Since it piloted in winter 2021, the HMS Faculty/Staff Survey has helped institutions understand their faculty and staff’s mental health and perceived ability to help students with mental health concerns. Institutions are recognizing the survey’s value, with utilization developing steadily from a few schools in 2021-22 to over fifteen in 2022-23 and thirty in 2023-24. The average participation rate is about 30%.
While not all college students face mental health disorders, college offers all students both an opportunity and a reason to learn to take care of their mental health. Faculty and staff can play an important role in creating learning environments that support health and well-being, decrease anxiety, increase learning, and encourage seeking help when needed. These activities compound with job responsibilities, though, to also impact the mental health of employees. The survey provides your school with valuable information that can be used in improving campus life and promoting well-being within higher education.
This guide provides an overview of the study and explains each step from enrollment to data collection and reporting. It also provides information about and links to our study documents.
The survey identifies challenges and opportunities that exist with respect to recognizing and responding to student needs. The first three modules of the survey capture demographic, mental health, and mental health service utilization attitudes of faculty and staff members. The fourth module examines faculty/staff views and experience in supporting students. The fifth module explores the campus climate regarding mental health – both for faculty/staff themselves and their perceptions of institutional support for students. The survey is estimated to take 20-25 minutes to complete.
Campuses may add up to 10 custom questions to the survey. Our research team is experienced in survey design methodology and can provide guidance as needed in the creation of custom questions.
Recommended Participants
While this survey might seem geared toward faculty, the survey is indeed for any staff on campus – faculty, staff, and administrative staff. We do have one part that is dedicated to “Supporting Students,” which might be seen as for faculty. However, administrative staff often interact with students too. Our initial pilot study was only provided to faculty, but many schools wanted to include staff because they thought the survey applied to them as well. Since then, the survey has been improved to be even more applicable to staff.
Participation Fees
For pricing information, please submit the Preliminary Interest Form, indicating you would like a quote for the HMS Faculty/Staff Survey.
Data Reporting
Your institution’s data deliverables are designed to facilitate the translation of mental health research into practice. In order to make the research as useful as possible, the HMN team provides participating institutions with several ways to examine their data. All participating institutions receive access to the following data deliverables.
The initial report (example here) consists of response frequencies to each item on the survey presented in the form of bar graphs and tables. As applicable, this report includes custom questions.
A de-identified data set in multiple file formats (e.g., SPSS, Stata, and Excel) is provided that contains faculty’s and staff’s responses to the survey items. To ensure that individuals are able to work efficiently with their campus data, the HMN team also provides access to a comprehensive codebook.
The customized school report (example here) includes graphs and tables illustrating key survey findings.
