I analysed the results of the Staff Feedback Survey delivered by MOA Benchmarking (2022) to members that provide disability support services and I have shared the results here.

Exploratory data analysis

There were 3740 non-missing answers in total, across 27 categorical response questions in the survey. We can see, in Figure 1, that “How likely are you to recommend this workplace to others?” has at least two peaks, one around around 4 and the other around 7. In the net promoter score framework as described by Reichheld (2004), a person responding 0 to 6 is a detractor, a person responding 7 or 8 is passive, and a person responding 9 or 10 is a promoter. The employee NPS computed based on this question are shown in Table 1. While it is difficult to ascertain what is a good NPS for employees, a rough heuristic for consumer benchmarks is that above 0 is good and above 20 is great. However, in reality, what is good will differ by industry.

Figure 1: Survey responses visualised by column charts.

Table 1: The net promoter score calculated from the responses to “How likely are you to recommend this workplace to others?”.

detractors	passives	promoters	NPS
40	53	45	3.62

For questions on the scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree, most questions appear to have responses that centre around agree. However, the degree of left skew, indicated by a long tail on the left of the peak, differs between questions. For example, “Generally I enjoy my work” does not have a left tail, while “I am appropriately compensated for the work I do” has considerable left skew. Many other questions also have left skew. The skew is worth considering since a similar average but with greater left skew may signal greater discontent or disagreement, even if at the surface they appear to be equivalent.

Figure 2: Survey responses visualised by column charts.

To compute the averages and standard deviations the categorical responses were converted to integers from zero to one, four, or ten depending on the question. For example, Strongly disagree (0), Disagree (1), Neutral (2), Agree (3), and Strongly Agree (4). Another example is No (0) and Yes(1). The averages and standard deviations are shown in Table 2. I used the same mappings for the rest of this analysis when numerical data was required, e.g., computing correlations.

Table 2: The question number (#), average score, standard deviation, and sample size (n).

#	Question	Average	SD	n
1	I would recommend this workplace to other people.	3.06	0.91	139
2	Generally I enjoy my work.	3.23	0.65	139
3	I would like to be working for this organisation in two years.	3.07	0.93	138
4	There is good cooperation between members of my team.	3.15	0.87	138
5	I feel comfortable speaking up in team meetings.	3.18	0.75	137
6	I am appropriately compensated for the work I do.	2.77	1.01	139
7	My workplace helps me to maintain a good work/life balance.	2.94	0.86	139
8	I receive the education and training I need to perform my job well.	2.87	0.83	138
9	I am satisfied with the opportunities I am given to develop the skills I need to do my job and advance my career.	2.76	0.96	139
10	Management is committed to helping me learn and develop a career path.	2.73	0.99	138
11	I have had a performance review in the last 12 months.	0.61	0.49	135
12	I believe in the vision, mission and values of the organisation.	3.20	0.67	137
13	The management of the organisation sets clear directions.	2.85	0.84	139
14	The management of the organisation is fair in dealing with people.	2.83	0.87	138
15	I receive positive feedback from my supervisor, team leader or coordinator.	3.20	0.74	138
16	The leaders in this organisation take a person-centered approach.	2.95	0.82	139
17	The organisation has effective communication systems.	2.65	1.01	139
18	The organisation’s policies and procedures are clear, easy to follow and enable me to do my job effectively.	2.91	0.81	139
19	Management keep staff informed of changes in the disability support industry, legislation, and organisational policies and procedures.	2.99	0.79	139
20	Management is committed to implementing continuous improvements to the way support services are delivered.	2.94	0.82	139
21	My suggestions for improvements are valued.	2.81	0.85	139
22	I have the opportunity to contribute to improving the service.	2.87	0.89	137
23	The organisation is committed to creating a safe and healthy environment for staff, participants, and visitors.	3.10	0.78	140
24	The organisation consults with staff to identify and resolve work health and safety risks.	2.87	0.82	140
25	I have access to the equipment and resources I need to do my job well.	3.04	0.84	140
26	This is a safe workplace.	3.14	0.78	140
27	How likely are you to recommend this workplace to others?	7.20	2.32	138

Correlation analysis

A pairs plot is shown for a selection of questions in Figure 3. We can see there is strong statistical evidence that there is a correlation between the question responses. The jittered scatter plots also give a strong visual impression that there is a correlation.

Figure 3: A pairs plot comparing the response in different questions from the same person. The observations have been jittered to give an idea of density.

From all 27 questions, the top five highest pairwise Pearson correlation coefficients are shown in Table 3.

Table 3: The five highest correlations.

Question 1	Question 2	Correlation
I am satisfied with the opportunities I am given to develop the skills I need to do my job and advance my career.	Management is committed to helping me learn and develop a career path.	0.82
The management of the organisation is fair in dealing with people.	The management of the organisation sets clear directions.	0.81
Management is committed to implementing continuous improvements to the way support services are delivered.	The leaders in this organisation take a person-centered approach.	0.76
The leaders in this organisation take a person-centered approach.	The management of the organisation is fair in dealing with people.	0.76
Management is committed to implementing continuous improvements to the way support services are delivered.	My suggestions for improvements are valued.	0.75

We can also visualise the relationships between questions as a network. The correlation between question responses is visualised as a network in Figure 4. The question numbers corresponding to each question are shown in Table 2.

Figure 4: A network visualisation showing links between highly correlated (>0.7) questions.

What matters most for retention?

The response to “I would like to be working for this organisation in two years” is likely to be strongly associated with retention. In Figure 5, the mean response to this question is shown, stratified by responses to questions that relate to modifiable factors.

Figure 5: Modifiable factors that may contributed to desire to work for the organisation in two years. The bar height is the average score, treating categories as numerical and equidistant. The error bar extends \(1.96s/\sqrt{n}\) above the bar, where s is the sample standard deviation and n is the sample size. This represents the upper end of a 95% confidence interval for the mean estimate.

To determine what is most important for retention we also consider which of these questions are most correlated with the retention question. The top five most important questions for retention, as measured by this correlation, are shown in Table 4.

Table 4: The top five questions that are most correlated with the two-year retention question.

Question	Correlation with retention
I feel comfortable speaking up in team meetings.	0.55
My suggestions for improvements are valued.	0.52
Management is committed to implementing continuous improvements to the way support services are delivered.	0.52
I am appropriately compensated for the work I do.	0.51
The organisation’s policies and procedures are clear, easy to follow and enable me to do my job effectively.	0.48

References

MOA Benchmarking. 2022. “Staff Feedback Survey.”

Reichheld, Frederick F. 2004. “The One Number You Need to Grow [5].” Letter. Harvard Business Review 82 (6): 133.