Staff Experience Survey

Staff Experience Survey 2023

Have Your Say

On this page, find out what you can expect from this year’s Staff Experience Survey and how your feedback can make a difference.

The survey will open on 25 April and close on 19 May. 

An external company, People Insight, will conduct the survey again this year.  They will email individual members of staff directly, inviting them to take part in the survey through a personalised link. They will then analyse and anonymise responses before the data is shared with the University.  This will ensure confidentiality and, we hope, help staff feel confident in sharing their experiences of working at the University openly and honestly.

The survey should take approximately 15 minutes. Participation is voluntary and no questions within the survey are mandatory. 

We hope that you will take the time to respond to the survey. Your feedback really does make a difference and can influence departmental, divisional and institutional planning.  What you tell us will be used to help us build on our successes and shape plans to ensure that Oxford is an attractive and inclusive place to work. In turn, this will support our overall academic mission and our long-term success as an institution. 

Further information is available in our FAQs. If you have additional questions, please contact: support@peopleinsight.co.uk
 

The 2021 survey ran from 27 April to 19 May and was completed by 8,597 individuals, a response rate of 59%. 

Feedback and data from the survey was analysed by colleagues across all levels to provide a deeper understanding of staff experience of working at Oxford. A number of themes emerged from the data, which informed actions to improve staff experience at institutional, Divisional and Departmental levels.  

You can view the institutional survey results via:

More detailed results for staff in different demographic groups are provided on the 2021 results webpage (SSO required).

Survey results were considered by Personnel Committee, as part of its annual agenda-setting exercise. The key themes of focus for improving employee satisfaction were:  

  • Career development
  • Inclusion; and
  • Wellbeing and the sense of being valued. 

The area that was of greatest cause for concern was workload, with only 51% of staff agreeing that they could meet the requirements of their job without regularly working excessive hours: the issue was particularly acute among Associate Professors, with only 14% agreement.

The Equality and Diversity Panel considered the results through an equality lens, and agreed that while there were some small differences between demographic groups, by far the most important variable is department, with wide disparities in satisfaction and experience evident across all divisions. However, some demographic groups were consistently less positive than others, particularly disabled staff and those who had experienced mental ill-health in the last year.

You can read more about other priorities in this blog: staff.admin.ox.ac.uk/article/new-ways-of-working-and-hr-priorities