You will receive the survey link via an all staff email and staff Round Up.

The purpose of the study is to explore the impact that the COVID-19 lockdown has had on the productivity and wellbeing of Queen’s staff, as well as to explore solutions to these issues.

The study is being conducted by Queen’s Gender Initiative, Dr Ioana Latu (School of Psychology) and Organisational Development (People and Culture). 

If you decide to participate in the research, you will be asked to complete an online questionnaire. You will be required to provide informed consent prior to commencing the survey which will explain the purpose of the study and how data will be used. The survey can be completed on a computer, phone or tablet device and will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

Yes. Participation in this study is completely voluntary. You are not under any obligation to consent and - if you do consent - you are free to withdraw at any time during the study without any adverse consequences.  You can discontinue the study simply by closing your browser window. However, you will be unable to withdraw after you have completed the study as the data is anonymised and we will not be able to identify your data (for removal).

No, the risks of completing this survey are not higher than any risks encountered in daily life. However, if you have become upset or distressed at any time during the completion of this questionnaire, please contact your GP and use these resources to discuss any issues you are experiencing:

• QUB Staff Counselling 
• Action Mental Health 
• Samaritans 
• Aware NI 

Your responses in this study will be completely anonymous. No identifiable data will be collected. The data from this study will be encrypted and held on a password-protected computer. A report of the study may be submitted for publication, but we analyse the data on an aggregate level, and no individual participants will be identifiable.

Your anonymous responses will be used to generate aggregate data for three outputs:

1. Publication of survey outcome on the QGI website (via staff login)
2. A QGI-led paper with recommendations to the University Executive Board
3. Peer-reviewed research publication(s) led by Dr Latu

The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown has posed challenges for many colleagues around managing increased workload and other priorities related to caregiving and household responsibilities.  This ongoing global situation has changed the way we work in addition to affecting daily life.  We want to learn about the challenges people in Queen’s have faced during this unprecedented situation. 

In understanding the lived experience, we will be able to propose solutions to the challenges that we are facing and potentially discover positive aspects from new ways of working.

Participating in the survey is completely voluntary.  We strongly encourage you to take the opportunity to share from your experience and contribute to the development of new actions in Queen’s.

You will receive a link to the survey in an all-staff email or through announcements in Round Up.  The survey will be open until 5.00 pm on Wednesday 14 October 2020.

The majority of questions are applicable to all members of staff.  There are some specific questions for Professional Services Staff and Academic/Research Staff – these relate to the particular roles.

If you feel that a question is not relevant to you, or you do not wish to answer, you can skip over the question and continue with the rest of the survey.

The survey should take approximately 15 minutes to complete.  There is a survey % completion bar at the top of each page so you can track your progress.  It needs to be completed in one sitting.

Your responses will be completely anonymous and cannot be traced back to you individually.  Your name, email address and device IP address are not collected.  We ask for some broad category demographic information e.g. gender so that we can understand the lockdown effects on different groups.  The survey is being conducted using Qualitrics (see next question).  The survey received Approval from the EPS Faculty Ethics Committee and was reviewed by the University’s Data Compliance Unit.

There are a number of opportunities to respond to questions in free-text boxes.  We would remind you to not include any self-identifying information. The researchers will redact any such information, should it be inputted.

Qualtrics is a Research and Insights Platform that is approved by Queen’s and used across the University in a number of research projects. Qualtrics is GDPR compliant, and the Qualitrics GDPR compliance information can be accessed here.

The anonymous raw data from this study will be encrypted and held on a password-protected computer/drive and will not be shared outside the research team.

The research team comprises Dr Ioana Latu and her research team.  Any researcher who will have access to the data will be named and approved by the Faculty Ethics Committee. Researchers are trained in ethical handling of the data, in order to maintain full data confidentiality and protection.

Staff from Queen’s Gender Initiative and Organisational Development will not have access to the raw data.

Your anonymous responses will be used to generate aggregate data for three outputs: (1) publication of survey outcome on the QGI website (via staff login); (2) a QGI-led paper with recommendations to the University Executive Board and (3) peer-reviewed research publication(s) led by Dr Latu.

Quantitative data will be presented in aggregate form, there will be no individual responses presented.

For the qualitative data (the open-ended questions), we encourage respondents to not include any information that may identify them. However, if this type of information is provided, the researchers approved to work on the project will redact the information to anonymise them fully.

No, the survey can be completed anywhere and on any PC, tablet or mobile device that has internet access. It works on all internet browsers.

For general enquiries about the survey, you can email covid19@qub.ac.uk and a dedicated member of our Survey Team will respond.