"The survey is exactly what we wanted. It was easy to use and the results were easy to interpret. The service has been outstanding - we will be using it again!"
-- Irfan H Latif, Principal, DLD College London
"We found the whole process very straightforward and clear and I found the website very easy to use. The topics covered and questions were very comprehensive and pinpointed exactly the areas that we wanted to look into. It was useful to be able to view the graphs 'live' at any point."
-- Mrs Rhea Kurcewicz, Deputy Head, Pye Bank CE Primary School
"When we were looking to improve our annual staff survey, we contacted Bruce at SchoolStaffSurveys.com. The process could not have been easier and the survey itself was just what we needed. I would wholeheartedly recommend this professional and affordable alternative to a DIY survey."
-- Andrew Collyer, Chair of Governing Board, King's Norton Boys' School
"I have launched the survey today. Very easy to use, thank you. And great feedback from the graphs."
I'm Bruce Greig, the creator of School Staff Surveys. I have been a school governor myself for over ten years. I was Chair of Govs through four headteachers and two Ofsted inspections.
A long time ago, I was at a school which had some unhappy teachers who were reluctant to speak out. An anonymous wellbeing questionnaire helped us tease out what some of the issues were. This was transformational for the school. So I set up School Staff Surveys to make it easy for other schools to run regular staff wellbeing surveys. It is surprisingly hard to use something like Survey Monkey or Google Forms to run a staff wellbeing / engagement survey. You have to find or think up the questions and type them all in. There are some very specific drawbacks of each of the free tools which make them not ideal for schools. For example, Google Forms can’t display the results of long questions very well. I know all this, because I offered to set up a staff wellbeing questionnaire in Google Forms at that school after the admin team struggled with it. I got it to work, but it was a bit clunky.
So I built SchoolStaffSurveys.com as a better alternative.
It isn’t free, but it is great value compared to other paid-for services and does a better job (I think) of a school staff survey than the free options. Read on, watch the video demo below, or click the Get Started button to try it for yourself for free ...
It's free to try everything out, then £100 per questionnaire you run. You can run them as often as you like. Or never again if it isn’t your cup of tea.
2
Share your link
We’ll create a unique link which you send to your staff.
3
Collect responses
Staff complete the questionnaire confidentially on any computer, tablet or smartphone. There is no limit to the number of responses you receive for each questionnaire. The price is per questionnaire, not per response.
4
Review the data
You can review the responses as a page of beautiful graphs. Share with staff and governors and anyone else, or no-one else, entirely up to you.
Here are 8 reasons why you might not have done rigorous staff questionnaires in your school before:
“Too expensive”
Lots of commercial providers want to sell you a truckload of expensive support services alongside their questionnaires. We just do questionnaires, and do it really well.
“Too hard”
Deciding a set of rigorous questions is very hard. Skip the hard work and use the world-renowned UK Civil Service Staff Engagement questionnaire (used here under Open Government Licence from the Cabinet Office).
“The Ofsted staff questionnaire does the job”
It doesn’t, really. And it only scratches the surface, designed to help the inspector know if there is serious trouble amongst your staff, but it is not sufficiently detailed or rigorous to really be used as an ongoing tool.
“Obtaining responses is too hard”
Nope: just email your staff a special link and they can complete the questionnaire online in a few minutes. Works on any computer, tablet or smartphone with an internet connection.
“Collating and interpreting the responses is too hard”
Nope. With SchoolStaffSurveys you’ll get smart graphs, in the same familiar style as Ofsted’s ParentView graphs.
“I don’t know what to do with the findings”
Yes, you do. If you have got this far, you are an experienced school leader. It isn’t rocket science. Try it out and you’ll soon see which areas need your attention, and which aspects are humming along nicely.
“I don’t have the budget”
You do. Your school will be spending hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of pounds a year on staff salaries. Spending £100 on helping you manage them is well worth it.
“My staff speak openly to me. I don't need a survey."
Maybe the schools I've experienced are unusual, but I'm amazed at how reluctant education people are to speak openly, compared to other modern workplaces. If your survey shows you nothing you didn't know already, no harm done. But you might find out things you didn't know. That's a good thing.
P.S. 10 more reasons to use SchoolStaffSurveys.com
Free to try and low cost to run (fixed £100 per questionnaire, not per staff member)
Collect unlimited responses to each questionnaire
Safe, secure, everything backed up
No contract, just pay as you go
SchoolStaffSurveys was set up by an active school governor (former Chair of Governors who oversaw a school’s transition from RI to Good, through four different Headteachers)
Staff questionnaires are important for Ofsted
Quick and easy for staff to respond on any computer, tablet or smartphone
Responses presented as easy-to-interpret graphs, in a similar style to the Ofsted ParentView questionnaire
We use industry-standard 256-bit encryption to keep your data safe
Outstanding schools regularly survey their staff. Join them.
Read on. Staff questionnaires build trust and engagement. This is important for lots of reasons:
Staff satisfaction
Have you ever met a great teacher who hated their job? If your staff are happy and engaged they are much more likely to become great teachers.
Innovation
Staff who feel engaged are more likely to be prepared to try, and suggest, new approaches and techniques.
Retention
Teachers who leave a school often don’t tell you much about why. Find out before people are thinking of leaving what their concerns are.
Recruitment
If you build a reputation as a school that listens to its teachers, you will find it easier to attract the best talent. If you want to, you could even publish your questionnaire results for prospective candidates to read.
