University of Massachusetts Amherst
PAE-12: Employee Satisfaction Evaluation

UMass Amherst partners with a third-party program run through the Chronicle of Higher Education to evaluate employee satisfaction. The "Great Colleges To Work For Program" is an annual survey designed to recognize institutions that have been successful in creating great workplaces and to further research and understanding of the factors, dynamics and influences that have the most impact on organizational culture at institutions of higher education. UMass Amherst is listed among the Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Great Colleges to Work For 2011” in the area of tenure clarity and process. The CHE says “The university tries to ‘demystify the tenure process’ for faculty, one administrator says. It notes that all junior faculty in their third year have pre-tenure reviews with the provost’s office and can attend workshops to learn more about the process.(Chronicle of Higher Education, 7/25/11) At the core of the program is a two-part assessment process: a faculty/employee survey (The ModernThink Higher Education Insight Survey©) and an institutional audit capturing information detailing various institution demographics, polices, practices and infrastructure (The ModernThink Institution Questionnaire©). The survey is anonymous, and is sent to a sample of administrators, faculty and staff. Our Office of Institutional research receive high level summaries of the survey results.