Washington State University employees can weigh in anonymously on their workplace experiences beginning this week with the latest iteration of the Employee Engagement Survey.
A link to the survey is being distributed to all faculty, administrative professionals and classified staff via their wsu.edu email addresses on March 29. Employees have until midnight April 12 to participate in the survey, which can be completed online. Paper copies will be available by request for those who would prefer that method.
The survey will take respondents around 20 minutes to complete on-average and builds on feedback provided in previous iterations to make it the most effective tool possible.
“This is an opportunity we only have once every few years to collect feedback from our workforce in a way that best facilitates enhancements to units and departments across the WSU system,” Laura Hamilton, manager of Human Resource Services’ Learning and Organization Development unit, said.
Several groups took significant action to address comments made by employees in recent engagement surveys. A few examples include:
- The College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Resources and WSU Extension now provides their staff more information about wellness programs and resources
- The Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture launched a Speaker’s Series on Leadership and modified training requirements to improve workforce development
- Human Resource Services worked with Percipio to provide more professional development opportunities, with personalized training programs rolling out this summer.
Greater participation among employees means a greater chance units and departments will have the data needed to take action, Hamilton said. At least five respondents per unit or department are needed to ensure specific data can be broken out in a way that maintains anonymity for respondents. After achieving a 44.7 percent response rate in 2018, HRS is hoping to eclipse 50 percent this time around.
This is the first time since 2018 that WSU has conducted an employee engagement survey. No surveys were held in 2020 and 2022 amid the pandemic and the many changes to workplace environments happening in response to public health needs. HRS did conduct a work-life balance survey during that time and used the results to shape policies around remote work, and a workplace culture survey is being planned for next year.
HRS consultants will work with areas across the system to form action plans based on results from the engagement surveys, with collected data being provided on the department’s website.
More information on the survey, including a list of answers to frequently asked questions, visit Human Resource Service’s website.
