Mental Wellbeing Survey 2024

Participation in the Mental Wellbeing Survey 2024 is open to staff currently employed at RMIT in Australia who are aged 18 years and over.

We understand that staff at other RMIT sites—such as RMIT Vietnam and RMIT Europe—may also be interested in participating. While this is not possible for 2024, we are working to find ways to open up the Mental Wellbeing Survey to international staff in future years.

No, participation is voluntary and anonymous. All responses are de-identified.

The Mental Wellbeing Survey is the University’s annualised, multi-year effort to better understand mental health and wellbeing among RMIT Australia staff. This specific approach sets the Mental Wellbeing Survey apart from the Staff Engagement Survey, which focuses on the broader experience of working at RMIT.

The Staff Engagement Survey does include some wellbeing-related questions. However, the Mental Wellbeing Survey specifically incorporates standardised, validated measures that pertain to individual mental health and wellbeing as well as RMIT Australia’s broader organisational climate.

This means that while there may be some similarity across both surveys, the Mental Wellbeing Survey takes a deeper dive into how RMIT Australia—as an organisation and an institution—affects staff mental health and wellbeing.

The Mental Wellbeing Survey is also a research project governed by human research ethics, designed to contribute to the global peer-reviewed evidence base on mental health and wellbeing in higher education. To this end, it has received clearance from the College Human Ethics Advisory Network for the College of Design and Social Context (protocol number: 26406).

1. Individual—how staff feel within themselves
2. Relational—how staff experience a range of common psychosocial factors in the workplace
3. Organisational—shared perceptions among staff about RMIT’s climate (as an institution and a workplace), including leadership, systems, policies, and processes

At the individual level, the Mental Wellbeing Survey measures mental health and wellbeing (Mental Health Continuum—Short Form, comprising 14 questions), emotional exhaustion (two questions from the Burnout Assessment Tool), and work-related engagement (two questions from the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale).

At the relational level, the Mental Wellbeing Survey asks two questions—about frequency and impact respectively—in relation to seven psychosocial factors that can be prominent in workplaces:

1. Aggression and violence
2. Bullying
3. Civility (or incivility) and respect (or disrespect)
4. Fairness (or unfairness)
5. Inappropriate behaviour of a sexual nature—including sexual harassment
6. Potential exposure to traumatic content or events
7. Workload management

At the organisational level, the Mental Wellbeing Survey measures how RMIT Australia’s organisational climate shapes psychosocial safety—that is, freedom from psychological and social risks or harms at work (Psychosocial Safety Climate, comprising 4 questions).

The Mental Wellbeing Survey also includes an open-ended question about how aspects of the university setting affect staff mental health and wellbeing, and further asks a range of demographic-related questions.

As outlined above, participation in the Mental Wellbeing Survey 2024 is voluntary and anonymous.

Once the Mental Wellbeing Survey closes, the survey data are initially managed by the principal investigator, who de-identifies all responses received.

The de-identified responses are then shared with researchers in the Health, Safety and Wellbeing area, who complete quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data.

In 2024, following analysis of the de-identified Mental Wellbeing Survey data, a high-level, enterprise summary of the results will be shared across the staff population at RMIT Australia. More detailed results will also be shared with Colleges, Portfolios, and Clusters, with the aim to inform planning and action on key psychosocial and organisational risks that affect staff wellbeing.

As the Mental Wellbeing Survey is also part of a broader research project with human research ethics clearance, findings may also be written up and submitted to academic journals for peer review and publication. In these circumstances, findings will focus on the group and population levels, presented in such a way that individual participants cannot be identified.

There are minimal risks in participating in the Mental Wellbeing Survey. The risk is not absolutely zero, though, and participants will be encouraged to seek support if experiencing any negative outcomes—either while taking part in the survey or following survey completion.

There are also very low levels of privacy- and security-related risk. The Mental Wellbeing Survey will be conducted in line with RMIT’s Privacy Statement.

A possible benefit of participating in the Mental Wellbeing Survey is contributing to an enhanced understanding of how RMIT Australia staff experience mental health and wellbeing as part of university life. The survey generates important insights that enable the University to better support staff. In addition, improvements in RMIT’s psychosocial safety climate may have general effects across both staff and students.

If you have any non-urgent queries about the Mental Wellbeing Survey 2024, please contact RMIT’s Wellbeing and Psychosocial Safety team at RMITWellbeing@rmit.edu.au.

If you have any ethical concerns about the Mental Wellbeing Survey, have any questions about your rights as a (potential) participant, or wish to lodge a complaint about the survey or its conduct, please contact humanethics@rmit.edu.au and include the following protocol number: 26406.

Students

Staff

The Mental Wellbeing Survey 2024 asks about seven psychosocial factors that can be prominent in workplaces:

1. Aggression and violence
2. Bullying
3. Civility (or incivility) and respect (or disrespect)
4. Fairness (or unfairness)
5. Inappropriate behaviour of a sexual nature—including sexual harassment
6. Potential exposure to traumatic content or events
7. Workload management

If you want to report concerns that relate to the factors listed above—or that relate to other risks to mental health and wellbeing at RMIT—please follow the guidance below.

If you’re a member of staff at RMIT:

You can visit this SharePoint page for information about different reporting pathways.

If you’re a student at RMIT:

You can report any inappropriate and/or unwanted behaviours—including sexual harm, bullying, harassment, and discrimination—via RMIT’s Safer Community team by calling +61 3 9925 2396 and/or e-mailing safercommunity@rmit.edu.au.

If you’re concerned about fairness, study load, or exposure to traumatic content at university, please consult a staff member you trust at RMIT.

You can also visit RMIT’s student complaints webpage for further information.

As outlined above, the Mental Wellbeing Survey is conducted annually as part of collaborative research. This research brings together academic staff from the College of Design and Social Context and research staff from the Health, Safety and Wellbeing area:

• College of Design and Social Context
  • Dr Katrin Leifels (Principal Investigator)
  • Associate Professor Christina Scott-Young

• Health, Safety and Wellbeing
  • Dr Lachlan Kent (on leave until late 2024)
  • Xuan Luu
  • Michael Swadling
  • Leya Hockman