Listening to staff voice is often spoken about as a priority in schools.
Doing it well is far less common.

Across many settings, staff voice is gathered through surveys, check ins, or feedback processes that ask people how they are feeling, but offer little confidence that what is shared will lead to meaningful change. Over time, this creates hesitation, guarded responses, and a quiet withdrawal from honest conversation.

When staff voice stops feeling safe

The issue is not that educators are unwilling to share.
It is that many have shared before.

Staff often describe experiences where they have been asked for feedback, only to see minimal follow through, vague action plans, or initiatives that miss the mark of what actually makes their work harder or easier. When this happens repeatedly, trust erodes. Engagement drops. People learn to say less.

This creates a growing gap between what leaders believe is happening and what staff are actually experiencing day to day. It is in this gap that frustration builds, workload pressure intensifies, and wellbeing concerns quietly take hold.

Why surface level feedback is not enough

Staff wellbeing is shaped far more by conditions than by individual strategies.

Things like workload, role clarity, communication, expectations, and decision making processes influence how people feel at work far more than morning teas or wellbeing initiatives ever could. Yet these deeper drivers are often missed when staff voice is reduced to metrics or quick pulse surveys.

Understanding wellbeing requires depth. It requires listening for patterns, themes, and lived experience, not just collecting scores or comments in isolation.

A different approach to staff voice

Beneath the Surface was designed to address this exact challenge.

It supports schools to capture staff voice in a way that is thoughtful, respectful, and grounded in trust. The focus is not on collecting more data, but on creating a process where staff feel safe to share what is really happening in their work, their workload, and their experience of the school environment.

This approach prioritises qualitative insight. It looks beneath surface level responses to understand what is supporting staff wellbeing and what is undermining it, so leadership teams can move beyond assumptions and anecdote.

From listening to action

Schools engaging in Beneath the Surface receive a detailed report that does more than summarise feedback.

The report:

• Identifies key themes and patterns across staff experience

• Highlights priority areas where change will make the greatest difference

• Clarifies what is within a school’s control to influence

• Supports leaders to move from insight to practical, realistic action

This helps leadership teams make informed decisions with clarity, rather than reacting to noise or trying to fix everything at once.

So what does this mean?

Staff wellbeing cannot be improved without understanding the conditions people are working within.

When staff voice is captured with care and used with intention, it becomes one of the most powerful tools a school has to improve culture, reduce frustration, and rebuild trust. It creates alignment between leadership perspective and lived experience, and provides a clear starting point for meaningful change.

This work is not about judgement or audit. It is about seeing clearly.
Progress does not require perfection, it requires understanding.

A considered starting point

If your school is serious about improving staff wellbeing, but unsure where to start, or if you sense there are underlying issues not being captured through existing processes, Beneath the Surface offers a respectful and practical entry point.

It creates the conditions for honest dialogue, informed decision making, and change that staff can see and feel in their everyday work.

Staff voice matters.
But only when it is listened to well, and acted on with purpose.

If you would like to explore how Beneath the Surface can support your school to capture staff voice in a way that builds trust and informs real change, learn more about the process or reach out and contact Amy to find out if it is right for your school.