Employee Experience Task Force
The Employee Experience Task Force was asked April 5, 2024 to provide short-term recommendations to Chancellor White to improve the employee experience in Fall 2024.
The UAF Employee Experience Task Force has the following responsibilities:
- Review survey data available from the
- Provide recommendations on how to grow areas of strength identified in the survey.
- Provide recommendations on how to address areas in need of improvement identified in survey data.
- Provide specific recommendations to improve the employee experience for groups disaggregated in the data (faculty, staff, remote, etc.)
The group provided short-term recommendations on May 6, 2024 around specific areas that influence how employees feel about working at UAF, and included a number of recommendations which build on existing program strengths.
Summary of findings
Three-fourths of respondents are proud of the university鈥檚 efforts to positively impact
the communities we serve and would recommend the university to people seeking education
or job and technical training. Nearly 90% of respondents reported favorably that they
felt their work is meaningful, and 82% of respondents indicated their work gives them
a sense of personal accomplishment. Additionally, 83% of respondents said they routinely
collaborate to get their work done. This level of commitment and collegiality is part
of UAF鈥檚 competitive advantage.
Three-quarters of respondents indicated the frequency of meaningful communications
with their supervisors is adequate. Favorability drops, however, when asked about
鈥渙pen, honest, two-way communication鈥 at the university level (42%). Nearly 40% of
executives and more than a third (34% of 251) of faculty responded unfavorably to
this question. The are available for employees to view.
In its recommendations to Chancellor White, the task force focused on six areas where leaders can have the biggest impact, and help ensure that employees feel their feedback has been heard and considered. The task force's short-term recommendations and chancellor's responses to them are summarized here.
It's important to engage leadership at all levels to leverage employee feedback and resources to identify unit-level actions, and update employees on actions that have taken place to reinforce the importance of their voice in shaping the university鈥檚 future.
- Recommended actions:
Charge university leaders (provost, vice chancellors, deans and directors) with reviewing data in their areas of responsibility and proposing 2-3 actions they will take based on the feedback. - Charge leadership to work with the communication team to share steps taken to act on employee feedback, as well as major initiatives and timelines from the System Office that may impact the overall employee experience.
Chancellor White's response on May 17, 2024:
Task Onboarding and Engagement Manager Carla Browning to collaborate with UAHR to
develop and deliver an engagement training for deans and directors to encourage all
levels of leadership to use the survey data in Qualtrics to improve the overall employee
experience at UAF.
Communicating and clarifying UAF鈥檚 mission and vision to employees can lead to better understanding and rationalization of expectations overall. Fostering a sense of purpose and connection is also strongly associated with employee well-being and helps to reduce employee burnout. Onboarding and other efforts help to increase a sense of belonging and ensure employees understand the mission, vision and goals, as well as how their individual and department鈥檚 contributions support UAF鈥檚 stated objectives.
Recommended actions:
- Continue, and strengthen, new employee events, faculty orientation, and development activities; add/enhance onboarding programs for remote workers, and automate processes where possible to ensure new hires have what they need to be successful.
- Consider hosting a series of small, department listening sessions to strengthen communication between executives/faculty and leadership.
- Implement a faculty/staff mentoring program to increase employee connections and well-being. (See attached proposal from this year鈥檚 Academic Leadership Institute.)
Chancellor White's response May 17, 2024:
Charge Provost Prakash with exploring formal staff and faculty mentorship opportunities
at UAF.
It should be noted that onboarding and faculty development are continuing to add to offerings for new and existing employees.