A system-wide employee engagement survey aims to gain clearer measurements for success that will assist with recruitment, retention, and development of the most talented and diverse workforce possible — both as a system and on each campus. We also can assess system and district leadership on their own engagement so that the results are comprehensive.
For regents, boards, and system presidents the survey offers a powerful metric to assess a new or existing president’s stewardship of their institution’s culture, as well as accountability for improvement initiatives and human capital measures like turnover, onboarding and shared governance.
A group or system of institutions administering the same customized survey questions and distribution method qualifies for a discounted rate on the survey project. It could also work with our sales consultants to see how participation in the Great Colleges to Work for program could help save money.
An example of this approach is ModernThink’s partnership with the University of North Carolina system. The UNC System and its constituent institutions engaged ModernThink to help develop and administer its Employee Engagement Survey three times – February 2018, February 2020 and March 2022. The survey asked employees for feedback about topics relating to communications, collaboration, supervision and benefits, among other items. Through this system-wide survey administration, ModernThink was able to provide campus-to-campus benchmarking, aggregated data across all UNC campuses, and longitudinal data at the campus and system levels. This project supported both campus- and system-level strategic plans.
Data drives decisions at every level in higher education. Our surveys provide not only individual institution leaders with critical insights, but also system and district leaders who want to assess differences in faculty and staff engagement across institutions.