Our staff survey allows us to hear about what matters to staff. It’s important for us to know how you feel about working at Sussex so that together we can understand what we might need to do differently in future.
About the staff survey
The results of our surveys help leaders and managers understand what matters most to you. By sharing your views in a confidential online survey, we can understand more about the experience of working at Sussex and what you think we could be doing differently or better.
Data from staff surveys are also vital to our equalities work, as they allow us to evidence the targets we propose in our equalities action plans and demonstrate improvement.
Our latest pulse surveys were in 2022, on 25 April - 13 May and 3 - 21 October. You can view the results and ongoing action plans for the University and our Schools and Divisions.
The University is moving to a two-year survey cycle, and the next full staff survey is planned for autumn 2024 subject to confirmation by the People and Culture Board. There will be a number of ways you can share your thoughts throughout the year in between surveys. Focus groups were held in January 2024 to explore ideas with staff, and further information will be shared later in the year. Staff and students can share their views in a number of ways at Sussex - find out more.
The Staff Survey Working Group, currently chaired by Professor Robin Banerjee, is responsible for survey planning and strategy. The Group includes a range of academic and Professional Services staff members.
View latest survey results
See results of the autumn 2022 pulse survey.
Read the latest news updates
14 February 2024: Listening to staff between surveys – share your ideas and feedback online by 8 March
7 December 2023: Staff survey update and focus groups in January
View case studies
Find out how Schools and PS Divisions are using survey feedback to improve the staff experience at Sussex.
What difference will my views make?
A strong response rate means we can be confident that we are hearing a meaningful representation of views. Everyone’s views matter, including yours.
Are responses managed in confidence?
Yes. We complete data protection checks on the process and on our survey provider to ensure that your data is held and managed in line with legislation.
We know that a lot of work has taken place to explore results from the previous survey in more detail. We also understand that some concern has been expressed about confidentiality of responses and/or any comments made. This appears to have led to some respondents not completing the demographic data.
Our staff survey operates on what is termed the ‘rule of 10’ meaning no departmental results for groups of fewer than 10 people are released. In order to ensure that no assumptions can be made about individual responses, results for any department or work-group of fewer than people are ‘rolled up’ and included in a higher level grouping.
We ask for demographic data at the end of the survey not to identify participants but so that we can identify any patterns that may need addressing. Without that data, we may understand that there is dissatisfaction, but be unclear as to what we can do or how to explore further.
Read more about what happens to your response data when you complete the staff survey.
About the results and action plans
Each School and Division updates their ongoing action plan to take forward any themes that emerge from their survey. We also publish an updated UET action plan. Changes and trends in staff survey results are monitored regularly by the People and Culture Board, the University’s Executive Team (UET), Strategic Performance and Resources Committee and Council.
How we share the survey results
- The results are shared with the University Leadership Team (ULT)
- Survey data is available to trained dashboard users in each School and Division
- University-level results are shared with all staff, and Heads of School and Divisional Directors share their local results with teams for discussion and local action planning. Local teams are also asked to suggest University-level priorities
- Ongoing University-level, Professional Service divisional and School action plans are updated and shared with all staff
Past surveys
See the results of all surveys below. You’ll need to log in with your normal staff sign-in credentials to see these pages:
- 2022 staff survey results
- 2021 staff survey results
- 2018 staff survey results
- 2016 staff survey results
- 2015 interim staff survey results
- 2014 staff survey results.
Feedback
If you wish to offer feedback on the staff survey, you can email the Organisational Development team at od@sussex.ac.uk.