Dear colleague,
On Monday 4 November we will be launching our Staff Survey 2024.
You will receive an email invitation to participate from messenger@peachymondays.com which will contain a secure link for you to access the survey online. Please look out for the email in your University email inbox.
We are undertaking the survey to provide you with the opportunity to share your views about aspects of working for the University. The University is genuinely committed to understanding how you feel about working for the University and putting in place an action plan for positive change.
Your views are important and will help to guide the future direction and success of our University. It is hoped that the feedback gained from the survey will also enable us to identify good practice and help us build on that.
The survey will take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete, but you will have a month to complete it in and you do not have to complete it all in one session, unless you are using a 'kiosk' computer.
Further information about the survey is also available in the briefing presentation which can be found here. There is also a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) document which can be found here.
Confidentiality
Please be assured that all the data received is completely confidential and that you are free to express your views without concern that these will be individually attributable to you. We have engaged an independent agency, Peachy Mondays, to conduct the survey on our behalf, analyse the questionnaire responses, and report the results to us. They will ensure anonymity by never reporting on any group of less than five people. No one in the University will ever have access to any person’s individual responses.
In line with the 2022 survey there are two open text questions where you can express your opinion on what is good within the University and what could be improved. AI summaries of the comments will be produced by Peachy Mondays and these will be included in the reports made available to staff. Access to the comments themselves, or elements of them, will be available to relevant Working Groups and Committees and Line Managers, to ensure that the wealth of information contained in these responses can be used to gain further insight into important issues within the University community.
The majority of questions in the 2024 survey are the same as those in the previous survey. Peachy Mondays have a set of questions that can be benchmarked against other institutions in the Higher Education sector. Some of the University’s questions have been reworded slightly to ensure that the benchmarking is meaningful. We have included some extra questions and deleted others which were no longer relevant. A new feature in the Peachy Mondays software has also allowed us to include additional open text questions for staff to expand on their experiences relating to workload, and bullying, harassment and discrimination.
Completing the Survey
When you receive your e-mail invitation from messenger@peachymondays.com on Monday 4 November, it will contain a secure link for you to access the survey online. This will go to your University e-mail account. The online survey can be completed on a computer, tablet device or smartphone, the choice is yours. If you want to complete the survey in more than one sitting, please remember to use the same device to ensure that your previous answers are saved.
Members of staff who do not regularly access their University e-mail account will be given the opportunity to complete the survey using a QR code/Link. Access to laptop ‘kiosk’ computers will be available within Estates and Facilities to assist staff with this. Please note that staff who are using kiosk laptops will need to complete the survey in one sitting. A link to the survey can also be found in MyHR and posters will be available around campus with the QR code. Using either of these options will take you to a landing page which will require you to enter your staff number which can be found on your ID badge. This is to verify that you are a University employee only. Your answers will still remain anonymous.
If you haven’t received an email from Peachy Mondays with the link by Wednesday 6 November 2024, please contact Peachy Mondays by e-mail at support@peachymondays.com.
Sharing the Results
We will share the high-level results with you just before the winter break. More in-depth results will be available in the New Year and we aim to publish these at the earliest opportunity. The results will be used to develop appropriate action plans which will address the findings for both the University as a whole and more local School/Directorate arrangements as necessary.
Remember this is your opportunity. Your voice matters! No matter what your role is in the University, we all have an interest in its future, so please take the time to have your say. If you need to know more about the survey you should contact Sam Waldram, Senior HR Partner (Organisational Development) at sam.waldram@abdn.ac.uk.
Best wishes
Karl
Karl Leydecker
Senior Vice-Principal