Destination of Leavers from Higher Education survey
Rapid Improvement Event
Theme: To enable more effective facilitation of the DLHE survey.
Background to problem or opportunity
The DLHE collection changed in 2011/12 with a more detailed questionnaire. The
survey population expanded to include international students, which increased
the number of students that needed to be contacted by 45% to 6,737. This
translated into an increase in response rate of 14%.
We lost 0.2 FTE support. We were relying on staff overtime to fill the gap.
The lack of resilience leading to potential impact on University Top 10 strategy
with graduate outcomes suffering.
Analysis of Current State
From Voice of the Customer and Root Cause Analysis exercises we identified the
following key issues needed to be addressed:
•Need to update our processes and introduce new systems to support these
•Overview of the way we use the data and Information
•A lack of targeted and planned communications
•HR and resilience, accountability, governance
•There were some additional ad hoc issues such as reducing some processes that
were wasteful
Desired Future State
•A resilient survey collection within a streamlined process
•Data to be disseminated more effectively and widely
•Staff knowing what data is available and how to access it, as appropriate
•A higher response rate of from each of the targeted cohorts
•Opportune strategic direction and senior management support
•More operational staff taking ownership over their roles in the survey
•Systems to support the high volume activities leading to efficient processing
Review
•Using BaseCamp to track progress and communicate with project team
•Regular updates during DLHE Operations Group
•All actions to be completed within a year.
Improvement Plan:
Investigate/install new systems to support high volume processes:
•Calling – assesses caller rates/success, storing the call sheets, records intelligence,
links to survey form to fill in, calls internationally, records notes of call, when
responses come in we can take call sheets out
•Postcode checker – when graduates/callers fill in form it automatically validates post
code, looking at whether it can also auto-fill the postcode box
•Online survey – create our own version of the survey, branded, skips irrelevant
questions, provides more information, validates as it goes along
•Information request system – record how enquiries come in, how we deal with them
•Survey system in SITs – automate the process and link easily to student records
•System for live data –BI Cognos, live data system where we can track response rates
and KPIs for disciplines and colleges
•System for dissemination of DLHE data in BI Cognos – easy access to specified
reports for all relevant stakeholders, enhancing the BI dashboard so all information is
in one system
Improve access to DLHE data and information:
•What do stakeholders want to know? Identify the level of analysis of the data, how
they would like it presented
•System for dissemination of DLHE data in BI Cognos – easy access to specified
reports for all relevant stakeholders, enhancing the BI dashboard so all information is
in one system
•Reduce waste by cutting out unnecessary processes
Improve communications with key stakeholders:
•Communications plan – identify who needs to be communicated with, how, what do
they need to know and a plan for ensuring the dissemination of comms.
•Investigate new methods for communicating with survey cohorts – Text messaging,
videos, focus groups, DLHE ambassadors
Ensure HR issues are fixed and that the survey remains resilient
•Ensure staff are working at the correct grade
•Elicit support for supervising the calling to offer further resilience
•Make sure the survey has full coverage by increasing and changing the weeks
worked of staff already involved
•Create a risk plan to mitigate against any consequences of something going wrong
Ensure clear lines of governance for the collection, analysis and dissemination of the
survey with strategic and operational support:
•DLHE Operations Group
•Graduate Outcomes Group
•Clear timeline of activities with dates in key staff’s diaries
•Project plan
•Ensure the survey is auditable and that recommendations actioned as a result of
the Rapid Improvement Event