Stanford University
PA-13: Assessing Employee Satisfaction

From October 10-26, 2018, all Stanford non-academic staff, Athletics coaches, and academic staff researchers and librarians were invited to participate in a university-wide staff engagement survey. While individual groups have been surveying their employees and collecting feedback for years, the 2018 staff survey represents only the second-ever university-wide staff survey. The survey was deployed online and via paper and available in English and Spanish.

Each school and unit identified one or more survey liaison(s) to be the primary point(s) of contact related to the survey, and to shepherd the process, from communicating to staff to encourage participation in the survey to post-survey communication of results and moving the process forward to identify actions to make workplace improvements. Survey liaisons were trained to use the online results portal to generate reports, and are currently partnering with their leaders to identify next steps. University HR managed these projects, working closely with a steering committee and later, each school and unit’s designated survey liaison(s), to administer the survey and results, and to develop action plans based on local results.

Almost 9,000 staff members shared their voice in the 2018 Staff Engagement Survey, representing a 6% increase over the 2015 staff survey response rate. The survey results were analyzed and shared with the leadership team in January 2019 to identify what is working well at the university, along with our greatest opportunities to improve. Stanford compared the 2018 results to those collected 2015, as well as to external benchmarks including other four-year academic institutions and companies identified as best places to work. Results indicate 81% of staff feel Stanford provides opportunities to learn new skills and 76% of staff see a clear link between their work and school/unit goals and objectives. Results like these help inform initiatives at the university-wide level and are used to make improvements within individual groups, departments, and programs.

See more details on the survey here: https://cardinalatwork.stanford.edu/engage/staff-survey

The results from the 2018 university-wide staff engagement survey were shared with the President and Provost to identify key priorities and were then communicated to leaders of schools and units to identify priorities within their organizations. Survey liaisons and leaders attend workshops led by the survey vendor to help groups make meaningful change based on their survey results. Results were communicated broadly in Stanford’s public daily news platform, The Stanford Report, and posted to the Cardinal at Work website: https://cardinalatwork.stanford.edu/engage/staff-survey

The President and Provost have spearheaded a massive strategic planning effort, which has culminated in the long-range vision. With hundreds of faculty and staff researching issues that surfaced during the submission of ideas about what the future holds for our institution, Stanford aligned findings from the staff engagement survey with university-wide issues and direction. As a result, Stanford's approach to action planning based on the results were to connect, where possible, staff engagement survey results with initiatives in progress. See more details on the long-range vision and its outcomes to-date here: https://ourvision.stanford.edu/

One specific outcome from the combination of the survey results and long-range vision was the formation of The Affordability Task Force, which was charged with developing a set of sustainable, widespread and data-informed recommendations to address affordability issues for the university’s community members. For instance, Stanford's paid family leave benefit now includes six weeks fully paid at 100% for eligible employees. Additionally, the number of back-up care days is increasing to provide 10 days of back-up care for children and adults or elder relatives through Bright Horizons. Previously, the benefit allowed benefits-eligible staff to use five days per calendar year. See here for more details on the most recent efforts from the Task Force: https://affordability.stanford.edu/

As permitted under the STARS Covid-19 reporting guidance, Stanford is reporting 2018 data, which is within the six year rather than typical three year performance period. See the STARS guidance here: https://stars.aashe.org/resources-support/help-center/using-the-reporting-tool/stars-reporting-and-covid-19/