey in a hurry

Use this checklist as a quick reminder of the key things to remember for each staff survey

  • Draft the list of survey questions
  • Agree the survey recipients
  • Issue the survey
  • Typically people need several reminders to complete surveys
  • Review and analyse survey responses
  • Agree follow-up actions
  • Follow through on the agreed actions
  • Remind team of the actions taken

Staff survey process flow
Manager Team Recipients Draft survey questions Agree survey questions Agree survey recipients Issue survey to recipients Recipients submit responses Chase recipients to maximise response rate Recipients submit responses Chase recipients to maximise response rate Recipients submit responses Review responses Agree follow-up actions Follow through on agreed actions Remind team of the actions taken

Staff survey in detail

The steps to successful staff surveys

  1. Draft the list of survey questions
  2. Agree the survey recipients
  3. Issue the survey
  4. Typically people need several reminders to complete surveys
  5. Review and analyse survey responses
  6. Agree follow-up actions
  7. Follow through on the agreed actions
  8. Remind team of the actions taken

Draft the list of survey questions
  • Review the questions used for the previous survey or draft them if it is the first
  • Add or amend questions where the previous survey didn't give clear information
  • Be wary of materially changing the questions for each survey and lose the ability to track sentiment over time

Agree the survey recipients
  • Choose the survey recipents
  • Include people even if you think that they might provide negative input

Issue the survey
  • Issue the survey with clear instructions
  • Reinforce that their input is valued and encourage a response
  • State the closing date
Typically people need several reminders to complete surveys
  • Don't expect a large proportion to complete the survey without repeated reminders and encoruagement

Review and analyse survey responses
  • Review the responses
  • Extract the information dispassionately
  • Don't fall into the trap of rationalising why people said what they said

Agree follow-up actions
  • List the follow-up actions
  • Seek agreement that they are the right actions

Follow through on the agreed actions
  • Track the actions
  • Communicate progress

Remind team of the actions taken
  • Before the next survey remind the team that actions were taken based on their previous input