Astrea

The challenge

Astrea was set-up with very strong vision and values that permeate through everything they say and do. Over the past two years a number of outstanding schools, as well as a number of those requiring improvement had joined the academy, and Astrea was keen to benchmark figures for employee engagement.

Part of Astrea’s vision and values is to #reachforthestars. Every member of the Astrea community is encouraged to cultivate opportunities to grow; the organisation is committed to inspiring staff and pupils to become the best they can be. So, it was clear Astrea needed to understand what made each individual tick in each of their 22 schools.

What did we do?

Astrea needed a very bespoke approach to get to the heart of how their employees were feeling in each of their 22 schools.

We listened to what was required and created a bespoke survey that would gain insightful data that could also act as a benchmark and help the organisation move forward.

The survey went online in March 2018 and was strongly supported by the Astrea leadership team, which helped deliver a strong take-up of the survey.

Within two weeks we had created a set of headline results for the management team, and upon their request delivered bespoke reports on a localised level to look at key issues.

Results

The results were very positive, and for some schools the results were outstanding!

• 94% share Astrea’s values
• 93% believe leadership team behave in accordance with their vision and values
• 91% are clear of what is expected of them in their role
• 87% have integrity in the organisation
• 85% are motivated to do a good job for Astrea
• 84% believe the job provides them with an opportunity to stretch themselves
• 78% response rate to the survey
• 77% employee engagement

The future…

Thanks to the data Astrea now feel in a place to move forward. The organisation will be working in partnership with the leadership team of each individual academy to create an action plan, which will be supported by group workshops from each school to develop solutions for areas that need to improve.

The organisation will also be focusing on industry-wide issues, such as work life balance, a problem faced by teachers UK-wide. As well as creating a strategy to keep all employees up-to-date with the fast-pace change of a rapidly expanding organisation.

In 2019 Astrea will take part in a further employee engagement survey to analyse the success of their development plans. Here they’ll reassess and create further plans for improvement in time for the new school year.

“The Survey Initiative created a bespoke approach for us that was very cost effective. They were also very personable and listened to me, they weren’t on the ‘sell’ unlike other companies. They wanted to provide a service that got to the heart of the matter and provided us with invaluable data which will really help move our organisation forward.

“I would definitely recommend them: great service, great value for money and a great team!”

Carl Bingham, Astrea

To find out more about Astrea, visit www.astreaacademytrust.org.