As an employee of Colorado State University, what would you like the administration know about your job?
The Employee Climate Survey is your chance to let managers at all levels know what you think about working at CSU.
“We want to hear from everyone on campus, faculty as well as staff,” said Mary Ontiveros, vice president for diversity. “This is the fourth time we’ve done this survey in the last eight years, and we always report what we find, good or bad, to the people who can make the decisions about what to change.”
Formerly known as the Campus Climate Survey, the employee survey will be available online beginning Oct. 2. The Office of the Vice President for Diversity, in collaboration with the Office of Institutional Research, Planning and Effectiveness, conducts the survey every two years, to give every CSU employee the opportunity to share their perspectives and experiences of working here, on topics identified by key University groups and councils.
The last survey was conducted in 2016; results can be viewed here.
Such campus assessments are considered among best practices in recruiting and retaining faculty, especially faculty of diverse backgrounds, by national organizations of higher education institutions.
Based on input from previous surveys, CSU has expanded diversity and inclusion training; addressed the issue of bullying, which led to a formal policy in 2015; and mandatory supervisor training, which has been implemented and is ongoing.
Answers to your Top 10 questions about the Employee Climate Survey
“Every person’s voice matters,” Ontiveros added. “We want to hear from everyone about what’s working, what causes problems in your job, and places where we can improve the experience for all faculty, staff and students. But we can’t improve if we don’t know what’s not going well.”
Anonymous responses
This year, the focus is on greater participation at the division level, and division leaders will be sending their employees emails with links to access the survey. Ontiveros said the survey team has continued to assure that all responses will be remain strictly anonymous, so respondents should feel comfortable in answering all questions candidly.
It is particularly important for faculty members to complete the survey this year. Ontiveros explained that to maintain the confidentiality of participants, information is not released if there are fewer than 10 respondents in a unit.
“We have found that deans and department heads are extremely interested in the survey findings,” she said. “Now that we have completed several surveys, we can start to compare ourselves to ourselves, and how we have improved – or not – over time. But without greater faculty participation, some departments don’t have enough respondents to report.”
While individual privacy is paramount, the process itself is transparent, with final anonymous data posted on both the OVPD and IR websites after results are tabulated, about two months after the survey closes at the beginning of November.
The findings are shared with the President’s Office and Cabinet, the Shared Governance Councils and anyone who asks for a presentation for their unit. PowerPoints of these presentations will also be posted online.
For more information, or to request a hard-copy version of the survey in either English or Spanish that can be returned in secure dropboxes around campus, contact Shannon Archibeque-Engle, associate vice president for diversity assessment, at Shannon.archibeque-engle@colostate.edu, (970) 491-2450.
