More than 8,000 staff members across Indiana University responded to the second My Voice at IU Staff Engagement Survey administered in September 2019. The survey collected feedback from staff about how they feel about working at IU: whether they feel valued, whether their contributions matter and the level of pride in their work.
“The tremendous 70 percent response rate speaks to the importance of IU’s staff engagement initiative and how much staff members desire to have a hand in making IU the very best it can be,” Vice President for Human Resources John Whelan said.
The survey results help IU better understand the needs of its employees, what the university is doing well, and where opportunities to improve exist. University-level survey results show that IU’s past engagement efforts have had a positive effect, and employee engagement across IU is trending upward. Survey scores for several aspects of employee engagement measured by the survey saw a meaningful increase, including:
“Being engaged impacts the everyday work of IU staff. It’s vital to have staff feeling good about working at IU and making a meaningful contribution to IU’s mission,” Whelan said. “The My Voice engagement process helps us continue our focus on meeting the needs of IU employees while improving IU as a workplace.”
What’s next?
Two words: discussion and planning. Now and in the coming weeks, HR professionals are sharing unit-specific engagement survey results with leadership and staff. Campuses, responsibility centers and departments will use their survey results to guide conversations about engagement and their work environment, then create simple action plans for positive change.
The action planning process:
- Participate in an open, guided discussion with your unit to determine what the results mean to you.
- Uncover the top opportunities to enhance what works well or address opportunities to improve.
- Create a simple action plan or two to make positive changes within your unit.
Following the 2017 survey, 365 diverse action plans were created by 203 units at IU. They focused on communication enhancements, recognition, team-building and more.
Whelan said that taking ownership of changes at the unit level gives staff a voice and empowers teams to lead changes that matter to them. Recent university-level results show that merely participating in effective action planning has a significant positive effect on engagement scores.
“Thank you to all who participated and will continue to participate in the My Voice process,” he said. “If you haven’t gotten involved yet, I encourage you to do so. It’s one way we’re working together to build a stronger IU.”
Staff employees can get involved in their unit’s action planning process by contacting their manager, supervisor or HR professional.
