The full question set was compiled into nine themes: purpose, our values, autonomy, enablement, leadership, reward and recognition, wellbeing, EDI, and engagement. For each question, respondents were asked to indicate their level of agreement on a five-point scale (from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’).
Over 2,300 respondents completed the survey equating to approximately 62% of the staff population, and we’d like to thank all of those who responded and shared their experiences. Your feedback helps us to understand what we are doing well and where we could improve.
Information about this year’s results
Overall, scores for all themes have shown improvements compared to the 2022 survey. The largest improvement has been seen in the Autonomy (+3) and Leadership (+3) themes, while other themes have seen a 1-2 point increase. The theme with the highest overall score was Purpose, which 81% of respondents responded favourably to.
The improved theme scores stemmed from increased scores in 19 out of the 20 likert scale questions. In particular, ‘I am able to achieve a good balance between my work and home commitment’ received an improved score of +4 percentage points and ‘I have opportunities to learn and develop in my role’ increased by +3 percentage points. The one question with a lower score was ‘I care about the future of the University’ which went down by 1 percentage point. However, 89% of respondents responded favourably to this question.
Loughborough exceeds the higher education benchmark in six themes: Autonomy (+6), Leadership (+6),Enablement (+4), Purpose (+2), EDI (+1 ) and Engagement (+3). However, feedback related to our Values, Wellbeing, and Reward and Recognition scored slightly lower than the HE benchmark, showing that there is more we can do to improve our staff experience. Therefore, although the overall results are pleasing, there are areas of improvement and focus that we can improve on as a University.
This year, an additional three questions were asked:
- I understand the values of the University
- I see the University’s values being upheld in the behaviours of others
- My School/Service is well led
76% of respondents stated they agreed with understanding the values of the University, whilst 50% agreed that they saw the values being upheld in other’s behaviour. Relating to leadership, 63% of respondents stated that they felt their School or Service was well led.
These additional questions were incorporated into the survey to enhance the clarity of the leadership theme, ensuring a clear differentiation between local and University-wide leadership. Additionally, two questions relating to our core values were included to understand colleagues’ awareness and recognition of the values across the University. These findings will aid and support the work of Project Expectations. The survey was managed by People Insight, an external consultancy who were able to benchmark the University’s performance against other UK universities, so we know how the Loughborough staff experience compares to that of other higher education institutions.
A dedicated webpage is now available to view which provides further detail on the results of the survey, with information that breaks down response rates across the Schools and Professional Services, as well as the type of responses that were provided for each question in the survey, including open questions.
View the full breakdown of results.
Next steps
Leadership teams in our various Schools and Professional Services should be sharing their results at a local level with colleagues in their areas. Each School and Service will have its own action plan that it will continue to develop to address the feedback received from the survey. The senior leadership teams within Schools and Services will be able to access a dashboard for their own action plan to help them identify, track and progress their actions.
From a University-wide perspective, we will continue to take action to address areas which scored less favourably. For example, Project Expectations has a dedicated workstream linked to reward and recognition which has implemented a review of the benefits we offer; undertaken a benchmarking exercise in relation to pay; began a roll-out of a new long-service awards initiative; in addition to celebrating the incredible work of colleagues across the institution with the annual Vice-Chancellor Awards. Other workstreams linked to leadership include reviewing the line management structure in Schools, implementing termly General Assemblies, as well as revising the approach to PDR.
If you have any queries about the survey results, please contact Renae Huggan-Broughton.