Purdue University
PA-13: Assessing Employee Satisfaction

15Five – Purdue utilized the 15Five engagement tool for non-academic staff, which is a science backed assessment paired with an insights dashboard that makes it easy to collect employee feedback and find insights. Enables leaders to quickly decide where to focus their engagement strategy and dive deeper into specific topics, such as burnout, DE&I, and remote work when needed. Measures 17 types of engagement drivers (autonomy, capacity, coworker relationships, fairness, feedback, goal support, leader availability, leader integrity, manager, meaning, professional development, psychological safety, purpose, rest, role clarity, shared values, and utilization).

COACHE – Academic faculty participate in the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) faculty satisfaction survey, conducted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The goal of the survey is to identify both our areas of strength and of concern, and to guide our actions for improvement. The survey responses are clustered by COACHE t ogive us insight into how we’re doing in the following areas: nature of work, resources and support, benefits, interdisciplinary work and collaboration, mentoring, promotion/tenure/retention/negotiation, leadership and governance, departmental engagement/quality/collegiality, work and personal life balance, appreciation and recognition, global satisfaction and improvement

15Five – Provides Purdue with de-identified data (all reporting must be aggregate (5 responses or more). We have the option to review results on our own and develop an action plan or utilize 15Five’s support of executive advisors and manager coaches to take action and create an engaged and productive culture. For example, a division on campus was struggling with connecting to the purpose of their specific organization. They did not understand the strategy and how their work fit into the overall mission/vision. This insight was brought to light in the engagement survey and the leader of this division took action steps to communicate the mission/vision, work with their leadership team to develop a comprehensive strategy for the next 1-5 years and share that with their department. This division plans to re-survey again in July to determine if the actions taken will improve the engagement score in that particular area. Other units are utilizing 15Five’s team to walk through results and help with action planning to drive up the engagement score.

COACHE – Provides Purdue with de-identified datasets, which enable us to look deeper into benchmarks and survey items based on academic or demographic variables. All reporting must be aggregate (10 responses or more). IDA+A (internal Purdue department) analyzes the datasets and prepares dashboards containing the aggregate results. These dashboards are accessible by faculty, deans, and department heads. Each college appoints members to the Purdue COACHE Implementation Team and they work with IDA+A to evaluate the results for their college. They will plan and implement actions in their college, guided by the results, intended to highlight areas of strength and address areas of concern where improvement is possible.