Prepare for the 2024 survey

Survey timeline

Each step of the May 2024 survey timeline has been outlined below.

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• Late February: Survey process begins

  
  The May 2024 survey process begins.

  Communications will be sent to the head of each organisation, head of Human Resources, and survey coordinator.

• 5 March: Confirmation of your organisation’s survey coordinator

  Confirm the details of your organisation’s survey coordinator. 

  If you need to make changes after you submit your form, email people.matter@vpsc.vic.gov.au

• 14 March: Confirmation of hierarchies and custom questions

  Use the template in the next section on this page to provide your organisation’s hierarchy and custom questions. Use the same template with updates highlighted to provide changes during hierarchy validation.

  If you need to make changes, or get a copy of the hierarchy or custom questions previously submitted to the Commission contact people.matter@vpsc.vic.gov.au 

• Late April to mid-May: User acceptance testing

  
  Survey user acceptance testing begins.

  This is a chance to check your survey link and organisation set up.

• 20 May to 7 June: Survey runs

  
  2024 People matter survey opens for a three-week survey window.

• Early July: Results released to organisations

  
  Results and benchmarking reports are released, including:

  • dashboard reports online
  • PDF, Excel and Word reports available on the online reporting portal

• Early 2025: Results released publicly

  
  Online publication of organisation-level 2024 survey results.

Template for organisation structure (hierarchy) and custom questions

Organisations can add customised questions to their survey. 

There are 3 types of customisations that can be added to your organisation’s survey:

• Type 1 ‘organisation structure (hierarchy)
• Type 2 ‘custom demographic’  
• Type 3 ‘custom opinion’. 

Organisation structure (hierarchy) questions

Organisation structure (hierarchy) questions allow you to get reports for employee groups within your organisation, e.g., divisions, branches, teams, etc. We provide reports for each group within your organisation hierarchy that receives at least 10 survey responses.

Enter the levels of your organisation hierarchy in the ‘Organisation hierarchy’ tab.

Custom demographic question

Organisation can include 1 custom question in their survey to receive reporting which splits organisational survey results in an alternative way to the hierarchy. 

This custom question should ask about a unique aspect of working at your organisation which is not covered by the standard question set. For example, the site or campus an employee works at. 

Enter your custom demographic question in the ‘Custom demographic questions’ tab. 

Enter work locations in the ‘Other composition questions’ tab.

Custom opinion questions

Your organisation can include up to 5 opinion questions in the survey to gather results on specific areas of interest that may not be covered by the core survey questions. 

Enter custom opinion questions in the ‘Custom opinion questions’ tab. 

Make sure your organisation approves this spreadsheet before you send it to people.matter@vpsc.vic.gov.au. This form is due on 14 March 2024.  

Use the document below, you need to fill out this template as a table.

People matter survey hierarchy and custom question template (XLSX, 5 sheets)

How to promote your survey

Use this guide to help your organisation get the most out of the People matter survey.

The promotional resources and tips we’ve provided can be personalised to suit your organisation.

Promoting the survey tells employees that their voice matters and that your organisation is committed to workplace improvement.

It fosters strong engagement, as it encourages your employees to participate, giving you richer data and insights to develop a high performing and engaged workforce.

If you need help with anything in this guide, email people.matter@vpsc.vic.gov.au.

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• Tips to encourage participation

  
  It’s important to keep the survey front of mind during the survey period. To help, we’ve put together a list of ideas that have worked for other organisations.

  You can:

  1. schedule a time to do the survey as a team or business area
  2. organise an information session to answer survey queries
  3. share outcomes from previous surveys
  4. ask a senior leader to launch the survey with an official email
  5. ask managers and senior leaders to encourage participation in team meetings and one-on-ones
  6. ask people to share stories of positive organisational change
  7. identify survey champions at all levels in your organisations to help promote your survey
  8. promote the survey on your intranet and internal e-newsletter using key messages and images from the resources we’ve provided
  9. send reminder emails
  10. use the email signature banners provided, selecting the images that best represent your organisation
  11. display the provided People matter survey posters in walkways, elevators, bathrooms, and other communal areas.

• 4 weeks before your survey: start planning your campaign

  Step 1: Target audience

  Identify your target audience (s) and how you plan to reach them. Depending on your organisation, you make not be able to reach all employees in the same way. For example, some employees may be office based, frontline or mobile workers across different locations.

  Step 2: Brainstorm campaign ideas

  Schedule a brainstorming session with the team to come up with campaign ideas.

  Get started with questions like:

  1. How will you reach your target audience(s)?
  2. What are the key messages?
  3. What channels will you use (emails, meetings, intranet etc.)?
  4. What resources will you need? Online resources are available for you to use.
  5. What employees or teams could help spread the message? Who will be your ‘survey champions’?
  6. What activities could you do to encourage participation?

  Step 3: Create a campaign plan and activities schedule

  Once you’ve decided on your campaign activities, create a plan and schedule. You don’t want to release your activities at once. Instead, aim to build momentum by scheduling your activities in the lead-up to the opening of the survey and during the survey period. Remain flexible.

  Step 4: Start drafting materials

  Draft the promotional materials you’ll need to deliver your campaign. We’ve created key messages, templates, sample articles and more that you can personalise.

• 3 weeks before your survey: share your plan with senior leaders 

  Tell senior leaders and managers about the survey and why it is important. Share your campaign plan and delegate tasks based on your planned activities.

  Make special note of the:

  1. survey open and close dates
  2. activities schedule and tasks
  3. key messages
  4. anonymity protections and data collection statement

• 2 weeks before your survey: build awareness 

  
  Start rolling out your campaign to build awareness about the survey, why it’s important and how the results will be used.

  You could:

  1. have a senior leader send out an all-staff email
  2. send calendar invites
  3. mobilise your survey champions
  4. talk about outcomes from previous surveys
  5. reinforce that the survey is anonymous
  6. reinforce that the survey is independent.

• 1 week before your survey: step it up

  Roll out campaign activities and aim to increase the frequency of your messaging using different channels of communications.

  You could:

  1. share participation tips with leaders in your organisation
  2. provide key messages for managers and survey champions to share in meetings
  3. ask managers and survey champions to install the People matter survey email signature.

• When the survey opens: launch it and keep it front of mind 

  Have a senior leader launch the survey with an all-staff email supported by any other campaign activities you have planned.

  Continue to promote the survey using your communication channels.

  For example:

  1. promote the survey on your intranet
  2. post a link to the survey in Microsoft Teams
  3. mobilise survey champions
  4. update leaders on daily participation rates
  5. reinforce the importance of the survey
  6. send a reminder email before the survey closes

• When the survey closes: thank your employees and share the results and action plan

  
  Send an all-staff email thanking everyone for participating in the survey and advising that it has closed. You should also include key messages about what the next steps will be.

  Let your employees know when they will receive the survey results and what meaningful actions your organisation will take in response.

Promotional resources

Note: by downloading these files and images, you accept all responsibility to use them to promote the People matter survey to your organisation, and do not reproduce or use these images without permission for other purposes.

Suggested key messages

Key pieces of information about the 2024 survey experience.

Suggested key messages (DOCX, 5 pages)

Email templates

Email templates you can use for the survey to promote, invite and remind people.

Sample invitation and reminder emails (DOCX, 7 pages)

News article

A news article you can tailor for your intranet when you promote the People matter survey 2024.

Sample news article (DOCX, 3 pages)

Speaking notes

Notes you can tailor for your senior leaders when they’re speaking about the People matter survey.

Speaking notes (DOCX, 5 pages)

Presentation

A slide deck you can use to explain the People matter survey to your staff.

Survey overview presentation (PPTX, 13 slides)

Posters

Set of 13 posters you can use to promote your survey.

Posters – all other organisations (PDF, 8 pages)

Posters – health sector organisations (PDF, 5 pages)

Customisable design files

Set of design files you can customise to promote your survey, with instructions for fonts and placement of images or QR codes. File format is Adobe InDesign. Avoid using QR codes on material such as posters or splash screens placed in public areas.

Customisable InDesign pack (ZIP file)

Email signature banners

Set of 13 email signature banners you can use to promote your survey.

Signature banners – all other organisations (ZIP file)

Signature banners – health sector organisations (ZIP file)

Virtual meeting backgrounds

Set of 2 Teams virtual background templates you can use to promote your survey.

Virtual meeting backgrounds – Teams (ZIP file)

Promotional images

Set of 13 promotional images you can use to promote your survey.

Promotional images – all other organisations (ZIP file)

Promotional images – health sector organisations (ZIP file)

Campaign plan

A campaign plan you can tailor for your internal approach to promote the People matter survey 2024.

Internal promotional campaign plan – (DOCX, 2 pages)

How to use your online dashboards

Use this guide to help use your online dashboards.

How to use your people matter survey online dashboard reports (PPTX, 35 sildes)