Cornell University
PAE-12: Employee Satisfaction Evaluation

Cornell continuously employs unit or campus–wide surveys to drive improvements to the campus climate to foster a productive work environment for faculty, students and staff, including mature workers. Cornell administers a satisfaction survey for all faculty on a 5 year cycle - the most recent of which was administered in fall, 2010. The university conducted a survey for all staff in the fall of 2011. The student PULSE survey is conducted on a bi-annual basis. From the faculty survey a number of areas have been addressed. One area was the academic Calendar. Since the survey was conducted a few changes have been made. 1) Labor day has been listed as a non-instructional day of remembrance. Originally, classes were held on labor day while non-academic employees had the day off as a paid holiday. 2) Beginning in 2014, Martin Luther King day will be observed for all university employees. 3) fall break has been extended by 2 days to alleviate stress students have expressed in the past. In November 2011, Cornell conducted an Employee Survey to understand staff engagement with the help of the Employee Assembly and Institutional Research and Planning. The survey asked staff about their job, career development, respect and fairness, leadership and direction and life outside of Cornell. Approximately 70% of staff chose to complete the survey and more than 1700 comments were submitted and reviewed. Analysis of the survey and comments helped us focus on the issues that were most prevalent and had the most impact on staff satisfaction. There are four main areas with university-wide impact: 1. Workload Imbalance: Seek out more information in each college/unit about workload imbalances and ways to address these. HR will work with staff who feel that their positions have changed significantly to review their classifications/titles. 2. Career Growth: Identify measures that will support our staff career growth. 3. Recognition: Identify more opportunities to recognize staff for excellent work. It is important that we acknowledge the dedication and excellent work of our staff. As a result of the survey, new employee recognition programs have been established. 4. Supervisor Feedback: Develop and implement supervisory feedback. A 360-degree feedback tool has been developed and was utilized during the last performance review cycle for supervisors in many areas on campus. A group of human resources leaders and members of the Employee Assembly established a committee to address these four university-wide issues. The committee has already engaged volunteers comprised of staff in different positions and colleges/units across the university. Project plans to address each issue were vetted and many initiatives have been implemented. Colleges and units are also working to respond to the individual needs of their organizations that fall outside of the university-wide effort.