Results of our Q3 2025 Pulse Survey

We share the results of our staff culture surveys every year as part of our commitment to transparency. 

This year, we rolled out a new quarterly pulse survey—a shorter, anonymous survey that we’ll use to track how our team feels about FWI’s direction, leadership, and culture.

This post shares the results of our first quarterly survey. Of our 27 team members, 19 participated. You can find the anonymized raw data here.

Key Survey Findings

Organizational Direction and Impact

We asked staff to rate agreement with three statements (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree):

1. I agree with the direction the organization is going in.

2. I believe FWI is having a significant impact right now.

3. I believe FWI is developing programs that will have a significant impact.

The overall average was 3.86, indicating that while our staff generally agrees with our current direction and impact, there’s still room (probably a lot!) for improvement to strengthen our strategy and expand our scale of impact.

All responses to the statements that pertain to our direction and impact—over 70% agree that we have the right approach for impact (overall average of 3.86).

Leadership and Management

We ask our staff to rate (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree) the following:

1. My manager treats me with respect and dignity.

2. My manager provides me with useful feedback to improve my work.

3. I feel safe to speak up about concerns without fear of negative consequences.

The overall average was 4.14. Staff generally feel respected by their managers. The most common suggestions were clearer task delegation and more useful, actionable feedback.

All responses to the statements that describe leadership and management within the organization. While in general staff feel that they are treated with respect by their manager, there is some concern with receiving useful feedback and speaking candidly about issues without negative consequences.

Team Culture and Belonging

We asked our staff to rate the following statements (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree):

1. In the last 30 days, I have witnessed staff being rude to each other.

2. I feel a sense of belonging at FWI.

3. I feel supported by my colleagues when I need help.

4. I would recommend FWI to others as a great place to work.

The average for the first statement, which pertains to witnessing coworkers being rude to each other, is 1.84, with 9 of our staff scoring a 2 to 4, indicating that they witnessed this to varying degrees.

The combined average for the 3 other culture statements is 4.16. Staff generally perceive FWI as a supportive workplace, while noting friction in intercultural communication and different working styles.

All responses to statements describing how our staff feel about our team culture and belonging. While our staff generally perceive FWI as a great place to work in, we can improve in supporting our colleagues and creating a more inclusive environment.

What Staff Said We Could Improve

We asked our staff an open-ended question, “What’s one thing we could improve as a team or organization?”

Here we summarize the areas of improvement highlighted in their responses:

Area of Improvement	# of staff who mentioned (out of 19 responses)
Communication and Collaboration	6
Project & Program Management	5
Autonomy of Staff	3
Leadership and Management	2
Culture & Mindset	2
Staff Learning and Development	1
Employee Care & Well-being	1

Staff most often suggested improving collaboration and knowledge sharing across departments, and better navigating differences in communication and working styles across cultures.

Potential Reasons for Leaving 

We also asked our staff, “If you were to leave FWI in the next year, what do you think would be the most likely cause of that?” This was an open-ended, optional question.

Here we summarize the potential reasons they shared:

Reasons for Leaving Next Year	# of staff who mentioned (out of 19 responses)
Poor management	3
Lack of impact and strategic alignment	3
A work environment that lacks respect	3
Wanting to try out new roles	3
Lack of opportunities for career growth and development within the org	2
Lack of leadership development for Indian staff	1

The themes are consistent with our last culture survey—namely, a sense of low job security, uncertainty about impact, and challenges with organization-wide communication and collaboration.

Our team discussing novel intervention ideas during a brainstorming session held during our 2025 Strategy Retreat in Eluru, India.

Next Steps

This pulse survey differs from our usual culture survey: it targets areas of organizational health, whereas the culture survey focuses more on overall satisfaction with working at FWI. We plan to run another pulse in February 2026 and then reassess whether to replace the culture survey or use both. Our current view is to adopt a combined approach—either one consolidated quarterly form or alternating between a pulse and a culture survey—since each captures important, complementary aspects of our work and workplace.

At the moment, we have no specific organizational changes we are expecting to make in response to the results of this survey, but we will continue to keep the areas for improvement in mind as we develop our future strategy, operations, and culture systems.