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How to create civil servant survey about open data awareness and use

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Adam Sabla

·

Aug 22, 2025

Create your survey

This article will guide you step-by-step on how to create a survey tailored to civil servants about open data awareness and use. With Specific, you can build a robust, conversational survey in just seconds—no need for complex tools or forms. Simply generate your own survey and uncover deep insights, fast.

Steps to create a survey for civil servants about open data awareness and use

Let’s be blunt—if you want to save time, just generate a survey with Specific. It takes care of the heavy lifting using state-of-the-art AI for surveys.

  1. Tell what survey you want.

  2. Done.

You honestly don’t need to read any further if speed is all you’re after. The AI will create the survey using best-practice expertise and even ask your respondents intelligent follow-up questions to dig beneath the surface, helping you gather richer insights with almost no manual effort. If you do want to learn more, keep reading about how to craft the strongest possible survey for civil servants on open data awareness and use—or visit the Specific AI survey builder to start from scratch.

Why surveying civil servants on open data awareness and use matters

Skipping these surveys is leaving serious blind spots in your organization. Here’s why:

  • If you’re not measuring data literacy and attitudes toward open data within your workforce, you’re likely missing important signals about readiness, obstacles, and opportunities for improvement.

  • Civil servant feedback is a goldmine for pinpointing gaps in open data skills, roadblocks in implementation, and areas for targeted training.

  • With the public sector moving swiftly toward digital transformation, open data knowledge is foundational—**72% of public sector staff recognize the growing importance of understanding and using data in the next three years**[1]. But the twist? **78% are unaware of specific government open data initiatives or their benefits**[1].

  • This isn’t just a knowledge gap—it’s an opportunity gap. If you’re not running these surveys, you’re missing out on actionable insights to steer your open data agenda.

The importance of civil servant feedback on open data can’t be overstated. Effective surveys uncover issues that drive both strategy and everyday work. They help identify high-ROI opportunities and reveal what’s holding your digital ambitions back. Don't underestimate how much simply asking can shift attitudes—sometimes, giving your team a voice sparks change by itself. To delve even further into the benefits and best practices for open data civil servant surveys, check out our dedicated deep-dive.

What makes a good survey on open data awareness and use

With so much riding on these surveys, you want both the quantity and quality of civil servant responses to be high. So how do you pull that off?

  • Use clear, unbiased questions. Avoid jargon and keep your language open.

  • Keep the tone conversational—when respondents feel the survey “gets” them, they’re more likely to answer truthfully and thoughtfully.

  • The magic metric: A good survey achieves broad participation and gets answers detailed enough to drive practical strategy. If you’re not seeing both, tweak your approach.

Here’s a quick cheat sheet for dos and don’ts:

Bad Practices

Good Practices

Vague or leading questions

Clear, concise, neutral wording

One-size-fits-all approach

Targeted questions based on role/department

No follow-ups

Conversational, probing follow-ups

Cold, formal tone

Friendly, natural chat format

Remember, every good survey is a blend of thoughtful structure, approachable language, and dynamic follow-up. If you want expert-level polish without the effort, that’s precisely what the AI survey builder in Specific is designed to deliver.

What are question types with examples for civil servant survey about open data awareness and use

Mixing question types is essential for getting both rich, qualitative insights and crisp, actionable data. Let’s break down the most important ones for a civil servant open data awareness and use survey:

Open-ended questions let civil servants freely express their experiences and priorities. These questions uncover “unknown unknowns” and unsolicited feedback—the source of many breakthrough insights. Use them when exploring perceptions, pain points, or new ideas. For example:

  • What challenges have you faced when trying to access or utilize open data resources in your work?

  • How would increased data literacy impact your day-to-day responsibilities as a civil servant?

Single-select multiple-choice questions provide structure and are perfect when you want fast benchmarking or to compare responses across different groups over time. Here’s how you might ask:

How familiar are you with the current open data initiatives within your organization?

  • Very familiar

  • Somewhat familiar

  • Heard of them, but not sure what they involve

  • Not familiar at all

NPS (Net Promoter Score) question is useful for measuring support and buy-in for open data initiatives—are civil servants likely to advocate for them? You can quickly generate a dedicated NPS survey for civil servants here. A solid example:

On a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend open data-driven processes or policies to your colleagues?

Followup questions to uncover "the why" are crucial when you want context. Let’s say a civil servant selects “Not familiar at all” on a multiple-choice; the survey follows up, asking them to explain why, so you don’t just capture what’s happening—but why it’s happening. Specific handles this automatically. For example:

  • What makes it difficult for you to become familiar with these open data initiatives?

  • What support or resources would help you engage more with open data policies?

The complete list of the best questions to ask civil servants about open data awareness and use (with expert tips on wording, follow-ups, and structuring your survey logic) is always up to date if you want to explore more examples or go deeper.

What is a conversational survey

A conversational survey mimics a real chat—questions flow naturally, tone is human, and every answer gets a thoughtful follow-up when it matters. Manual surveys? Those rely on rigid forms, pre-made branching, and zero adaptability.

With AI survey generation, it’s night and day:

Manual Surveys

AI-generated Conversational Surveys

Static, one-size-fits-all

Adapt instantly to responses

Hard to personalize

Feels like a real human chat

Time-consuming to set up

Ready in seconds

Poor at probing deeper

AI asks smart follow-ups

Why use AI for civil servant surveys? Today’s open data initiatives demand nuance—there’s no shortcut around it. An AI survey example can quickly surface knowledge gaps, misconceptions, or best practices while adapting on the fly. When compared to traditional forms, AI-generated conversational surveys are simply more effective—especially in a domain as dynamic as public sector data literacy.

Specific delivers a best-in-class user experience, ensuring every conversational survey is both enjoyable for the civil servant and a breeze for the survey creator. If you want a walk-through, check our detailed guide on how to create and analyze a civil servant open data survey.

The power of follow-up questions

Most traditional surveys leave you with partial answers and muddy insights. With Specific, AI-powered follow-up questions automatically dig deeper—just as an expert interviewer would. The result is much richer understanding, zero manual chasing via email, and a natural, engaging conversation for civil servants.

  • Civil servant: "I’m not familiar with our open data policies."

  • AI follow-up: "Is there a reason you haven’t been exposed to these policies, or are they not communicated within your department?"

How many followups to ask? In most cases, two or three targeted follow-ups is perfect—it prevents fatigue while gathering all you need. Specific’s settings let you adjust this, so once you detect the core issue, the survey moves them along to the next question for a smooth flow.

This makes it a conversational survey—the real secret to high participation and honest feedback is that back-and-forth exchange.

AI survey response analysis is incredibly efficient—unstructured replies aren’t a headache anymore. Explore how to analyze open-ended survey responses with Specific's AI—you can instantly distill and explore qualitative insights with ease.

These automated follow-ups are a total game changer. Once you try generating a survey and see how naturally the conversation unfolds, you’ll never want to go back to static forms again.

See this open data awareness and use survey example now

Ready to uncover what your civil servants really think? Launch your own conversational survey in seconds and capture deep insights effortlessly with adaptive AI-powered follow-ups. Don’t just measure data literacy—move it forward, today.

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Sources

  1. The Guardian. Survey on UK public sector data skills and open data awareness

  2. Global Data Barometer. OECD perspective on skills for open data policy

  3. Capgemini. Report on EU Member States' data skills training initiatives

Adam Sabla - Image Avatar

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.