Advancement · School Operations

Ask staff how it is going.
Then show them you listened.

A staff survey earns trust when it protects anonymity, reports results plainly and leads to one or two visible changes. Print the survey from your items, enter each item’s percent favorable when the results are in, and the tool works out the response rate and the low points, holds back any item with too few answers to report safely and keeps the follow-through steps in front of you.

Set up a staff surveyWhat you get
$12one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $12

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the School operations toolkit, $49 for 52 items.

Staff surveys

The worked example is made up: a middle school where workload is the low point, a small support-staff group and an elementary school with a low response. Saved on this device only.

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What you get

Advancement · School Operations$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
A record per staff survey: school, term, who was invited, invitations, responses, a reporting minimum and each item’s percent favorable and answer count, with five follow-through checks. Prints the survey; works out the response rate, average percent favorable and strongest and weakest items; flags low response, items under 60 percent favorable and items below the reporting minimum.
Who it is for
Principals, heads of school, operations and HR leads, and school leadership teams.
Format
Browser tool with a saved record per survey. Prints the anonymous staff survey, one survey’s results, every survey in a table or a blank form; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the School operations toolkit ($49) and the Advancement Suite pass ($99), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The School Operations space in Caveat Advancement.
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Choose a few items and keep them.
  2. Print or copy the survey.
  3. Enter percent favorable.
  4. Hold back small groups.
  5. Act on one or two items.

Set up a staff survey

Protect, read, act

Reading a staff survey responsiblyProtectReport groups of 5 ormore onlyNo names, no free textthat identifiesReadPercent favorable peritemLowest items first,strengths tooResponse rate beforeanythingActStaff pick one or twoactionsOwner and date foreachAsk again on the sameitemsReading a staff survey responsiblyProtectReport groups of 5 or more onlyNo names, no free text that identifiesReadPercent favorable per itemLowest items first, strengths tooResponse rate before anythingActStaff pick one or two actionsOwner and date for eachAsk again on the same items
Most staff surveys fail at the third step. The checklist in the tool keeps it in view.

Percent favorable

On a 5-point agree scale, percent favorable is the share who chose agree or strongly agree. It is easier to read than an average and easier to compare across items. Report it with the number who answered. The 60 percent line in this tool is a working rule for where to look first, not a published standard.

Small groups and anonymity

Survey vendors and researchers commonly suppress results for groups smaller than about five, because a small group’s answers can point to a person. Set your own minimum and tell staff before the survey what it is. When a group is too small, combine it with another or report only the school total.

Sources

  1. Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L., and others. The relationship between engagement at work and organizational outcomes, 10th edition meta-analysis (Gallup, 2020).
  2. Learning Policy Institute. Understanding teacher shortages and working conditions research (learningpolicyinstitute.org).
  3. U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey: percent positive reporting and minimum group sizes (opm.gov/fevs).
  4. Dillman, D. A., Smyth, J. D., and Christian, L. M. (2014). Internet, Phone, Mail, and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method, 4th edition. Wiley.

The worked example is made up, including the schools. Thresholds on this page are working rules for reading results, not standards; collective agreements or district policy may set their own rules for staff surveys. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.