Survey Results Summary
We received a total of 18 responses to the Site Manager Survey, which is about 30% of the total number of Site Managers. There is a good spread between Site Managers roles being a core part of their job and a supplementary part of their job. Site Managers whose role is a core part of their job spend more time on "News" and "Events" than those whose role is supplementary. On average, Site Managers spend roughly six hours working on their website(s) per month.
There are three primary areas for improvement (in training, communication, and practice): web accessibility, brand implementation on the web, and SEO.
Survey Results Details
How would you describe your role as Site Manager?
How much of your website(s) are you responsible for?
Out of the responses that selected "All of it (pages, news, events, navigation, etc)":
- 50% also selected "Core part of my full time job" for how they describe their role
- 50% also selected "Supplementary to my full time job" for how they describe their role
Which of the following types of work are you responsible for on your website(s)?
Only 22% of respondents selected all responsibilities, and of those it was a 50/50 split between describing their role as "Core part of my full time job" and "Supplementary to my full time job"
Which one of the following types of work do you do most often?
Out of the responses that describe their role as a "Core part of my full time job":
- 83.33% work on "News" or "Events" most often.
How often do you work on your website(s)?
How many hours per month, on average, do you spend working on your website(s)?
The average number of hours spent working on websites is just under six.
How often do you update content across your entire website(s)?
The average number of hours spent working on websites is just under six.
When updating content across your entire website(s), what is the focus?
Only 16.7% of responses selected "Web accessibility compliance" as a focus while updating their entire website. This leaves a massive margin for improvement since everyone at CSU who has access to edit web content should be prioritizing web accessibility.
How comfortable are you with using WordPress?
There are 27.8% of Site Managers that are either "Somewhat" or "Not at all" comfortable with using WordPress. However, of those, there were only 40% who had gone through training with CLA Web Services, thus showing the importance of the on-boarding process.
How comfortable are you with using Beaver Builder?
Most Site Managers are either "Somewhat" or "Mostly" comfortable using Beaver Builder, which is expected since it's a tool with lots of features and has a medium-to-high learning curve for expert level comfortability.
How comfortable are you with updating page/post content?
There are 72% of respondents are "Mostly" or "Completely" comfortable updating page/post content. This is good since this is the primary responsibility of a Site Manager, however this also leaves room for improvement with the remaining 28% that are only "Somewhat" or "Not at all" comfortable.
Of the respondents that selected "Somewhat" or "Not at all", 100% of them also selected "Somewhat" or "Not at all" for being comfortable with using Beaver Builder. This seems to indicate that improvements in training for Beaver Builder could correlate to improvements comfortability with updating page/post content.
How comfortable are you with laying out and designing page content that is consistent with the established style of the site and adheres to the CLA Visual Brand Language?
This deserves further investigation into if the polarizing responses are due to Site Manager design experience, training from CLA Web Services, Beaver Builder tools, or documentation.
Responses to this question may change over time now that the CLA Brand website is available.
It's possible that this level of design knowledge and expertise is not a realistic expectation for Site Managers and additional tools/templates should be made available to provide assistance in implementing the CLA VBL on websites.
How comfortable are you with checking a web pages' accessibility compliance and making necessary changes?
It's worth noting that 70% of the respondents that selected "Not at all" or "Somewhat" also did not go through training with CLA Web Services. Once again showing how critical the on-boarding process is. This is supporting evidence for our decision to remove Site Managers ability to promote other users to have editing access.
Did you go through Site Manager training with the CLA Web Team?
The next six questions were only answered by the 50% of respondents that had gone through training with CLA Web Services.
Also, of the 50% who did not go through training with CLA Web Services only 33% received training (of any sort) from another Site Manager.
The training on WordPress was sufficient to help me be successful in my Site Manager responsibilities.
The training on Beaver Builder was sufficient to help me be successful in my Site Manager responsibilities.
The training on web accessibility was sufficient to help me be successful in my Site Manager responsibilities.
The training on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was sufficient to help me be successful in my Site Manager responsibilities.
Based on the responses, it seems there is a lot of room for improvement both in training and also in ensuring that all Site Managers get some level of SEO training. At present, formal SEO training with CLA Communications happens when a website is redesigned, not necessarily when each new Site Manager is trained - this needs to be formalized in a two-way tradeoff between CLA Communications and CLA Web Services.
Overall, were you satisfied with the training that was provided?
Is there any additional training that you would like to see the CLA Web Team provide? Or, is there any feedback you would like to provide on the training that you received?
Responses are summarized as:
- Refresher or advanced training (design and animations)
- Needing a dedicated Site Manager/Communicator
- Additional training on branding for the web
Is there more than one Site Manager / Editor for your website?
Are you the lead Site Manager / Editor for your website(s)?
Do you collaborate with the other Site Managers / Editors?
Is the workload manageable by just one Site Manager?
Only 33% of respondents answered this question, but 100% selected "Yes", indicating that the workload is manageable by one Site Manager.
Which communication method do you prefer for support?
It's worth noting the top picks:
- 50% Ticket System (cla_webhelp@mail.colostate.edu)
- 27.8% Direct Email
- 22.2% Microsoft Teams Video Call
Do you know that the CLA Web Team has a webpage with documentation for Site Managers?
There is a lot of room for improvement in awareness of Site Manager resources. In addition 50% of the respondents who selected "No" had gone through training with CLA Web Services, which indicates a miscommunication or lack of communication entirely.
Is there any documentation that you would like to see created?
- SEO and SEO updates/trends
Are there any features that are missing on your website(s), or tools that could better help you in your role as a Site Manager?
- Yoast SEO Premium