OIA Employee Engagement Survey 2024: Privacy Notice

In line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in this privacy notice for research participants we explain the legal basis for data processing for the `OIA Employee Engagement Survey’. This includes who will have access to your personal data, how your data will be used, stored and deleted and who you can contact with any queries or a complaint.

What is the legal basis for processing my data?

The Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) is the data controller for this research project. We rely on the legitimate interest lawful basis for processing personal data in this survey, because we have a legitimate interest in understanding our employees’ perceptions and experiences. The survey is voluntary and so we also rely on consent. Additional information about our obligations towards your personal data is available in your PeopleHR documents ( please see Employees GDPR notification May 2023). The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) will be conducting the survey. For this research project, IES is a processor and will process the data.

If you have any questions about your personal data in this survey, please e-mail OIA at: TeamHR@oiahe.org.uk

Who will have access to my personal data?

The OIA has commissioned the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) to conduct this research. IES will contact OIA employees directly via email to invite them to participate in the current research. IES will provide information on the survey and why it is being undertaken. OIA will share your data with a limited number of staff within IES for survey purposes via a secure Sharepoint link.

What personal data will IES be provided with?

IES will have access to personal data: your name and email address (work or non-work). Non-work email addresses will only be passed to IES for employees who have given their permission and are on long-term leave (mainly maternity leave or long term sick leave).

They will use this data for the survey distribution purposes to contact you with information about the survey and provide the web-link for completion of the survey, including a small number of reminders to complete within a specified timeframe.

What personal details will be collected?

The survey will ask questions about where and how you work, and what team you work in. It will also ask you for demographic data such as age, gender, ethnicity and whether you have caring responsibilities. The demographic data you provide will be used to analyse any differences or similarities in how OIA employees respond to the survey questions. The survey is entirely voluntary, and you don’t have to respond to every question. This data will only be used for the purposes this survey.

How will my data be treated?

The email addresses provided to IES to process the distribution of the survey are stored in a secured folder on their servers, with only the researchers who need to process the survey having access. The email addresses will be securely deleted three months after the project has closed (approx. March 2025).

Upon the close of the survey, the responses will be anonymised in the survey software, which removes all personal data from the dataset. IES will download and analyse the anonymised dataset, and therefore will not be able to identify any individual from their survey responses.

IES will analyse the survey data and provide an aggregated and anonymous report that summarises the main findings from the survey. The demographic data you provide will be used to analyse any differences or similarities in how OIA employees respond to the survey questions; demographic variables with fewer than 3 responses will not be reported.

Open text questions will be thematically analysed, and the main themes will be reported to the OIA. Individuals will not be named and will not be identifiable in any reporting format. You will not be identifiable in any of the reports that IES provides to the OIA.

Who can I contact if I would like to withdraw my survey data?

As the survey is anonymous and email addresses are removed from the final survey data automatically, we are unable to withdraw your data as you are not identifiable. By completing the survey, you are providing your consent for your responses to be analysed by IES. If you have any questions regarding this, please contact: oia-survey@employment-studies.co.uk.  

Who can I contact with a query about how my data will be used?

If you have any questions about how your data will be used, please e-mail the OIA: TeamHR@oiahe.org.uk

Who can I contact with a complaint?

Under GDPR you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. ICO will usually ask that you exhaust an internal complaints process before raising a complaint with them. If you wish to make a complaint, please email jo.nuckley@oiahe.org.uk