SEED Staff Survey results paint a mixed picture of staff experience

23 Jun 2026

216 colleagues from across the School of Environment, Education and Development completed the recent University-wide ‘Your Voice Matters’ survey, representing around 45% of those who were eligible to respond.

The full results from the survey are viewable here.

The results of the survey for our School painted a mixed picture: colleagues remain strongly committed to the University's mission and continue to value flexible working, autonomy and supportive colleagues. However, there has been a noticeable deterioration in perceptions of leadership, voice, inclusion, wellbeing and career development. More detail can be seen in the slides presented to the SEED School Board.

The last year has been a time of change, both for the School and the wider University. Change is both necessary and exciting, but it also brings uncertainty and can cause confusion, fatigue and discontent. The impact of lower-than-projected student recruitment within the School has also led to budget tightening.

The SEED School Executive is concerned to see drops in staff satisfaction, wellbeing and autonomy. Whilst some of the issues highlighted by the survey will need to be addressed at a University level, we know there are meaningful changes we can make within our School.

Over the summer our senior leaders will be listening to staff as they develop an action plan to address the real concerns highlighted through the staff survey. All colleagues are invited to share their thoughts and feedback directly with our Director of School Operations, David Pattwell, and our Head of School, Khalid Nadvi. To facilitate this, they will be holding informal drop-in sessions where all staff are warmly invited to share their feedback at the following times:

David Pattwell, Director of School Operations (room 1.14, HBS):

·       Wed 8 July 1.00 – 3.00pm

·       Tue 14 July 12.30-2.30pm

Khalid Nadvi, Head of School (room 1.18, HBS):

·       Tue 23 July 1.00-3.00pm

There’s no need to pre-book to attend one of these sessions, just drop in to David or Khalid’s office in Humanities Bridgeford Street by during the two hour slot. Calendar invites will also be sent to all School colleagues via email. If you are unable to attend in person, please email SEEDHeadofschool@manchester.ac.uk to request a Teams meeting.

Our leaders will also be working with Departmental Heads and attending Departmental Forum meetings to garner further feedback.

Following these listening sessions, a full action plan outlining all the changes being made as a result of the Staff Survey findings will be shared with SEED colleagues next semester.