UKSFN Workforce Survey

As you will have seen when you either joined or renewed your UKSFN Membership for 2022, a requirement for membership this year is to distribute the UKSFN workforce diversity survey to your employee and volunteer support staff* as soon as possible after your 2022 festival has finished. You and your team should also complete the survey.

As a reminder, ‘support staff’ are classified as people who work “behind the scenes” e.g. programming, events management, ticketing, way-finding, etc. and not those who are “on the stage” e.g. performers, speakers, activity providers, etc. Don’t forget to fill it in yourself too. We’ve drafted some text for you to send out should you need it…

Here is the link to the survey: https://forms.office.com/e/zcgjUwCy78

Sample text for you to use when distributing to your employees and volunteers:

As a previous science festival volunteer or employee we need you to help us!

You’ve been contacted because the UK Science Festivals Network (UKSFN) wants to understand who is involved at a science festivals’ core, whom without, the festival couldn’t happen. As a sector, UK science festivals are placing an increased emphasis on diversifying audiences, but it’s important that there is inclusivity in terms of festival staffing, whether on a paid or voluntary basis. Currently, we do not have a holistic understanding of the diversity of staff in the sector which means we don’t know where the key areas for improvement are. Having staff at all levels from a wide range of backgrounds and skills helps develop an environment that produces ideas and solutions that might not come from a smaller, less diverse, group. A diverse workforce, in turn, can also help better understand and meet the needs of diverse audience groups and thus create programmes that raise the diversity of our audiences.

To help us better understand who is making festivals happen, the UKSFN has put together a science festival volunteer and employee diversity survey for anyone who has worked for a festival in the UKSFN over the last 12 months. It will take no longer than 5-10 minutes to complete and you will be contributing to a UK-wide initiative. Thank you in advance for your time!

If you have any questions please direct them to info@sciencefestivals.uk