Strata Workplace Consultancy

Staff surveys with independent operational diagnosis

StrataStaff Surveys

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Accessible, multilingual staff surveys with flexible participation and detailed reporting, followed by Strata's independent on-site investigation into what the results cannot explain. Understand the causes, not only the scores.

Included: on-site investigation, diagnostic report, leadership briefing and a practical 12-month action plan. Strata also works on retention, operational performance and process problems without a new survey.

Professional survey On-site investigation 12-month action plan
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Our staff survey service

Strata Staff Surveys

The survey is the start. The diagnosis tells you what to do next.

A professionally delivered employee survey can show where something needs attention. Strata goes further: we test possible explanations with staff, managers and operational evidence before recommending changes.

01 / STAFF SURVEY

A survey built for your workforce

Tailored questions, multilingual participation by email, mobile, messaging or QR code, confidentiality controls and detailed reporting, powered by Ten Space.

02 / INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION

We investigate what is underneath

At least two on-site days, confidential conversations and examination of operational evidence. The source of pressure could be leadership, trust, processes, workload, training or something else entirely.

03 / DECISIONS & ACTION

Know what to change

A documented diagnosis, leadership briefing and a practical 12-month action plan. Further pulse surveys or progress reviews can be scoped separately.

See the complete Staff Surveys offer

One Strata engagement, with specialist survey technology and delivery from Ten Space.

Start with the signal

You may already know what is showing up. The harder question is what is causing it.

Strata can begin wherever the evidence is already pointing. The visible issue is the starting point, not the diagnosis.

Your staff survey has highlighted a problem

You have the scores, comments or themes. Strata uses them as a starting point, then investigates what sits underneath the result and what leadership should actually change.

People are leaving or the same roles keep being replaced

Turnover tells you that people are going. It does not necessarily tell you what they are leaving, which factors are controllable or whether recruitment is really the answer.

Productivity, capacity or service performance is not where it should be

The numbers show a gap, but the cause may sit in workload, sequencing, dependencies, approvals, role clarity, workarounds or something leadership cannot see from the dashboard.

A process, handoff, team or site keeps creating friction

The affected area is known, but the underlying bottleneck or operational cause is still unclear.

A change is not working as expected

A restructure, new process, technology change, policy or operating-model shift has landed, but resistance, rework or unintended pressure is appearing in practice.

Several signals are appearing at once

Pressure, absence, turnover, service issues, management time and operational friction may be connected. Leadership needs an independent view of the pattern underneath them.

The signal tells you where to look. Diagnosis tells you what to fix.

How Strata works

The signal tells you where to look. Diagnosis tells you what to fix.

SIGNAL
INVESTIGATE
TRACE
DIAGNOSE
RECOMMEND
BRIEF

Strata begins with the evidence already available: survey findings, operational data, turnover, absence, service measures, process information, previous interventions or leadership concern. Depending on the problem, the investigation can then combine confidential staff and management conversations, observation of work, process and handoff tracing, and review of the evidence already held by the organisation.

A dashboard can identify a pattern. A survey can highlight a concern. AI can analyse the evidence that has been captured. Diagnosis still depends on whether the organisation has the evidence it needs and whether the assumed explanation survives closer investigation. Strata looks for repetition, contradictions, dependencies, bottlenecks and workarounds, then tests whether the proposed cause actually explains what is happening.

The findings are translated into a clear diagnosis, practical priorities and a live leadership briefing. The aim is not to return another data dump. It is to explain what appears to be creating the problem, why it matters and what leadership should do next.

The method is structured. The answer is not predetermined.
Other diagnostic services

The same investigative method, even without a new survey.

These are common starting points, not the limits of the work. Strata scopes each engagement around the question leadership actually needs answered and the evidence required to answer it properly.

Focused diagnostic

Survey Follow-Through Diagnostic

Your survey tells you where to look. Strata helps you understand what is actually there.

For organisations that have already collected employee feedback but still need to understand what sits underneath the scores, comments or contradictions. Strata uses the survey as a starting signal, tests the explanations against how work actually operates, and turns the diagnosis into practical leadership action.

Focused diagnostic

Retention Diagnostic

Understand what people are actually leaving.

For organisations experiencing recurring turnover, retention hotspots or repeated recruitment into the same areas. Strata looks beyond the headline turnover figure to investigate what is driving people out, which factors appear within the organisation's control, and where leadership action is most likely to make a difference.

Focused diagnostic

Focused Operational Diagnostic

You know where the problem is. The question is what is causing it.

For a defined team, process, department, site, service or operational problem where performance is not where it should be. Strata investigates the relevant area, follows recurring friction, bottlenecks, dependencies and workarounds, and gives leadership a focused diagnosis and practical priorities.

Broader diagnostic

Staff Pressure Test

When leadership knows something is wrong, but the cause is not yet clear.

The Staff Pressure Test is Strata's broader diagnostic for situations where several workforce and operational signals may be connected and leadership cannot yet confidently define the underlying cause, location or extent of the problem.

Why independent diagnosis?

Why Strata sits between the signal and the solution.

Surveys, exit interviews, absence figures, complaints, operational metrics and performance dashboards can all provide useful signals. They are valuable evidence, but they do not automatically establish cause.

A team reporting excessive workload may genuinely be understaffed. Or the pressure may be coming from duplicated reporting, poor sequencing, approval delays, unclear ownership, uneven workload or experienced staff continually compensating for broken processes.

The visible symptom can look the same while the right intervention is completely different.

Why this matters commercially

A good intervention can still fail when it is aimed at the wrong cause. Recruitment, training, restructuring, new technology, process change or another programme may all be valid answers, but only if they address the problem that is actually there.

The expensive part is not the diagnosis. The expensive part is repeatedly fixing the wrong thing.

Strata provides the independent diagnostic layer between the signal and the decision about where leadership should invest next.

Broader diagnostic

The Staff Pressure Test: when the problem cannot be neatly defined.

This is one route into Strata, used when several signals may be connected and a tightly bounded diagnostic would be too narrow.

The Staff Pressure Test gives Strata greater freedom to investigate recurring workforce and operational signals across the relevant organisation, function or location without beginning from one predefined explanation. Depending on scope, it can combine existing evidence review, confidential staff and management conversations, operational observation, process and handoff tracing, analysis, prioritised recommendations and a live leadership briefing.

A clear thematic diagnosis

What is recurring, where the pressure appears to sit and how the issues connect.

Operational interpretation

What the staff experience suggests about processes, workload, management, dependencies and how work is actually operating.

Business implications

Where the findings create retention, performance, operational or organisational risk.

A prioritised action roadmap

Practical recommendations for what leadership should address first, what needs longer-term attention and what may require further investigation.

A live leadership briefing

Findings and recommendations presented directly to senior leadership so they can question the diagnosis and decide what happens next.

Confidential participation

Employee roundtables are voluntary, manager-free and reported thematically rather than attributed to individuals.

The problem determines the route. The service name comes second.
About Strata

Why working with Strata feels different.

Strata was founded by David Palmer after more than 15 years in operational and business leadership and consultancy, including advising NHS Trusts on complex operational issues and leading functions within large multinational organisations. David has also experienced severe workplace pressure from the employee side of the table. That combination matters: the work is informed by experience as a leader, consultant and employee, while every conclusion remains grounded in evidence from the organisation being investigated.

Operational leadership

More than 15 years working with real operations, teams, processes, systems and delivery pressures. The focus is on how work actually happens, not how a textbook says it should happen.

Both sides of the table

Experience as a leader, consultant and employee helps Strata recognise the gap that can exist between what management can see, what staff experience and what the operation is really asking people to absorb.

Founder-led from start to finish

The person you speak to at the start is the person who scopes the work, investigates the evidence, traces the causes and briefs leadership. The engagement is not sold by one person and handed to a generic delivery team.

Structured does not mean standardised. Strata uses a consistent diagnostic method, but does not force every organisation into the same scorecard, one-word answer set or generic dashboard. The investigation is built around the problem, the evidence and how the organisation actually operates.
Insights

Looking beneath the headline.

Strata examines the gap between what organisations can measure and what leadership actually needs to understand.

What the Metrics Miss

A monthly look at what workforce and operational metrics can show, what they can miss, and why the underlying cause still matters.

Follow on LinkedIn

Current workplace issues, diagnosed differently

Strata uses live organisational issues to explore the difference between a visible workforce or performance signal and the cause sitting underneath it.

Recent LinkedIn News story
Get in touch

Start with the problem, not the service name.

You do not need to fit the issue into a Strata service before getting in touch. Start with what you are seeing: survey findings, turnover, productivity, capacity, service friction, post-change problems, process issues or simply a recurring problem whose cause is still unclear.

A short initial conversation is enough to understand the signal, what evidence already exists, what decision leadership needs to make and whether an independent diagnostic would add value. If Strata is not the right fit, that should become clear early.

david@strataworkplace.com +44 7470 407591 linkedin.com/in/davidpalmerstrataconsulting
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