Track Your Progress

You have measured staff wellbeing and then taken action. How do you know whether improvements have been made and if staff recognise any changes that you hoped to see? 

You can see signs of progress by first looking at MAT and school data, in a structured way, as I am sure you do, including:

Staff Retention

The percentage of staff that leave each year across the Trust and in particular schools, as well as the central team, will tell a story. Is the number what should be expected or are you losing too many staff (or perhaps too little if you need new skills and energy. You will likely track this performance each term and / or year and make it part of Trust reporting.

You can understand more about why staff leave (exit interviews), as well as why staff are likely to remain in the Trust and its schools (stay interviews). The percentage of staff returning after maternity or paternity leave, the movement of staff around the Trust and number of staff being promoted internally are also measures you can use.

Staff Absence

Days lost to sickness and absence is another measure you can track and how this compares to what should be expected. You can also break this down to look at the number of short term absences, as well as reasons for absence, and again make these part of your regular reporting, as I am sure you do.

Staff Grievances

Disputes, relationships and grievances are also things to track. If these become a more regular occurrence, then this could also be a sign of wider issues that are affecting staff wellbeing.

Appraisal. Performance Management and Career Interviews

The number of staff achieving their objectives, outcomes from performance management interviews and how well career ambitions are being met are other areas you might track and report. All painting a picture of how well the Trust is meeting the needs of its staff and as a result its students and overall aims. 

You robustly track the performance outcomes of students, including final destinations, where six forms are included. Trends over time are also an indicator of the likely wellbeing and engagement of staff.

Staff Wellbeing Survey

Finally, and what you probably expected to read first is tracking wellbeing through a staff survey. This is covered in the DfE Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, through commitment 11. 

You can do this in a number of ways, though if you are going to track you will need to use the same questions, and if you want to benefit from the charter it makes sense to ensure whatever you use to measure is recognised within it.

Running Your Own Survey

You might consider this on cost or because you want to manage the questions used or process. If you have the right expertise and capacity, this is an option. Challenges can be staff not perceiving it as being anonymous, workload in delivering it, including managing invitations and achieving high participation, interpreting results and moving to action, which can take time.  It is also important to use evidence built surveys, such as the Health and Safety Executive's Indicator Tool (freely available and recognised in the charter) and ones with benchmarks, which can be difficult to find as a DIY option.

You can download our checklist to running your own survey and the 14 steps you should consider.

Survey Platform

You can use a platform from a third party that holds evidence based surveys - so a little like survey monkey, that you are likely to know, and that comes pre -loaded with survey questions and possibly benchmarks. Useful if you want to take a range of surveys - though important to use the same questions if you want to track.

Pulse Surveys

Probably the most common, the idea being it provides a regular temperature check of staff feedback, or as the name suggests, taking the pulse of the MAT. This can be very useful for leaders, who often like to know what is going on and if as a MAT you can respond quickly to feedback and take action, then this might be an option for you. 

The biggest challenge is where you cannot move quickly on feedback and so staff are continually asked the same questions, without seeing any change. As a result staff feel they are not being listened to, participation can fall or staff become cynical and start to see it as a tick-box exercise. 

Action Focused Surveys

There are also surveys you can use that go deeper into staff wellbeing, providing comprehensive reporting, and in some cases recommending actions. That is where Welbee focuses, as we recognise the workload in schools and the time it often takes to analyse surveys and to take action. These surveys look to do most of the analysis and heavy lifting for you, so you focus on the final action plan and implementation. 

Most importantly they allow you to track progress between surveys, for all staff and specific groups of staff, and in our case to benchmark your scores externally, and internally across your MAT. Look for measurement that was evidence built, is recognised by the DfE Education Staff Wellbeing Charter and aligns with Ofsted's Leadership and Management Judgement. 

Our platform provides all of this, using the Health and Safety Executive's Indicator Tool, showing how well your Trust meets their Management Standards, something that many schools will already be used to using as an employer.

Adding a wellbeing survey to track staff scores and feedback, alongside tracking existing data in your school, means you are far more likely to meet the needs of your staff, beyond the usual perks and Employee Assistance Scheme or Plan.

We would love to see whether what we do is a fit for your Trust and if you can spare 25 minutes, which I know is not trivial with everything you have to do, then that is all the time we need to share how we are helping hundreds of schools and Trusts. 

It's OK if you are still not sure and would like more information first - just email support@welbee.co.uk and we will share the features and benefits of Welbee and how these help deliver the evidence proven benefits of higher staff retention, lower staff absences, better financial performance and further raise student outcomes. All starting with DfE Staff Wellbeing Charter recognised measurement.