The brief
Following on from work Shift completed as part of the Technical Community survey in 2021, MI Talent wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the role of technical staff in health and safety. Results from this research would serve as a call to action for those in leadership to continue to recognise and support the work of technical staff.
As well as gathering responses from technicians themselves, MI Talent were looking to reach a wider audience to understand their perceptions of the health and safety activities technicians undertake.
The approach
Shift developed a 33-question survey in collaboration with MI Talent. As well as general questions about the respondent’s role, the survey covered:
- Health and safety activities in a technical role
- Health and safety training
- Health and safety committees
The survey was disseminated to technical staff, undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics and professional staff working and studying in UK higher education providers and research institutes.
Following data cleaning, we achieved a usable sample of 1,448 responses.
The value
We provided MI Talent with a comprehensive report covering the key findings from the survey, as well as access to the aggregated data in Excel tables and a Q Reader file, so that they could further interrogate the findings.
Using these findings, MI Talent wrote and published a report including 10 recommendations for supporting technicians with their health and safety activity. You can access the report ‘Creating and Maintaining Safe Environments: The Role of Technicians in Health and Safety’ here.
