Prior Work - Facilitator Question Cards
Print alongside your survey findings summary. Adapt questions to your context - these are starting points, not a script.
- 1.When does work feel unmanageable? What's usually happening at those times?
- 2.Are there things you're asked to do that conflict with each other or with how you think the work should be done?
- 3.Is it clear what success looks like in your role? If not, what's missing?
- 1.To what extent do you feel you can make decisions about how you do your work?
- 2.Are there aspects of your job where you feel you have little say? What are they?
- 3.When you raise concerns or suggestions about how things are done, what happens?
- 1.When you're under pressure or struggling with something, where do you go for help?
- 2.How does your manager respond when you raise a problem? What would 'good support' look like?
- 3.How would you describe the level of support within your immediate team?
- 1.Do you feel that good work is noticed and acknowledged here? Can you give an example?
- 2.When decisions are made that affect your team, do you feel they're made fairly? What makes the difference?
- 3.Are there situations where people feel the rules are applied differently to different people?
priorwork.au · Generated 31 May 2026
Focus groups & contextual inquiry
Survey data tells you what is elevated. Prior Work tells you how it impacts health and wellbeing outcomes. Focus groups tell you why - the conditions, practices, and decisions behind the pattern. Each are necessary for effective action.
Why quantitative data alone isn't enough
Elevated role overload could mean insufficient headcount, poor work allocation, unclear priorities, or a mismatch between the role and the work. Each has a different solution. Structured consultation is how you tell them apart.
It also serves a participatory function: workers consulted in identifying a hazard are more likely to support the actions that follow.
Inquiry questions to explore
Starting points for the conversation, grouped by hazard - adapt them to the priority hazards in your own results. Print these as facilitator cards, or open the full guide below.
- 1.When does work feel unmanageable? What's usually happening at those times?
- 2.Are there things you're asked to do that conflict with each other or with how you think the work should be done?
- 3.Is it clear what success looks like in your role? If not, what's missing?
- 1.To what extent do you feel you can make decisions about how you do your work?
- 2.Are there aspects of your job where you feel you have little say? What are they?
- 3.When you raise concerns or suggestions about how things are done, what happens?
- 1.When you're under pressure or struggling with something, where do you go for help?
- 2.How does your manager respond when you raise a problem? What would 'good support' look like?
- 3.How would you describe the level of support within your immediate team?
- 1.Do you feel that good work is noticed and acknowledged here? Can you give an example?
- 2.When decisions are made that affect your team, do you feel they're made fairly? What makes the difference?
- 3.Are there situations where people feel the rules are applied differently to different people?
Internal or external facilitator?
A judgement call based on your circumstances:
Practical note: Prior Work has no licence fees - resources that would have gone to data analysis can fund a professional facilitator instead. The downloadable guide below briefs an external facilitator on the design and your objectives.
Design your focus groups (full guide)
The detail that used to sit on this page - recruitment and sampling, logistics, the full 90-minute run sheet, analysis, and alternatives to focus groups - now lives in one downloadable guide you can print, adapt, and share with whoever runs the sessions.