Achieve Meaningful Gains in Student and Employee Satisfaction

Improve student and employee satisfaction by conducting surveys to establish baselines, addressing key concerns and implementing targeted action plans.

The university also aims to provide competitive pay, strengthen shared governance, improve work environments, and enhance employee well-being and work-life balance:

Measure and improve student satisfaction

  • Establish a baseline satisfaction rate using the Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL) Satisfaction Inventory:
    • Launch an initial RNL Student Satisfaction Inventory to assess student satisfaction and identify key areas for improvement (i.e., very important, very dissatisfied).
    • Use a stratified random sampling to encourage student participation by undergraduate and graduate classification, academic college, gender, race/ethnicity, etc.
    • Increase student survey participation by incentivizing faculty to offer student incentives for participating (e.g., class participation as an element of university citizenship, extra credit).
    • Clearly communicate the purpose of the survey and how results will be used to drive meaningful change.
  • Address key areas for student satisfaction improvement:
    • Identify and prioritize key concerns from survey results, such as academic advising, campus climate, campus life, campus support services, concern for the individual, instructional effectiveness, recruitment and financial aid, registration effectiveness, safety and security, service excellence, and student centeredness.
    • Develop and implement targeted, annual action plans to resolve institutional challenges and track progress.
  • Explore the feasibility of leveraging HLC Quality Initiative Proposal (QIP) to enhance student satisfaction.

Measure and improve employee satisfaction

  • Establish a baseline and communicate the survey’s purpose:
    • Launch an initial administration of ModernThink’s Great Colleges to Work For survey to assess current employee satisfaction levels and identify key areas for improvement.
    • Clearly communicate the purpose of the survey and how results will be used to drive meaningful change.
  • Strengthen workplace culture and engagement:
    • Foster a culture of transparency, recognition and inclusivity through leadership training, mentorship programs and employee appreciation initiatives.
    • Encourage regular employee feedback through town halls, focus groups, or pulse surveys between full survey cycles.
  • Address key areas of improvement:
    • Identify and prioritize key concerns from survey results, such as workload balance, leadership effectiveness, career growth opportunities and workplace well-being.
    • Implement targeted, annual action plans to resolve common challenges and track progress.

Provide competitive pay and compensation

  • Provide starting pay for all positions above the relevant market rate.
  • Move to a biweekly pay schedule for nonexempt positions and evaluate for exempt positions.
  • Develop a comprehensive pay and compensation strategy that removes inconsistencies and redundant processes (e.g., library performance evaluation committee).
  • Provide annual, automatic cost-of-living adjustments equal to inflation, including in vacant positions.
  • Develop, implement and fund a merit-based pay system that rewards high performance with additional compensation.
  • Develop, implement and fund a step-and-grade system that rewards longevity.
  • Address salary compression created in lower grades due to the increase in minimum wage to $15.00 per hour.
  • Increase shift differentials and include annual increases commensurate with across-the-board raises.
  • Conduct internal audits to identify and correct salary disparities, particularly for long-tenured employees who may have fallen behind market rates.
  • Ensure pay adjustments account for experience, performance and job responsibilities.
  • Increase affordable on-campus childcare and school opportunities for employees and give priority consideration.
  • Evaluate parking permit cost as a percentage of employee salary.

Strengthen shared governance

  • Evaluate areas of shared governance and identify opportunities.
  • Evaluate the faculty’s role for influencing departmental, college and university leadership selection.
  • Develop policies to support faculty autonomy and decision-making.

Improve work environments

  • Evaluate employee work environments to ensure work areas are functional and reflect the university’s commitment to its employees and the mission of the university.
  • Reduce the disparity in the physical work environments across campus.
  • Evaluate the cost-center model of funding and whether other models provide greater opportunity for growth.
  • Ensure facilities are well-maintained to provide a quality work environment.
  • Implement the university’s Facility Master Plan.

Enhance employee well-being and worklife balance

  • Introduce or expand wellness initiatives, mental-health resources, flexible-work options and employee-assistance programs.
  • Promote work-life balance policies for faculty and staff, and ensure they are accessible and equitably implemented.
  • Conduct a comprehensive staffing analysis to identify under- and over-resourced areas; then, allocate resources to allow expectations to be met.
  • Evaluate opportunities to leverage technology to enhance employee work-life balance.