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As a result of feedback shared in the previous staff survey, the IT Services (ITS) and Sussex Projects team wanted to hear the views of their staff more regularly to help build a positive team culture following major changes to the division. Find out how their weekly pulse survey offers staff a way to share how they are feeling each week – and enables leaders to address issues in real-time.

Taking the staff pulse each week

Following the creation of the new ITS and Sussex Projects division in 2022 we wanted to take extra steps to support the onboarding of new colleagues who had joined us. More broadly, it was important for us to embed the new organisational structure and ways of working across the team.

Together with colleagues in Organisational Development, we identified a need to ‘take the temperature’ of the team more frequently to understand what’s going well and what could be improved. To do this, we started using Friday Pulse, a third party platform which asks every member of staff a simple question on a seven-day cycle; “how happy were you at work this week?”. Friday Pulse also encourages us to share short notes of appreciation and thanks, alongside frustrations. The weekly question is supplemented by a quarterly deep dive that gives a snapshot of how people are experiencing work across five key dimensions: Connect; Be Fair; Empower; Challenge and Inspire. We also benefit from being able to benchmark against other similar-sized UK organisations. 

Although individual scores are entirely private, teams are encouraged to talk together about their collective happiness scores and the notes that have been shared. Frustrations can include anything from the state of the fridge to problematic processes. By discussing these at regular team meetings, there is an opportunity to learn about and understand others’ perspectives. The Friday Pulse has been valuable for prompting reflective conversations, which can be challenging to make time for when there’s always so much to do!  

Making connections across the division

At the divisional level, we’ve been able to look at what our quarterly data is telling us and take steps to respond to emerging trends in real-time.For example, we noticed that while our scores for team relationships were consistently high and above benchmark, team cooperation scores were lower and therefore a focus for improvement. Our Team Connectedness Working Group has helped drive up this score with initiatives such as summer baseball matches, a bake sale and placing jigsaw puzzles in the kitchen. More recently we’ve launched an informal Lunch and Learn event series, an optional drop-in that colleagues can join in-person or online. The series features a diverse range of topics from ‘meet the team’ sessions to project updates and productivity micro-habits. 

Spotlighting work-life balance

After a particularly challenging period for the team, our work-life balance score was not where we wanted it to be. The quarterly report helped the Senior Management Team to maintain focus on this important aspect of staff experience. Awareness of the issue prompted greater attention to team conversations about workload. Alongside this, work is in progress to develop more structured resource management and planning approaches, and we are pleased that our work-life balance score is moving steadily upwards. 

Peter O'Rourke, Assistant Director, ITS Service Operations, said: “My favourite feature of Friday Pulse is ‘Frustrations’. These can be a rich source of feedback from colleagues about aspects of our services that are not meeting their needs or are misunderstood. Either way, they are an open invitation to start a conversation with a colleague and understand more about issues from their perspective.”  

For further information about these initiatives, please contact Clare Gryce at: c.gryce@sussex.ac.uk.  

About our staff survey updates

Case studies will be published each month highlighting how Schools and Professional Services Divisions are using feedback from the staff survey to improve staff experience. Read recent case studies from: 

• School of Media, Arts and Humanities  

• HR Division.
  

Look out for further updates on the Staff Hub next month.