Edurio

Using surveys to uncover staff thoughts - The Diocese of Coventry Multi Academy Trust

Before working with Edurio, what challenges were you and your team at CovMAT facing?

When I joined the trust in 2019, the trust didn’t really have a written down strategy. So firstly, we decided to speak to all the stakeholders, headteachers, chairs of governors and others. We wanted to hear more from our staff and know where we needed to improve.

We took time to develop our strategy plan and one of the goals within it was to become an employer of choice (which is probably something you see in most organisations), but we realised we didn’t know what employees actually thought about us. So, we decided we needed to ask them.

What was it about Edurio that made you think ‘this is for us’?

At first, I tried asking in person; however I soon realised I couldn’t get around 850 staff members, and was aware that this method would not be anonymous or give equal voice to all staff. So, we decided we needed to conduct a staff survey. One of the board members then recommended Edurio; after a consultation with Edurio, we chose to go ahead with their staff survey.

How did you find the process of working with Edurio?

Everyone at Edurio has been helpful and friendly. Everyone does what they say they would do. They’ve been a pleasure to work with!

The opportunity to speak to the Edurio team about the results we received at the end of our survey was beneficial rather than just handing the results to us and saying, here you go, off you go with it.

With the reports and executive summary that you get from an Edurio survey, it’s easy for us to pick up the headlines. It was really useful for the board reports, as you can easily scan through what’s most positive (in green) and least positive (in red) to see your trust’s areas of strength or most concern.

While it’s great to see the obvious stuff, it’s the data behind the data I think that you really need to interrogate. Looking into the different areas of the survey and how results differ for each year, school, and in comparison to the national data helps you know which schools are struggling and which ones are leading the way.

What has been the impact on CovMAT of using Edurio?

Edurio has given us the data to think about our strategic planning more meaningfully. The survey answered many questions we already knew we wanted to ask staff, and questions we did not even know we had. There will always be areas where staff are satisfied and dissatisfied, but before asking staff, you don’t know whether your assumptions on what those might be are correct. For example, when asked whether or not staff felt being in the trust was worthwhile, we found it interesting to see that while we scored in line with the national benchmark for that topic, our staff did not rate the benefits of being in the trust as highly as they’d rated other things.

After collecting our survey responses, we spent time looking through the data, communicated & developed an action plan that was approved by our board. We were able to look at areas where we scored more poorly and develop a staff wellbeing plan.

This plan had three main target areas, which came to light when looking through all staff wellbeing survey results:

1. Communication: Communicating more often and effectively with our colleagues;

2. Benefits: Raising awareness about the benefits of being part of the trust;

3. Wellbeing: Focusing on balancing staff workload and wellbeing.

Then we were very honest, and during a staff conference attended by all 850 staff members, we talked through the results, and outlined the areas we’d highlighted for us to focus on. Following this, individual schools and headteachers were then able to develop individualised action plans using their unique data.

Our trustees have been interested to see all the data we have collected and find it useful being able to compare it between schools and the national benchmark. Most importantly, they have been pleased to see all things the survey has brought to light that we didn’t know before.

We can now be more strategic when it comes to people planning, being led by evidence rather than by our assumptions about what our staff think, feel and need. Trustees are also happy to see some meaningful targets around the subject, as we have a baseline score from the first year, which should be better after a year of concerted effort on that topic.

Why would you recommend Edurio?

I would recommend and have already recommended Edurio.

If I were to ever move to a different trust (which I am not planning) one of the first things would be to engage with Edurio.

Edurio has given our trust a whole richness of data and enabled us to develop our staff wellbeing action plan that we couldn’t have done with any information we had internally beforehand.

In terms of the financial value of Edurio, I think it’s a no-brainer. If one survey’s data gives you enough information to change something, which enables even just one staff member to stay, Edurio’s service pays for itself.

I would recommend that all trusts do it, especially when you think of the costs of replacing one staff member!

Learn more about how Edurio works with schools and trusts →

Using survey data to identify and lead school improvement - EEEA

How did you decide to work with Edurio?

We had been using another company to do the surveys for about three years before we chose to work with Edurio. Returning to the same survey provider over multiple years was useful as we could see year-on-year comparisons for the trust, but we didn’t get any comparisons beyond our own organisation.

Without that external comparison, we could look at the results and feel that we were doing well or badly in a particular area, but without an external comparison, it was hard to know whether the results we were seeing were actually how they appeared to be.

So when Edurio was recommended to us, and we learned about their nationally benchmarked set of questions, we felt this would be really valuable to us. That was the main reason we made the switch from our previous provider to Edurio.

The other challenge with what we had been using previously was that those surveys had a lot more questions, so the important areas got lost amongst all the other questions. So even though we’d been using that survey for about three years, we felt it was time to review other options in the sector, and that’s where we found Edurio.

Lastly, the fact that it was genuinely anonymous and that Edurio is an independent company was a key factor in our decision. With the previous survey, you were given a code where you would log in, but we didn’t know how many times people logged in. With Edurio, we were confident we could reach all our members of staff and provide them an anonymous opportunity for feedback.

How did you find the process of working with Edurio?

This is our third year working with Edurio on a staff survey, and the process has been straightforward each time. In our first year we learned how the system works, made sure that the emails that we shared with Edurio were accurate and that the Edurio surveys wouldn’t land in people’s junk boxes. We also found out after we launched that one of our schools had done a staff survey a month before we did the overall trust survey, and so their return rate was really low. So we learnt from that.

The honest guidance from the Edurio team was really useful, around what would or would not work, how many questions we should include, and timing for the surveys early on. Edurio’s Customer Success Manager, Mikelis, worked with us throughout the survey and the support was key because he helped us work through whether we wanted to include bespoke questions, and guided us on best practice based on the research sitting behind the Edurio surveys. They’re not just questions picked out of the air, they’re questions that have been informed from work they’ve done over the years. Most of our bespoke questions we’ve actually taken out now because we see more value from Edurio’s set questions.

Mikelis has also been really helpful in that he will touch base frequently throughout the time we’ve been working together. Even when we haven’t had a survey coming up, he’ll reach out and see how we’re getting on with the results and see if there’s anything he can do to help, there’s been no issue that wasn’t able to be resolved. The Edurio team is always happy to help, joining meetings with our trustees and so on to come and present the data in a way that the team have always found really valuable.

And the platform itself is really useful. With Edurio you also have access to all your questions in a way you can drill down deeper and combine different sets of data. It’s really clear. I think the colours help you to see where you are strong and where you might need some more attention. It’s really easy to play around with for myself, my school heads and my trustees.

From a data perspective, one of the things that we were really keen on this year was to increase the participation in the survey. So we talked about making sure there’s no surveys running in the school at the same time, giving the schools quite a bit of warning that it was coming and I set a target for the response rate of 70% to introduce a bit of competition. We got a really good response rate this year as a result. And with Edurio’s system, it can tell whether a staff member has filled out the survey and send reminders to those who haven’t (without bothering those who have), which really helps to ensure we’re reaching everyone.

What has been the impact on EEEA of using Edurio?

We run the survey in the Spring term, so once we’ve got the results we can analyse what the reports say, and then communicate to the staff what we’re going to do and what we’re going to change going into the new year. We’ll look at what the priority areas should be: what were the strengths and what are the next areas we want to focus on and this forms the basis of our action plan.

As an example, we had feedback a year ago around communication from the Trust and the appraisal process. As a result of both of those, we changed the way that we communicate with staff and changed our appraisal process, and found that this year, the feedback was much more positive.

One of things that’s been really interesting for us is that, depending on where we assess the schools on their journey of development, we can see certain indicators within the surveys. We had a school that’s undergone a lot of change over the past three years, and is now in a good, stable position. Watching their survey results over the past three years we could see that transition from initial indicators of a lot of work going on, to now seeing really positive results.

And we’re now able to use that information for another school that’s going through a similar journey. So we’ve been able to look at it a bit more strategically, and also use it with governors and trustees to outline the process that we know we go through. Comparing that school’s current situation to the other school’s situation from a few years ago we see very similar data, so we can start to see what tools we deployed in the original school that might help us guide this school through their journey.

Our staff have been really receptive to the surveys too, they’re really open because it’s part of our culture. We don’t tell people what to do, what we do is influence thinking and question things. And I involve the heads in the discussions before we start the planning process so they know that it’s a key part of role as leaders, to capture stakeholder understanding and wellbeing.

The process is very much a cyclical one. People will respond to surveys if they feel they’re going to get something out of it. We say to them “this is what you told us and as a result, these are the changes we plan to make, and you can contact me directly if you want to have a conversation about thoughts and ideas”. So for me, it’s just a key part of how we work now.

And last but not least, the surveys come in handy when we have an inspection, as we’re able to show the areas of success and show that whilst we are not without challenges, we are aware of them and able to take proactive and evidence-driven steps towards improving them.

Why would you recommend Edurio?

Whenever I do any school improvement work with other trusts, I’m recommending Edurio to everybody as a way of capturing anonymous feedback via a group of independent experts. I’ve had feedback in some schools where they’ve been gathering anecdotes here and there but don’t have the complete picture by any stretch.

As this company is completely independent and you’re able to reach all your stakeholders, you’ll be able to use it as a really good piece of evidence to either support what you’re saying or look at development points.

And it’s cost-effective. I think too many schools choose to do surveys on the cheap, using Survey Monkey, Google surveys, but the biggest challenge they have if they’re going through difficult times is it can be so subjective, and it’s hard to ensure it’s anonymous. And you know, where’s the theory? What’s the research sitting behind your survey?

Finally, because the platform is really easy to use and easy to understand. You can really dive deeply into it, to prioritise what matters most, communicate that back to your teams, and then see how things change next year based on the efforts you put in this year.

Want to learn more about how Edurio works with schools and multi-academy trusts? Click here to visit the website →

King Edward VI Foundation

What about the Edurio Equality, Diversity and Inclusion survey made you think ‘this is for us’?

We began working to develop our equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy in March 2020. At that point, we had been undertaking some work related to EDI. Still, we needed data to contribute to our decision-making and evidence to help us understand our workforce’s experience. We had reached the point in our journey where we knew we wanted to make an impact quickly, but we wanted to ensure that our actions were data-driven and could be evidenced by our understanding of our workforce and their needs. 

We wanted to develop an EDI Strategy and a Roadmap for the Foundation that focused on the specific needs of our organisation. We wanted to understand where to prioritise to ensure that our strategy was focused on interventions that would make a real impact on our staff. Therefore, we decided to run a series of surveys, one of which was the staff survey with Edurio.

School improvement cycle: Collect evidence, then use it for school improvement

Knowing that Edurio has undertaken work with many other multi-academy trusts and schools nationally, reassured us that they are experts in the field of stakeholder feedback, and knowing that we would be able to benchmark our results against other schools was helpful in providing a baseline. Not only that, but as we were already working with Edurio on other surveys, we knew that they have a great team – we were impressed from the first time we met them and have continued to be. In particular, the support that Madara has offered has been fantastic.

How did you find the process of working with Edurio?

It’s been excellent.

Madara was very helpful in guiding us through the process and pointing us in the right direction. She helped us decide on the best time to run the survey, and how to ensure our EDI survey complimented our wider staff engagement survey, so that the strategies we were putting in place for staff wellbeing took into account EDI and vice versa.

The platform is also really useful and user-friendly. It’s intuitive and senior leaders across our Trust can also engage easily to understand their results. The platform is clearly laid out, and provides an opportunity to compare your data to the average responses of other MATs. The platform also allows you to filter and look at specific schools or staff members with specific protected characteristics, and really drill down into the detail of the responses. The platform provides an opportunity to review both qualitative and quantitative data anonymously. 

Edurio platform view for organisations that have purchased the Pupil Safeguarding Survey

Having that large evidence base allows us to make decisions with confidence, as we see that the data is telling us we need to take action in a particular area, look at a topic in more detail, and so on. The data alone doesn’t tell us all the answers, but where it doesn’t, it helps us formulate the next steps we need to take to find those answers.

The matrix view allows you to see where you are strong and where you might need some more attention

How are you using the survey to support your strategy?

The survey provided useful insight into areas where staff were feeling less confident and where we needed to focus our interventions.  Also, the survey provides an opportunity for staff to provide feedback and to help us to gain a deeper understanding of the risks, issues, and developmental areas that we needed to address. 

As a result of this and a number of other surveys and from holding focus groups with groups of staff, we have designed and implemented our new EDI Strategy and Action Plan.  We have also built an EDI resources hub, undertaken learning and development programmes across the Foundation and have developed a number of short and longer-term strategic objectives that we are now working to progress. 

We’ve got plans to make more use of the survey going forwards too. As the survey helped us to understand the experience of our staff in more detail, it also opened up some questions we wanted to investigate further. Looking at staff members with different protected characteristics, we discovered we have more questions that need exploring and we’ll be setting working groups next year to explore the experience of different groups in more detail; now we have the data, we want to understand the experience of different staff groups. 

We will be looking to rerun the survey in the future, to test one dataset against the other and see how the baseline results have changed following our work on the EDI strategy.

Why would you recommend Edurio?

I’ve recommended Edurio to other organisations. The fact that they’ve built a national data set and they’re working with a lot of MATs is very useful, this is because it provides a benchmark and a sense of how your organisation compares to others. Being able to conduct a comparison of other schools results is a useful indicator of how we’re doing and the areas where we need to focus.

Edurio is a proactive organisation that’s is making good headway within the sector. Their continued growth within the sector means that the benchmarks they’re building will continue to grow and deliver more valuable insight.

United Learning - Stakeholder Feedback