Communications Survey Results

In August a survey was conducted of BJBS staff regarding communications across the faculty. Below are the results of the survey. These results will feed into the faculty’s communication plan and will be reflected in future faculty communications. Thank you to all those who took time to do the survey.

Key findings

• There was demand for more face-to-face opportunities with executive staff.
• Emails were the preferred mode of communications.
• There was a clear preference for greater opportunities for two-way forms of communications.
• Communications should have a clear call to action.
• Newsletter and Blog seen as effective forms of communication, but awareness of the Bulletin was low.
• Some explanation of the purpose of each mode of communication (Blog, Newsletter and Bulletin) is needed.
• Divide information into priorities. Needed to know and of interest only.

How could the faculty communicate important changes and updates?
Answered: 62 Skipped: 30

The main themes identified in these responses included:

•Email is favoured approach for distributing information.

•Two-way forms of communication opportunities were highly favoured.

•Visits by management and leadership team reoccurred as a prefered option for communication

•Newsletter was cited as an effective means of communication.

What other technological platforms should the faculty use to communicate with staff?

Answered: 46 Skipped: 46

The main themes identified in these responses included:

•Emails and Teams listed as suitable forms of communications.

•Blog was also reported as an effective means of communication

•Simplified processes were needed in communications.

Do you have any other suggestions for ways that the faculty could improve communication?
Answered: 40 Skipped: 52

Key themes in responses

Specific comments themed

More Face to Face	Two Way Communication	Frequency and style of communication	Content
Faculty Leadership retreat, and whole of School meetings	More opportunities for 2 way communication	Maybe if there is a substantial number of pieces of information daily that needs to be distributed, there could be a bulletin in the morning and one in the afternoon.	More input from the Faculty admin team, staffing updates, secondment opportunities etc.
Senior staff should be seen on campus regularly and even host drop-in sessions	Host open forums	One stop shop website with all the information there, and a link sent out each month or fortnight with the updates that have occurred since the last update email.	Maybe divide it into priorities – e.g. ‘everyone needs to know’ and ‘interesting’
Executive to regularly “visit” Schools	Monthly or Bi-monthly Town Hall would be helpful.	Coordinate with other levels, to minimize time requirements. If I read every single newsletter, bulletin, update, forum, etc. that alone would exceed my admin workload by 2x. In many cases, the information is non-vital and repeated at multiple layers. Moreover, emails/newsletters do not actually help staff feel connected or that they know what is happening. Face to face or zoom meetings are much better.	We seem to only communicate events (important) like Foundation Day, NAIDOC etc. We need to see more communications on what we do as our core business within the Faculty.
	An informal ecocktail party on a Friday night with the Dean might be nice. An online celebration of Faculty-level achievements could be good. An online panel discussion that is not a ‘set up’ on important policy decisions; we’re a bit tired of having our questions vetted or pushed to ‘let’s take that offline’.	School of Business HOS sends out regular announcements which are useful. I feel that this, in addition to the BJBS Newsletter is sufficient. I have no issue with receiving emails from Faculty. They are very welcome. The email burden (in my opinion) comes from other areas of the university.	Making sure we know what teams contribute to which activities/tasks so integral teams aren’t left in the dark regarding changes/inclusions/exclusions etc.
		The ‘Bulletin’ is confusing – there is a blog/newsletter, a bulletin. It is random and unclear what are the formal versus FYI information. Just format emails. Images, desktop publishing. Make things look professional. A key thing would be summaries of actionable information.	Have one bulletin/comms channel to update everyone. Clear headings about the topic, blurb info that may direct to a link for further info. In relation to staff profiles. There used to be a section in the old CSU monthly billboard that would advise, welcomes, farewells and congratulations regardless what position level.
		I prefer email – one stop shop The BJBS Newsletter in its current form is very ‘clunky’ to navigate – not particularly user-friendly – is the a better format we can use?