Yes, your responses are completely anonymous and confidential. 

When you complete the culture survey, your privacy is our top priority. We've partnered with WTW, an independent third party, to ensure your responses remain confidential.

We provide WTW with your name, email, and various demographic themes (e.g., student, location, department). However, when we view the survey results, we can only see aggregated data. This means we'll only see responses for groups of five or more people.

For example, if we filter results by "students in Adelaide who prefer the color purple," but fewer than five individuals meet those criteria, we won't be able to see those specific results. This ensures that no individual can be identified through their responses.

On Tuesday 22nd July, you should have received an email titled 'COMBS 2025 Culture Survey. In the email click 'Take this Survey'. This is your personalised link to complete the survey. Do NOT forward your email to another COMBS member. 

If you can't find the email:

1. Search your emails for an email from "Willis Towers Watson ( survey.invite@willstowerswatson.com )".

2. Look in your junk folder.

3. Email Ruth (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator: ruth.waterman@rmit.edu.au) for your personalised link. 

• Anonymity is guaranteed: While your link is unique to you, COMBS cannot see who has clicked on their link or who has completed the survey.
• WTW manages the system: WTW (Willis Towers Watson), our independent survey provider, has set up the system so that COMBS can only trigger a general reminder email to the overall group of people who haven't yet submitted their survey. COMBS never sees individual completion status.

All data is anonymised. COMBS can review the responses through an online portal. A select group of people will be able to log into the online portal. When we do log onto the portal to view the survey results, we can only see aggregated data. This means we'll only see responses for groups of five or more people.

Once we have the results, we will prepare a report for the COMBS Executive Committee’s Strategic Planning Day. The results will help us create initiatives to better support you as COMBS members.

We are hoping to present a summary of the findings at the Annual Workshop. In our presentation, we plan to share the key findings and also our plan to support our COMBS members.

Ultimately, this data will directly inform our EDI operational plan, leading to new initiatives, policies, procedures, and training aimed at creating a more inclusive and excellent research environment.

Once you have completed the survey, you will be provided a link to a form where you can enter details related to your required style/size. 

Once the Survey has closed, the Central Ops team will purchase the hoodies and deliver them to the relevant nodes.

COMBS sought quotes from multiple suppliers and received quotes from four compelling suppliers. We also reached out to Centes of Excellence to understand how they complete their culture survey.

After reviewing multiple suppliers, WTW was chosen because of our contacts understanding of culture for academia, the online platform, benchmarkable questions and their support in creating our operational plan for the EDI Committee, amongst other reasons.

WTW, previously known as Willis Towers Watson, is a global advisory, broking, and solutions company that provides data-driven, insight-led solutions in the areas of people, risk, and capital. It helps clients manage risk, cultivate talent, and optimize benefits. WTW operates in more than 140 countries and serves a diverse range of industries. 

WTW also has over 40 years of experience asking surveys!

WTW will retain the Client’s (COMBS) survey data used in the Application for up to five years after closing of each survey to accommodate historical trending either as part of a current or a possible future agreement. To maintain system performance, WTW reserves the right to delete all demo, test, and bad/do not use/duplicate projects older than one year. Notwithstanding anything contained herein, WTW shall have the ability to retain Client Information: (a) as required by law, regulation or by rules of a stock exchange; or (b) for archival purposes (i) to enable WTW to comply with its professional standards requirements and substantiate any applicable work product or (ii) with respect to backup media for which selective deletion of files is not feasible, provided however, such Confidential Information remains subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

The EDI Committee contracted WTW, an independent company. Firstly, questions on the WTW portal were reviewed.  The EDI Committee and COMBS Director Arnan Mitchen then reviewed the proposed questions against theCOMBS focus values and the strategic plan.

The EDI Committee then reviewed the questions and WTW provided expert advice on the questions to use in the survey.

EDI Coordinator Ruth Waterman consulted with the OzGrav (a Centre of Excellence in its second term of funding) and fellow EDI Coordinators across Centre's of Excellence. 

The EDI Committee contracted WTW, an independent company. Firstly, questions on the WTW portal were reviewed.  The EDI Committee and COMBS Director Arnan Mitchell then reviewed the proposed questions against theCOMBS focus values and the strategic plan.

The EDI Committee then reviewed the questions and WTW provided expert advice on the questions to use in the survey.

EDI Coordinator Ruth Waterman consulted with the OzGrav (a Centre of Excellence in its second term of funding) and fellow EDI Coordinators across Centre's of Excellence.