Turning wellbeing data into action

When school staff are engaged in school decisions, it benefits the entire school community. It promotes a better learning environment for students, which raises student attainment and a better working environment for teachers, which increases teacher retention.

Ofsted and staff wellbeing

In the UK, a key judgement from Ofsted’s Education Inspection Framework (EIF), is the ways in which leaders engage with their staff and are aware and take account of the main pressures on them. It also inspects how schools ensure the education that the school provides has a positive impact on all its students. It reviews the extent to which leaders take into account the workload and well-being of their staff, while also developing and strengthening the quality of the workforce.

How are your staff feeling?

But how can you ensure and evidence you’re putting staff wellbeing at the heart of your school? Understanding how your staff are feeling can be tough to navigate, as it’s still something not all teachers feel comfortable talking about. You need to ask your staff what’s affecting their wellbeing and what underpins those feelings. Regular, short surveys can give you a good idea of what your staff think of specific issues in your school.

10 essential wellbeing questions

Staff Pulse, our staff wellbeing survey tool can help you to gather data to highlight problem areas but also engage staff to communicate how they want to make changes. In our free ebook, we shared our ten essential wellbeing questions to ask your staff.

Turning wellbeing data into action

Through continuous, short and anonymous surveys, Staff Pulse, can help you to track wellbeing trends across the year, create action plans based on real-time data and measure what has been achieved. Helping you to provide the right support to make sure staff wellbeing, retention and student outcomes are at the heart of everything you do

Two Staff Pulse features can help you turn wellbeing survey data into action:

Two-way anonymous conversations

With this feature you can respond to comments, opening up lines of communication with your staff and allowing an anonymous conversation to begin. You can offer help and advice for staff who've indicated they're struggling or stressed, showing your staff you're listening and trying to make improvements.

• Respond directly to staff comments, offering support

• Listen and act on staff concerns

• Improve engagement, as staff feel listened to

Check it out in action

"Our SLT are finding the ‘start a conversation’ feature of Staff Pulse really invaluable. It has allowed us to open up a genuine dialogue with staff members who can still stay anonymous while being assured that their points are being noted. It empowers staff to have very honest conversations with us that are unlikely to occur in person." Kerry Clarke, director of learning development, Beechwood Park School

Action plans

Staff Pulse helps you understand how your staff are feeling and develop action plans around any issues and pressures they’re facing within your school. Once an action plan has been put into place, staff can see that they’re been listened to and that they, and their opinions, matter.

• Specific comments on survey questions to help form the basis of your action plan

• View scores across each of the categories so you know which areas you need to prioritise in your action plan

See how to build an action plan

"I send the pulse to my staff every Wednesday. I read the results as part of SLT and note down any action points. We set up an action plan for 'communication' which was rated the least effective and gave staff chance to comment upon improvements. As a a result staff feel like they are listened to and have a say and we are actioning or providing reasons why some of their suggestions are not possible. As a result this has increased staff morale and the pulse rating for the school has increased. Staff and leaders like using the pulse and have recommended it to another MAT who are in the process of setting it up." Carla Bennett, headteacher, Sherford Vale School

For further information on Staff Pulse, or to book a demo, fill in our short form and we'll be in touch.