Staff members will once again have the chance to let their voices be heard by providing valuable feedback on the work culture at Yale via the 2017 Workplace Survey, being held Monday, Feb. 20 through midnight on Sunday, March 12.
President Peter Salovey encouraged all Yale staff members to take the survey in a Feb. 20 e-mail, writing: “Yale’s Workplace Survey provides the university with important information about employee satisfaction, work unit and supervisor effectiveness, workplace communications, and organizational culture. The responses are used to develop action plans for improvements in departments as well as across the university.”
Salovey went on to say, “I join the entire university leadership in thanking you for sharing your views on workplace issues that are of vital importance to us all.”
The 2017 Workplace Survey is now live and can be completed online any time before midnight on March 12.
First offered in 2004-2005, the survey continues to provide information on important issues in the workforce and helps identify areas most in need of improvement for the university and individual departments. Staff feedback on the 2017 survey will help the president and the university officers better understand how Yale is doing and what the university needs to focus on for 2017 and beyond.
In 2014, 82% of non-faculty staff members completed the survey and provided detailed feedback about the work culture at Yale. “This year we expand our efforts to include a participation goal of 80% or higher, and 75% of the university with an Action Plan,” says Deborah Stanley-McAulay, chief diversity officer, who leads the effort on coordinating the survey. “Action plans signal to the workforce our commitment to strengthening the climate, culture, and day-to-day experiences of the workplace.”
“To ensure that everyone is able to participate in the survey,” Stanley-McAulay adds, “it is administered in both paper and electronic formats. The online survey will accommodate staff members who use PCs, Macs, iPads, and other personal electronic devices. Special facilitated sessions are set up to gain input from staff members who do not have easy access to a computer.”
The survey is brief (taking 7-10 minutes to complete) and is strictly anonymous (staff members are never asked for a NetID or name, and answers cannot be traced). The data will be collected and analyzed by the outside consulting firm Mercer/Sirota, which will provide finished reports and online tools to the university. To help create measurable benchmarks for the university to assess over time, the questions being asked this year are similar to those in the survey conducted in 2014 in such critical dimensions of the work environment as commitment, diversity, leadership, productivity, innovation, and development.
For additional information, visit the Workplace Survey website.