I hope this message finds you well. On behalf of the Employee Engagement Working Group, we are thrilled to announce a collaboration between ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and Rankin Climate, a renowned leader in campus climate assessments. Recognizing the importance of prioritizing our community’s engagement, health, and happiness, our work with Ranking Climate will provide valuable insights into the factors that contribute to the overall well-being of our staff members.

Key highlights of this collaboration include:

Comprehensive Survey: Rankin Climate will conduct a survey to gather insights into various aspects of staff well-being, including workplace climate, work-life balance, job satisfaction, and more.

Tailored Solutions: The information collected will enable us to identify specific areas for improvement. We will work collaboratively to implement targeted strategies to enhance the overall well-being and engagement of our staff.

Confidentiality and Privacy: Rankin Climate is committed to ensuring the anonymity of individual survey responses. All data collected during the assessment will be treated with the utmost confidentiality and in compliance with privacy regulations.

Continuous Improvement: This collaboration is a commitment to ongoing assessment and improvement. Our work will include mechanisms for regular feedback to ensure we are continually and effectively supporting our community’s engagement, health, and happiness.

Engaged, healthy, and supported staff contributes directly to our collective success. Contributing to our commitment to employee engagement, the Dean of Faculty’s Office will collect faculty feedback through the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) job satisfaction survey this Spring. The feedback from the Rankin Climate survey for staff and the COACHE survey for faculty will be used together to deepen engagement across campus.

Your input is invaluable to shaping future initiatives to promote staff well-being. Further details on the survey process, including timelines and communication channels, will be shared in the coming weeks.

Thank you for your continued dedication to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. We look forward to this exciting journey of collaboration and improvement.

Best regards,

The Employee Engagement Workgroup–

Hope Burnell
Assistant Vice President of Human Resources & Environmental Health and Safety

On behalf of the Employee Engagement Working Group, I am pleased to share an update about our work.

The Working Group came together this August and meets bi-weekly. The group began by establishing meeting norms and has met four times. We determined our work’s scope, focus, and timeline, reviewed data, and performed a SWOT analysis to examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to our ability to attract and retain great employees. Finally, we crafted a communication plan to ensure transparency. Those seeking regular updates on the working group’s progress can find meeting minutes on the engagement page of the HR website.

The focus of the group’s work is to identify three potential engagement survey vendors to present to senior staff in December. Senior staff will make the final selection, with plans to launch a survey in February. 

In preparation for identifying survey vendors, the working group assessed insights gathered during the spring listening sessions, examined ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Educators and Staff Organization (BESO) materials outlining their priorities, and conducted the SWOT exercise. 

Having reviewed the data, the group discussed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to our ability to be where current and potential employees want to come and stay to work. The data was synthesized into a summary of themes, challenges, opportunities, and areas of continued focus. Please see the details here. The working group will use this information to identify surveys with questions that probe these areas and allow employees to express their perspectives.

The group learned about best practices for engagement surveys and discussed different survey vendor types. We will begin reviewing possible survey vendors in our next meeting. 

Please look for our next update in November and direct questions, comments, and suggestions to or a working group member.

Thank you,

Hope and the Engagement Working Group