GUIDANCE FOR CONTRACTORS - NHS STAFF SURVEY 2018 NHS STAFF SURVEY COORDINATION CENTRE - NHS Staff Surveys
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Contacts NHS Staff Survey Coordination Centre Picker Institute Europe Buxton Court 3 West Way Oxford OX2 0JB Tel: 01865 208141 (9.30am – 4.30pm, Monday to Friday) Fax: 01865 208101 E-mail: nhsstaffsurvey@surveycoordination.com Website: www.nhsstaffsurveys.com Key personnel Jenny King Caroline Killpack Rory Corbett Firona Roth Mariann Novak Steve Sizmur Page 2
Contents 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 3 2 Key changes to the NHS Staff Survey for 2018 ...................................................... 4 2.1 Eligibility criteria .......................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Changes to variables to be submitted ......................................................................... 4 2.3 GDPR responsibilities ................................................................................................. 4 2.4 Online survey websites ............................................................................................... 4 2.5 Providing list of participating organisations ................................................................. 4 2.6 New guidance sections ............................................................................................... 4 2.7 Clarifications to the guidance ...................................................................................... 4 3 Summary of minimum survey requirements .......................................................... 5 4 Survey timetable....................................................................................................... 6 5 Mandatory minimum fieldwork period .................................................................... 8 6 Online or mixed mode eligibility criteria ................................................................. 9 6.1 Criteria for organisations that want to run the survey online or mixed mode ............... 9 7 Improving response rates ...................................................................................... 11 7.1 Confidentiality concerns............................................................................................ 11 7.2 Incentives ................................................................................................................. 11 7.3 Online surveys: email deliverability ........................................................................... 12 8 The Questionnaire .................................................................................................. 13 8.1 Core Questions ........................................................................................................ 13 8.2 Optional values question .......................................................................................... 14 8.3 Additional Question Modules .................................................................................... 14 8.4 Local questions ........................................................................................................ 15 9 Questionnaire specifications................................................................................. 16 9.1 Paper........................................................................................................................ 16 9.2 Envelopes................................................................................................................. 16 9.3 Online ....................................................................................................................... 16 10 Covering letters / emails and reminders ............................................................... 19 10.1 Paper covering and reminder letters ......................................................................... 19 10.2 Online covering and reminder emails........................................................................ 19 10.3 Email subject lines .................................................................................................... 20 10.4 Chief Exec letters / emails ........................................................................................ 20 11 Breakdown of results by directorate / department / site...................................... 21 12 Preparation of Staff Lists ....................................................................................... 22 12.1 Who should be on this list? ....................................................................................... 22 12.2 Who should not be on this list? ................................................................................ 22 12.3 Format of the staff list spreadsheet ........................................................................... 23 13 Creating the staff sample or census file ............................................................... 25 13.1 The size of the basic sample .................................................................................... 25 13.2 Instructions for preparing the sample / census file. ................................................... 25 14 Final sampling inspection by the Coordination Centre ....................................... 29 Page 1
15 Distribution and receipt of questionnaires, and prompting non-respondents... 30 15.1 Distribution timing ..................................................................................................... 30 15.2 Taking receipt of completed questionnaires .............................................................. 30 15.3 Recording Responses: outcome codes .................................................................... 31 15.4 Calculating the response rate ................................................................................... 34 15.5 Weekly monitoring .................................................................................................... 34 16 Data entry and data transfer to the Coordination Centre .................................... 35 16.1 Data fields to be included in file submitted to Coordination Centre ........................... 35 16.2 Questionnaire data ................................................................................................... 36 16.3 Data cleaning ........................................................................................................... 37 16.4 Data checking........................................................................................................... 38 16.5 Transferring the data ................................................................................................ 38 16.6 Data transfer for organisations who change contractors ........................................... 38 17 Reports of the survey findings .............................................................................. 39 17.1 Embargo on results .................................................................................................. 39 17.2 Reporting free text comments ................................................................................... 39 Appendix 1 Eligibility criteria: why are certain groups excluded? ............................ 41 Page 2
1 Introduction The NHS Staff Survey provides an opportunity for organisations to survey their staff in a consistent and systematic way. This makes it possible to build up a picture of staff experience and, with care, to compare and monitor change over time and to identify variations between different staff groups. Obtaining feedback from staff and taking account of their views and priorities is vital for driving real service improvements in the NHS. All NHS trusts (foundation trusts, acute and specialist hospital trusts, ambulance service trusts, mental health, community and learning disability trusts) are required to participate in this survey. Clinical Commissioning Groups, Commissioning Support Units, Social Enterprises and other NHS bodies may choose to undertake the NHS Staff Survey on a voluntary basis. This requirement to participate may be subject to change. Page 3
2 Key changes to the NHS Staff Survey for 2018 Below you will find a summary of the key changes and clarifications made to the guidance this year. 2.1 Eligibility criteria Suspended staff have been removed from the exclusion criteria for the survey. Please note that because of this change relevant outcome codes have also been adjusted. In addition, several amendments have been made to the eligibility criteria for the survey to try and reduce confusion among trust staff that have to draw the staff list. Please read the instructions in section 12 carefully. 2.2 Changes to variables to be submitted Disability and pay band information will not be collected for the 2018 survey. These variables should not be included in the sample sent to the Coordination Centre. See section 14 for the full list of variables required to be submitted to the Coordination Centre for each organisation. 2.3 GDPR responsibilities Due to the introduction of the GDPR, the legal basis under which staff data is processed for the purpose of the Staff Survey must be documented. Participating organisations are responsible for ensuring their compliance with the GDPR. A summary of how to manage the NHS Staff Survey in line with the GDPR is available on our website here. 2.4 Online survey websites The Coordination Centre is now recommending that all contractors use HTTPS enabled websites to host the Staff Survey – see section 9.3. 2.5 Providing list of participating organisations The survey timetable has been updated to give organisations a deadline to appoint a contractor and for contractors to provide a list of participating organisations they are working with to the Coordination Centre – see section 4. 2.6 New guidance sections There are three new sections to the guidance this year covering requirements around envelopes for postal surveys (section 9.2), the embargo on organisations sharing results prior to the publication of the survey results (section 17.1), and requirements on reporting free text comments (section 17.2). 2.7 Clarifications to the guidance We have amended the wording that outlines when to code staff that leave an organisation or become ineligible before the first mailing is distributed as ‘LE’ or ‘EXCL’ (section 15.3). We have added a sentence to clarify that surveys must be distributed to staff by the start of the mandatory minimum fieldwork period. This applies to both online and postal surveys – so postal surveys must be delivered to the trust before the start of the mandatory minimum fieldwork period to allow trusts time to distribute them internally (section 15.1). Page 4
3 Summary of minimum survey requirements All participating organisations must follow a standard methodology as described in these guidance notes, and must fulfil the following minimum requirements: An external organisation must be appointed to act as a survey contractor. As a minimum, this organisation should be responsible for receipt of completed questionnaires, data entry and editing, and delivery of this data to the Coordination Centre. The deadline for appointing a contractor is 24 August 2018. Each contractor must provide a list of participating organisations to the Coordination Centre by 3 September 2018. A self-completion questionnaire. Online, mixed mode and paper questionnaires must contain the full set of core questions (see section 8 for more details on the questionnaire). As a minimum, all participating organisations are required to survey a random sample of staff (see section 12 for more details on sampling). Questionnaires (each labelled with a unique staff ID number) must be distributed to selected staff with two reminders (if a paper survey) or six reminders (if online) being sent to non-responding staff (see section 15 for more details on the questionnaire distribution process). Minimum fieldwork period. Organisations and contractors must ensure that their survey has a fieldwork period of at least eight weeks. The closing date for the survey is Friday 30 November 2018. The data submission deadline is Friday 7 December 2018. Contractors must ensure that all data is submitted to the Coordination Centre by this deadline. There are a number of ways in which the survey can be adapted for local needs. Organisations may: Conduct a survey with a larger staff sample or a census (section 13). Select and add additional question modules (section 8.3). Include their own local questions on other topical issues (section 8.4). Please note that it is the responsibility of each participating organisation to comply with their responsibilities under the GDPR. The legal basis for processing personal data for the NHS Staff Survey is “for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller” (Article 6(1)(e)). The legal basis for processing sensitive personal data (e.g. ethnicity) is ‘covered in article 9(2)(h) under ‘the management of health or social care systems’. A document is available on our website, here, which contains further details about complying with the GDPR whilst participating in the NHS Staff Survey. Page 5
4 Survey timetable Please note, survey contractors may set earlier deadlines for organisations than those set out below. Contractors should liaise with the participating organisations regarding any such requirements. Section in Date (2018) Step of survey implementation By whom? guidance Contractors running the online survey must send a By 24 August Contractor 9.3 test link to the Coordination Centre. Agree with your contractor which survey mode Organisation By 31 August 6 (online, paper or mixed mode) is to be used and contractor Provide a list of participating organisations to the 3 September Contractor N/A Coordination Centre Contractors submit first weekly monitoring data 20 September sheet. These should then be submitted every Contractor 15.5 Thursday for the remainder of fieldwork. Contractors should aim to submit all samples to the By 21 September Contractor 14 Coordination Centre by this date. Pre-approach letter/email. If you are using a pre- By 1 October approach letter or email, send these to staff one to Contractor 10 two weeks before the first mailing. Paper surveys The following dates are for the mandatory fieldwork 10 and 15 period. It is strongly recommended that fieldwork Contractor is started earlier. By 8 October Initial mailing (including questionnaire) Page 6
Section in Date (2018) Step of survey implementation By whom? guidance 2-3 weeks after First reminder initial mailing 2-3 weeks after Second reminder (including questionnaire) first reminder Online surveys The following dates are for the mandatory fieldwork period. It is strongly recommended that fieldwork is started earlier. Time between mailings must always adhere to that specified in section 10. By 8 October Initial mailing By 22 October First online reminder Contractor 10 and 15 By 29 October Second online reminder By 5 November Third online reminder By 12 November Fourth online reminder By 19 November Fifth online reminder By 26 November Sixth (final) online reminder 30 November Close of fieldwork Contractor N/A 7 December Data submitted to Coordination Centre Contractor 16 Page 7
5 Mandatory minimum fieldwork period To increase the quality of data provided to organisations, a minimum mandatory fieldwork period exists. Organisations receive a greater number of responses with increased fieldwork time, as this allows for more time to notify staff and allow them to respond. In 2018, the survey closing date is 30 November 2018. Initial mailings must therefore be completed by 8 October 2018, which allows for the mandated eight-week fieldwork period. While the Coordination Centre understands that sampling queries and technical issues can slow the process of sample approval and survey mailing, the initial mailing must allow for a minimum of eight weeks of fieldwork. Survey contractors should work with participating organisations to ensure they receive the staff lists early enough to meet this requirement, allowing time for the necessary sample checks by contractors and the Coordination Centre. Organisations running the paper survey must ensure that questionnaires are distributed to staff by the start of the mandatory minimum fieldwork period. Please note: the eight week period is mandatory as a minimum, but, where possible, it is strongly recommended that organisations start their survey earlier in order to have a fieldwork period longer than eight weeks. There are two very important reasons to adhere to a minimum mandatory fieldwork period: Representativeness. It is crucial that all organisations have data that represents the actual demographic make-up of their staff. Shorter response periods are known to have a particular negative impact on response rates from certain groups, such as black and minority ethnic (BME) staff. Additionally, in relation to online surveys, staff members who do not ordinarily work at a computer as part of their day job may find it challenging to find time to complete the survey. Comparability. Due to seasonal variation and the length of time between the sample date and the survey date, any organisation that goes into field late will risk being rendered incomparable with other organisations that have adhered to the fieldwork dates. Delays can also cause higher rates of staff ineligibility, as more staff sampled on 1 September may have since left the organisation, impacting on the number of responses received as well as data quality, representativeness and usefulness. Page 8
6 Online or mixed mode eligibility criteria Organisations participating in the NHS Staff Survey are able to conduct a paper survey, an online survey or a mixed mode survey, combining paper and online options. If an organisation has staff with active email addresses, that organisation can, but is not obliged to, run the survey online. Organisations are encouraged to target paper and online surveys to the staff groups they deem most appropriate for each mode. This will allow staff groups that are known to respond better on paper or have limited access to their email to be sent a paper survey, even if they have an active email address. Each staff member must still receive only one type of survey. Organisations making use of this flexible mixed mode approach will need to provide mode information (i.e. paper or online) to their contractor along with their staff list. Organisations that wish to implement this approach are encouraged to engage with staff groups with lower response rates to find out which method is preferred, prior to drawing their staff list. Contractors may also be able to advise organisations on which staff groups typically respond better on paper. All surveys must still conform to the minimum sample requirements (see section 12); extended samples and census data will be accepted by the Coordination Centre providing the organisation adopts and adheres to a consistent approach. The Coordination Centre reserves the right to reject additional data which follows a different methodology to the basic sample. 6.1 Criteria for organisations that want to run the survey online or mixed mode Organisations must meet all the criteria below in order to be allowed to run the online or mixed mode option and have their data included in national reporting. Before undertaking an online or mixed mode survey, contractors must confirm with organisations that all the criteria have been met. If an organisation does not meet all the criteria, then they will be required to run the survey using a paper-based approach, as in previous years. The organisation must: Have accurate, up-to-date and active organisation email addresses for all staff groups to whom they intend to administer the online survey or online element of the mixed mode survey. Organisation email addresses should be used where possible, but it is acceptable for non-work email addresses to be used if necessary, for example for staff on parental leave, provided that staff have given permission for their non-work email to be used. Check the staff email addresses are up to date for 2018, even if they ran an online or mixed mode survey in 2017. Be confident that all staff access these email addresses on a regular basis and therefore it is feasible to expect to get responses to the survey from these email addresses. Be able to extract e-mail addresses from their Electronic Staff Record (ESR) system with ease. If the organisation has to cross-reference records or enter email addresses manually then they should not run the online or mixed mode option. Be confident that they can extract their staff list, with accurate up-to-date email addresses, as of 1 September 2018 and provide this information to contractors by 14 September 2018. Allow staff time to complete the survey in work time on a work computer (for staff who wish to do this). Be able to implement a communications plan to ensure that staff are aware that they will be receiving a link to the survey by email. Page 9
Commit to providing their contractor with updates to email addresses throughout fieldwork. Send written confirmation to their contractor, signed by their survey lead, that they meet all of the above eligibility criteria for running an online survey. Please note that staff should be assigned to one type of questionnaire only (i.e. online or paper). Contractors are required to provide the Coordination Centre with data throughout the fieldwork period identifying the number of staff who have so far never received a survey email (staff coded as ‘UN’ – see section 15.3 for further details). The Coordination Centre will monitor this data to identify organisations that have a high level of undelivered surveys. Data quality can be substantially impacted by an organisation having a high proportion of staff who never receive a survey email. Therefore, if organisations do not act to resolve this issue by providing their contractor with updated email addresses they may be required to run a mixed- mode, or paper only, survey the following year. The Coordination Centre will only accept data from organisations that issue the correct number of reminders to non-responding staff and follow all other requirements of the methodology set out in this guidance. Page 10
7 Improving response rates Achieving a high response rate to the NHS Staff Survey is very important for the quality and utility of the findings, as the higher the survey response rate, the more confident we can be that the survey findings are representative of NHS staff as a whole, and the more use can be made of the data at trust level. Non-responding staff may have different characteristics and views from staff who do respond, so the higher the proportion of staff who respond, the higher the probability that the survey findings are a true reflection of staff views as a whole. Some information about increasing response rates is provided below, and further resources are available in the ‘improving response rates’ section of the NHS Staff Survey website at www.nhsstaffsurveys.com/Page/1058/Survey-Documents/Survey-Documents/. 7.1 Confidentiality concerns One of the key barriers to achieving good response rates is concern among staff members about the confidentiality of the survey and the need for the bar code on the questionnaire. It is therefore recommended that all organisations include information about the following in their communications to staff, and that managers are encouraged to discuss this with staff using the template responses below: Q: If I fill in the questionnaire, will my response be kept confidential? A: Yes. You will post your completed questionnaire directly to the independent survey contractor appointed by . does not have access to the questionnaires or to any personal data (including names and addresses). The report that is sent back to presents the survey findings in summary form, and does not reveal the identity of the staff surveyed. Q: Why does the questionnaire need an identification number and bar code? A: You have been given a unique identification (ID) number so that your name and work contact details are not on the questionnaire. Survey contractors use the ID numbers to ensure that reminder letters are only sent to staff who have not returned a questionnaire. As staff return their completed questionnaires directly to an external survey contractor, there is no way that anyone in a NHS trust/organisation will be able to link data with a particular ID number or individual. Organisations will only receive reports of the summary survey findings. If a questionnaire is returned with the ID number obscured or removed, data cannot be included in the survey findings as, without the ID number, it is not possible to assign data to the correct NHS trust/organisation. For further information, see the FAQs at http://www.nhsstaffsurveys.com/ or contact the Coordination Centre on 01865 208141. 7.2 Incentives Incentive schemes can be used by organisations to encourage staff to complete the survey, and good incentive schemes can be a successful way of increasing response rates. The use of such schemes is at the discretion of the organisation, but organisations must fully consider the possible risks of any incentive scheme prior to implementation. Most importantly, if an organisation wishes to use an incentive scheme linked to survey completion by specific members of staff (e.g. a prize draw that rewards a specific member of staff for completing the survey) they should be aware this can sometimes undermine the perceived confidentiality and anonymity of the survey, as they can be taken to suggest that the organisation has access to the survey data. All organisations running incentive schemes, particularly those linked to individual survey completion, must take care that their communications to staff regarding the scheme do not undermine staff confidence that their responses are confidential and anonymous. Please note, prize draws MUST be handled by the contractor, and it is recommended that communications to staff note that this is the case. Page 11
In some organisations staff have particular concerns or suspicions about confidentiality in general and in such cases incentive schemes that link to individual survey completion can increase these concerns and lead to reduced response rates and less accurate responses. If this is considered likely, the organisation should not run such an incentive scheme. An alternative to incentive schemes that identify specific respondents is to use a scheme that rewards groups, rather than individuals. For example, incentives could be given to departments who reach a certain response rate, or to the department with the highest response rate. 7.3 Online surveys: email deliverability One of the key factors in attaining a high response rate if running an online or mixed mode survey is ensuring that the survey emails are actually received by staff. Email accuracy It is vital that organisations ensure the accuracy of email addresses they provide to their contractor for use in the survey mailings, and make sure that only active email addresses are provided. This checking process should be started in good time before the survey commences and should be repeated each year, even if an online survey was run the previous year. Following the initial survey mailing, there will be a two week gap before the first reminder is sent out. Organisations must use this time to provide correct email addresses to their contractor for any staff members whose email addresses did not work in the initial mailing (i.e. a bounceback was received). Please note, when survey email addresses are updated, it is strongly recommended that the organisation also updates this in their ESR (Electronic Staff Record) system. This can save a substantial amount of time in future surveys and also help with other organisation activity such as the Staff Friends and Family Test. Mailbox space Staff should be encouraged through internal communications to ensure they have sufficient space in their mailboxes to actually receive the email. This is likely to be particularly an issue for groups of staff who do not use their email accounts as part of their day to day work. Firewalls and spam filters To avoid survey mailings being stopped by firewalls and spam filters, organisations should liaise with their IT departments about these prior to the survey and make all possible efforts to ensure the survey emails are allowed through. To help with this process, it is recommended that contractors confirm relevant details including the email subject lines and sender email address that will be used with all organisations prior to the start of the survey. Page 12
8 The Questionnaire Please note that the following points apply to paper, online and mixed mode surveys. The questionnaire has three components, one of which is compulsory: A set of core (compulsory) questions, which must be asked in all organisations. Additional question modules (optional). Local questions (optional). If further additional optional or local questions are added, the questionnaire must be limited to a maximum of 16 A4 sides, although it is recommended that no more than 12 A4 sides are used. A questionnaire that is longer than this will have an adverse effect on response rates. The same logic should be applied to online or mixed mode surveys; introducing too many questions may adversely affect the response rate. All participating organisations must include the full set of core questions in their questionnaire, but also have the option of selecting the additional question modules. These can be put together using the Questionnaire Compilation Tool available on the Coordination Centre website (www.nhsstaffsurveys.com). Typically, creating a questionnaire should be done by the contractor appointed by the organisation. 8.1 Core Questions The core questionnaire is broken down into the following categories: YOUR JOB Questions about the respondent’s experiences of working at their organisation and in the NHS, including: team working, involvement in decision making, job satisfaction and how engaged staff are in their jobs. YOUR MANAGERS Questions relating to immediate managers, senior managers, feedback from management, communication and support from management. YOUR HEALTH, WELL-BEING AND SAFETY AT WORK Questions about the impact of job role on health, pressure to come to work when feeling ill, working hours, witnessing incidents and errors, raising concerns at work, physical violence, and harassment/discrimination. YOUR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Questions about the type and quality of the training, learning and development respondents have received and the quality of appraisals respondents have received. YOUR ORGANISATION Questions relating to the organisation as a whole, including whether staff would recommend their organisation for treatment or as a place to work, and whether patient experience feedback is used. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Questions about the respondent’s age, gender, ethnic background, sexual orientation / identity, religious cultural beliefs, occupational group, how long they have worked at their organisation, whether they have contact with patients, and line management responsibilities. This information is used to help understand whether different groups of people have different experiences of working in the NHS. Page 13
8.2 Optional values question As in 2016, organisations have the option of including an extra question on values which can be tailored to the organisation using the questionnaire compilation tool: Organisations can substitute more effective wording in place of the “your organisation’s statement of values” part of question 32a (the text surrounded by the red box in the example above). Parts b and c of this question are not editable. ONLY the text in the red box may be edited. If organisations want to edit this question further, or add any other questions on values, this cannot be included in the main body of the questionnaire, but should instead be done by adding a local question, which will appear at the end of the questionnaire. It is recommended that all organisations choosing to use this question do change the editable text, to ensure this is understood by staff, and to help make sure they are thinking about the correct set of organisation values, rather than professional or other values statements they may be aware of. If your organisation’s values statement has a name, it is recommended you include this. For example, if an imaginary organisation called Town Hospital NHS Trust had a publicised list of values that staff are expected to adhere to called the RESPECT values, they could edit the text so question 32a asks: “Are you aware of Town Hospital NHS Trust’s ‘RESPECT’ values?” Due to the variation in context and question wording between organisations, the findings from this question will not be benchmarked. Organisations will need to agree with their contractors the exact wording of this question and where it is to be placed in the questionnaire. 8.3 Additional Question Modules The Additional Question Modules can be added to the questionnaire. These cover: LEADERSHIP AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT This module focuses on a number of the principles found in the NHS Leadership Framework. This framework has been designed by the National Leadership Council to help NHS organisations develop the leadership skills of their healthcare staff, with the primary objective of improving patient care and outcomes. Questions relate to career progression, becoming a leader, and feeling part of the organisation’s vision for the future. The module was expanded in 2014 to include questions on “potential and development”. HEALTH AND SAFETY Promoting a healthy and safe work environment is an important domain in the NHS Outcomes Framework: ‘treating and caring for people in a safe environment and protecting them from avoidable harm’ (Domain 5). Questions relate to respondents’ working environment, safety culture, and the implementation of safety processes. Page 14
PATIENT EXPERIENCE This module provides a different approach to looking at staff and patient experience. Instead of exploring links between survey data sets, this module takes questions from the NHS patient survey programme and adapts them for use with NHS staff. Questions look at whether respondents believe patients are treated with respect and dignity, have confidence in the staff treating them, and are included in decisions. 8.4 Local questions Organisations can create additional local questions to add to the end of their questionnaire. These should be discussed with their contractor. For example, one area in which organisations may want to consider adding additional questions is health and well-being. There is a large drive across the NHS to improve the health and wellbeing of staff. Additional health and wellbeing questions may allow organisations to better understand the type of support required by their staff, the impact and the reach of their current initiatives and help to shape their thinking on what sort of initiatives and interventions to deliver in the future. They may also allow organisations to compare and contrast the impact and access across different staff groups, departments and demographics within their organisation. The Coordination Centre has created some guidance on constructing questions on health and wellbeing, as well as a number of recommended questions. This guidance can be found at: http://www.nhsstaffsurveys.com/Page/1058/Survey-Documents/Survey-Documents/ Page 15
9 Questionnaire specifications 9.1 Paper The questionnaire compilation tool described in section 8 should be used to create a PDF document containing the core and any additional question modules for a particular organisation. Any local questions should be designed on separate pages, and added to the end of the pages of the PDF document before printing to form a single document. The questionnaire has been designed in black, white and NHS Light Blue, and should therefore be printed in colour. Experience has shown that the overall look of a questionnaire, including the use of colour, helps to raise survey response rates. The NHS Light Blue colour used in the questionnaire is Pantone 300, or R:0 G:114 B:198. The light blue used for the bands at the top of each question is a 25% tint of the same colour (Pantone 290 R:196 G:216 B:226). Questionnaires should be printed as A4 booklets (i.e. an 8-side questionnaire would be 2 folded A3 sheets, stapled in the centre). All selected staff within an organisation should receive an identical questionnaire, in terms of content and format. The only difference between questionnaires distributed to different individuals should be in the ID number assigned during the sampling procedure (see section 13.2). If the ID (or barcode) is printed at the top of the questionnaire as opposed to the bottom, may alter the text on the front of the questionnaire to read “The barcode/number above is only used…”. It is a requirement that all paper used in the publication of the NHS Staff Surveys, including questionnaires and corresponding letters, must conform to government requirements for the use of 100% recycled paper with a minimum post-consumer waste content of 80%. It is further recommended that the paper used is uncoated and of standard A4 size (except for the questionnaires, which should be printed as A4 booklets on A3 paper). 9.2 Envelopes Contractors must use either C4 or C5 envelopes to post paper questionnaires. A concise printed message on the envelope is permitted in order to identify that it contains a staff survey. 9.3 Online Online questionnaire templates will be set up by contractors for organisations running the online survey. The templates will contain the questions from the core questionnaire along with any additional question modules and local questions that the organisation has requested. All selected staff within an organisation should receive an identical online questionnaire, these will be distributed using staff email addresses at the organisation. Each member of staff should be able to login and complete the survey from the workplace (or a computer elsewhere if they wish). Online surveys must remain open to staff throughout the fieldwork period if the staff member is eligible and has not responded, even in cases where a response is very unlikely (i.e. someone has left an organisation and further mailings have been stopped). All contractors running an online survey must provide the Coordination Centre with a test link by 24 August 2018. Contractors must receive approval of their online questionnaire from the Coordination Centre before survey mail-out. It is vital that online questionnaires follow the paper questionnaires as closely as possible and adhere to the following requirements: Page 16
The appearance of the questionnaire is very important. It should appear neat and professional. Colours should match those used in the paper questionnaire. o The NHS Light Blue colour used in the online questionnaire is Pantone 300, or R:0 G:114 B:198. The light blue used for the bands at the top of each question is a 25% tint of the same colour (Pantone 290 R:196 G:216 B:226). The front page should contain all the information featured on the paper questionnaire (except for the information on returning the questionnaire), including the NHS logo. o If desired, contractors may include their email address for queries, as well as their helpline number. o Any technical support information should direct queries to the contractor, as the Coordination Centre cannot assist with technical queries (e.g. passwords, new links). The contractor’s support phone number should appear on the front page, and, if possible, at the bottom of every other page of the online questionnaire. It is not permitted for contractors to include their own organisation’s logo anywhere on the survey. Fonts should be easy to read and consistently sized, with no special formatting other than that featured in the paper questionnaire. Use of underline, bold and italics must match that in the paper questionnaire. The buttons allowing respondents to move between pages should be sufficiently obvious. All response options and headings included in the paper questionnaire must be included online. Response options should appear in the same order and layout as presented in the paper questionnaire. Response options should be evenly spaced, with no category given more space than others. Response radio buttons/tick boxes should be sized with the font – i.e. if a large-print font is selected, the response buttons/boxes should also be large-print. If possible, the area around the radio buttons/tick boxes should be “clickable”, so that the response option is selected if the respondent clicks slightly outside the button/box. Question series should be on the same page and within the same formatted section, e.g. questions 4a to 4j should all be on the same page and together in the same box, as appears in the paper questionnaires. o This also applies to questions that are routed or filtered. Questions should be arranged in such a way so as to avoid placing too few or too many on one page. Too many questions on one page can cause non-response if respondents do not see them; conversely too few questions on one page can cause response fatigue as respondents become bored with too many pages. For questions that feature the “Other” response with a response text box, ensure that the text box is logically placed with the “Other” response selection, so respondents understand the two items go together. Any notes featured in the paper questionnaire (e.g. “Please include paid overtime, bank shifts, and additional paid hours on-call” on question 10b) should be similarly placed in the online version. Online questionnaires can utilise automatic routing, so that respondents are automatically directed to the next relevant question where the paper questionnaire includes instructions to do so. If automatic routing is not used, then the text and placement of routing instructions must match that featured in the paper questionnaire. Page 17
Respondents must be able to leave questions blank. Respondents must be able to go back to previous pages while in the process of completing the questionnaire. The online questionnaire must contain a free text comment box at the end. This should be preceded by the instruction: “If you have any additional comments about working in this organisation, please write them below. Written comments you provide will be passed to your organisation, so do not include any personal details in your comments if you want them to remain anonymous:” Online questionnaires should be hosted on HTTPS-enabled websites It is crucial that contractors receive signoff from the Coordination Centre before fieldwork begins, as the questionnaire cannot be used without approval. All efforts should be made to meet the above requirements. If any of these are not possible within the limitations of contractors’ survey software it is essential that contractors discuss this with the Coordination Centre and agree on a suitable approach in good time before the beginning of fieldwork. Page 18
10 Covering letters / emails and reminders 10.1 Paper covering and reminder letters There are four different types of letter designed for use in the survey: A pre-approach letter (optional): this should be sent out one to two weeks before the first mailing to inform people that they will be taking part in the survey. A covering letter, which will accompany the questionnaires and a reply-paid envelope (which should be printed with the contractor’s return address) in the first mailing. A first reminder letter to be sent to non-respondents two to three weeks later. A second reminder letter, which will accompany a second copy of the questionnaire and another reply-paid envelope sent to non-respondents a further two to three weeks later. The text for these letters has been prepared by the Coordination Centre and is downloadable from the survey documents page of the Coordination Centre website http://www.nhsstaffsurveys.com/Page/1058/Survey-Documents/Survey-Documents/ Certain parts of these letters require or allow editing by organisations and/or contractors. These are indicated on the template letters in blue text. A contractor helpline number must be inserted in the correct location. In addition, it is possible to: Use personal salutations in covering letters - i.e. addressing staff by name (‘Dear Dr Smith’). Please note that the decision to use personal salutations should only be made if the organisation is certain that ESR records are complete and allow for the use of staff names without error. Add a short paragraph to explain how the organisation has used results from previous surveys. It is very important you publicise the action you have taken; otherwise staff cannot appreciate how the survey can improve working conditions. Add information about incentives, if applicable. The final version of each letter must completely fit on to one side of A4. This includes all text added by an organisation and the signatures of the organisation chief executive and the Staff Survey Coordination Centre Chief Research Officer. All letters should be printed on paper headed with the NHS and participating organisation logos. The inclusion of the organisation logo assures staff that the organisation is supporting the survey, and provides clarity for any staff working in multiple organisations about which organisation they should be answering questions about. A first class reply-paid envelope must be sent with every paper questionnaire. These envelopes should be printed with the address to which questionnaires are to be returned (i.e. that of the survey contractor). It is a requirement that all paper used in the publication of the NHS Staff Surveys, including questionnaires and corresponding letters, must conform to government requirements for the use of 100% recycled paper with a minimum post-consumer waste content of 80%. It is further recommended that the paper used is uncoated and of standard A4 size (except for the questionnaires, which should be printed as A4 booklets on A3 paper). 10.2 Online covering and reminder emails Eight email templates have been created for use with the online survey: A pre-approach email (optional): this should be sent out one to two weeks before the first mailing to inform people that they will be taking part in the survey. An initial email, which will be sent out with a survey link. Six reminder emails to be sent with a survey link to non-respondents. Page 19
o The first of these should be sent two weeks or more after the initial email. This gap allows time for the correction of email addresses found to be incorrect through bouncebacks received following the initial email. o The following reminders should be spaced at least a week apart. o The final email reminder should be sent on the 26 November at the latest. The text for these emails has been prepared by the Coordination Centre and is downloadable from the Coordination Centre website (http://www.nhsstaffsurveys.com/Page/1058/Survey-Documents/Survey-Documents/). Certain parts of these email templates require or allow editing by organisations and/or contractors. These are indicated on the templates in blue text. A contractor helpline number must be inserted in the correct location. In addition, it is possible to: Use personal salutations in emails - i.e. addressing staff by name (‘Dear Dr Smith’). Please note that the decision to use personal salutations should only be made if the organisation is certain that ESR records are complete and allow for the use of staff names without error. Add a short paragraph to explain how the organisation has used results from previous surveys. It is very important you publicise the action you have taken; otherwise staff cannot appreciate how the survey can improve working conditions. Add information about incentives, if applicable. Emails should be as concise as possible. Contractors may use links within the body of the email to provide further information for staff. 10.3 Email subject lines Organisations and contractors are encouraged to carefully consider the subject lines used for all of the above emails which are sent to staff. It is important to make sure that these are easily understood by staff. Possible subject lines include: NHS Staff Survey 2018, or [Organisation Name] Staff Survey, or NHS Staff Survey: Invitation. Similarly, it is important to consider the email address from which the survey gets sent to staff, as if this does not look relevant, some staff may not open the email. Consideration should be given to the possible impact of subject lines and email addresses on the likelihood of emails getting stopped by spam filters and firewalls. Organisations may also wish to notify staff of the subject line and sender email address through internal communications, so that staff know what to look out for. 10.4 Chief Exec letters / emails In previous years, some organisations have opted to include an additional letter / email from their CEO or other high-level management. Such communications can be beneficial if they emphasise the importance of the staff survey to the organisation’s management and discuss the impact the survey can have. If such a letter or email is to be used, the following guidance must be followed: If a chief executive letter is sent along with paper survey mailings, the envelope must be packed such that the official covering letter is seen first when the respondent opens the envelope. If a chief executive email is sent along with online survey mailings, this must be accessed via a link embedded in the official survey email. It is not acceptable for the chief executive letter to be added to the bottom of the official email, as this makes the email too long. It is also not acceptable for the letter to be included as an attachment to the official survey emails, as including attachments increases the file size of the email and risks reducing email deliverability. Page 20
11 Breakdown of results by directorate / department / site The feedback report produced by the Coordination Centre can include up to two breakdowns by directorate, department, location or any other staff categorisation the organisation wishes to include. For simplicity, these categorisations are usually referred to by the Coordination Centre as ‘directorates’. In order to have directorate breakdowns included in an organisation’s report, sufficient information needs to be included on the staff lists supplied to the contractor and the Coordination Centre. Section 12 outlines how to prepare a staff list for the survey. If directorate breakdowns are used, each staff member must be included in one, and only one, of the categories in each breakdown. It is not permissible to leave this field blank for any staff members in the sample, if a staff member does not fit into any of the groups, then an ‘other’ category should be created. The Coordination Centre does not report results from any group if there are 10 or fewer responses in that group Therefore, it is important that enough staff are included in each directorate to ensure that there are a sufficient number of responses for results to be displayed. Organisations should take into account their response rate when making these decisions. Directorates submitted to the Coordination Centre must have a minimum of 11 staff. In general, we recommend a limit of 12 categories to a breakdown (e.g. 12 directorates, 12 locations). If there are substantially more than this, we suggest combining some of the smaller categories. This will ensure that less data is suppressed due to low numbers, and the organisation still receives useful staff group breakdowns. The maximum number of categories permitted in each directorate breakdown is 24, but this number would only be suitable for very large organisations. Care must be taken by the organisation and contractor to provide the Coordination Centre with only those directorate breakdowns the organisation wishes to be included in the benchmark report, which will be publically available. As part of the data submission, organisations/contractors must provide the Coordination Centre with the name of the directorate in question. The length of these should be sufficiently short to fit into the report format as it is; see the below image for an example. Due to the format of the reports, directorate category names should be 36 characters or fewer (including spaces). Longer names may be cut off or obscure other directorate names. Page 21
12 Preparation of Staff Lists One of the first steps in conducting the Staff Survey is to compile a list of all staff that are eligible to participate. Please note that preparation of this staff list is the responsibility of the organisation, not of the contractor. This section is provided to contractors to enable you to help organisations in the event you are contacted with queries, and to enable contractors to run the appropriate checks on staff lists submitted to them by organisations. If an online or mixed mode survey is being administered a valid staff email address will be required for each member of staff. Preparation of the staff list needs to be carried out by a staff member who is familiar with both the structure of staff records and Microsoft Excel. We advise that organisations ensure that staff lists are comprehensive and up to date by 17 August 2018. 12.1 Who should be on this list? All full time and part-time staff who are directly employed by the organisation on 1 September 2018 (even if the sample is drawn after this point); Staff on fixed term contracts; Staff on secondment to a different organisation, but only if they are still being paid by the participating organisation and have been out on secondment for less than one year; Hosted staff (staff seconded to the participating organisation from elsewhere, e.g. social care staff seconded from the local authority) who have a substantive contract with the organisation, but only if they are on the participating organisation’s payroll, are currently being paid by the participating organisation; Any staff member meeting the above criteria who is on parental leave (maternity or paternity leave). 12.2 Who should not be on this list? Staff who started working at the organisation after 1 September 2018; Staff who are on long-term sick leave (at least 90 days) on 1 September 2018; Staff on unpaid career breaks; All staff employed by sub-contracted organisations or outside contractors; Bank or locum staff (unless they also have substantive organisation contracts) Seconded staff who are not being paid by the participating organisation (e.g. social care staff who are on the payroll of the local authority and are not being paid by the participating organisation); Student nurses (please note, other ‘student’ staff, such as student health visitors and midwives should be included, as long as they are on the payroll and not classified as student nurses); Non-executive directors (e.g. typically “Chair”, “Chairman” are in this category); Staff who work under a ‘retention of employment’ (RoE) model – these are staff who hold a contract with an organisation, but are paid and managed day to day by an independent contractor. For detail on the reasons some of these staff groups are excluded from the survey, please see Appendix 1. Please ensure that: Page 22
No eligible staff members have been omitted from the list. This could potentially happen if, for example, staff records are kept separately for different departments or sites within the organisation. The Chief Executive should be included if they meet all other eligibility criteria. The list does not contain duplicate or redundant names and email addresses. All ineligible staff have been excluded from the list. In previous years, a surprisingly large number of surveys have been sent to staff no longer working for or not known at the organisation and to those on long-term sick leave. These surveys can upset the staff who receive them and will cost the organisation both time and money. It is vital that organisations ensure that staff lists are accurate and up-to-date before sampling. If human resources provision is shared between multiple organisations, then it is important that separate staff lists are created for each organisation, not one overall sample for the provision. The staff list for each organisation should be consistent with the instructions above. Please note: commissioning support units (CSUs) running the survey on behalf of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) must submit separate staff lists for each CCG rather than submitting one staff list as the CSU. Staff lists submitted as the CSU should only include eligible employees of the CSU itself. 12.3 Format of the staff list spreadsheet The staff list should be in Excel spreadsheet format, with one employee per row. The first row should be used for column headings (Name, Staff Group, Address etc.) and there should be no blank rows. Each employee should appear only once on the spreadsheet with the following information: Organisation ID (NHS trust/organisation code). Staff ID (generated from organisation records or assigned by contractor). Full name. Sufficient address details – this needs to be sufficiently detailed to enable a questionnaire to be sent to each individual via the internal mail. As in previous years, it is permissible to send questionnaires to home addresses of staff who do not have a permanent work address. Email address (online only) – for delivery of the online or mixed mode survey. Directorate, department or division (or whatever breakdown or breakdowns are required for the report). Up to two directorate breakdowns can be submitted to the Coordination Centre for use in national reporting (and contractors may permit more for use in local reporting). This information is not mandatory. Location (if the questionnaires are to be separated into batches for different post rooms). Ethnic background – as in previous years, this information is collected so responses from different ethnic groups can be monitored. As usual, the following coding should be used: White A British B Irish C Any other White background Mixed D White and Black Caribbean E White and Black African F White and Asian G Any other mixed background Asian or Asian British Page 23
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