As part of our commitment to fostering a connected and supportive workplace, we are excited to provide an update on our progress since the Great Colleges Employee Engagement Survey. Over the past several weeks, we’ve hosted listening sessions to hear from our college community, gathering valuable feedback on key themes and identifying opportunities to enhance the employee experience.
Listening Sessions: What We Heard
The listening sessions revealed thoughtful insights and ideas from across the college. Here are some recurring themes:
- Employee Connectedness: Employees emphasized the importance of relationships, collaboration and a sense of belonging across departments.
- Recognition: Personal acknowledgment and programs like Osprey Ovations are appreciated, though there’s a desire for broader visibility and more personalized approaches to recognition.
- Well-being: Opportunities for work-life balance, wellness programs and flexible work options were highlighted as critical needs.
- Transparency and Trust: Building trust and fostering transparency remain critical. Employees want more opportunities to engage directly with leadership and feel confident their voices are being heard.
- Onboarding: Employees value the improvements made over the last several years and highlighted the need for more consistent, structured and role-specific onboarding processes within departments.
- Mentorship: A recurring suggestion was creating mentorship programs to support new hires and foster cross-departmental learning and collaboration.
Draft Institutional Action Plan: Actions Underway and Ideas in Development
The insights from these sessions, combined with survey data and initial consultation with groups like CAMAT, FAMAT and the management team, have helped to guide our draft institutional action plan:
Employee Connectedness as a College Priority
Dr. Weber shared Employee Connectedness as a priority for the 2024-25 academic year during the Fall Kick-off. This strategic focus underscores our commitment to this work.
NEOED Learn Implementation
HR is actively preparing for the implementation of NEOED Learn, a platform designed to streamline onboarding and provide robust professional development opportunities. The system is on track to launch in early 2025.
Executive Leadership Connection & Credibility
Efforts to build connection to, confidence in, and quality of communication with and from Executive Leadership are underway. Approaches include group development for E-team, being intentional about finding opportunities for leaders to connect with employees at all levels and be seen as people rather than roles, and increasing transparency around E-team decision-making.
Shared Governance
We will explore opportunities to enhance shared governance structures, focusing on improving communication and decision-making across departments, divisions, committees, councils and other groups. We’ll engage stakeholders across the college to assess current structures and identify areas for growth.
Supervisor Tools & Resources
We’ll enhance supervisor resources and tools, building on recent initiatives such as the launch of the Supervisor Series.
Mentorship Programs
Inspired by listening session feedback, we will explore possibilities with regard to structured mentorship programs to support employee connectedness.
Health & Wellness Programs
The need to reinvigorate health and wellness offerings to support physical and mental well-being is clear. The Health & Wellness Committee will be asked to lead these efforts.
Recognition Enhancements
The People, Culture & Safety division will build on initiatives like Employee Appreciation Week (implemented in Spring of 2023-24) and Osprey Ovations, with plans to form a task force with representation from across the college as we work to create more personalized and meaningful recognition opportunities.
Equity Toolkit
The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council will roll out the Equity Toolkit to the full campus community in 2024-25 to provide resources for fostering inclusivity across the college. It is an iterative document and the Council will seek opportunities for feedback.
Rogue Report Enhancements
The Marketing & Communications team will continue to make enhancements based on user feedback to ease navigation and improve access to information.
New Resource Available: Employee Comments Analysis Report
We’ve heard your requests for details about responses to the three open-text survey questions, and we’re pleased to share that the Employee Comments Analysis Report, produced by ModernThink, is now available on the HR SharePoint. This report provides valuable insights into the experiences and perspectives of our employees. Thank you for your patience as they prepared this resource.
What’s Next: Continuing the Conversation
While some initiatives are already underway, others are in the planning stages or still being evaluated. The draft institutional action plan is a living document, and your continued input is essential. We’ll share more details in the coming weeks, including how to provide additional feedback and get involved.
Your voices have been instrumental in shaping these efforts, and we remain committed to ensuring our workplace is one where everyone feels valued, supported and empowered to succeed.
2025 Survey Reminder
Our next Great Colleges Employee Engagement Survey is tentatively scheduled to run Feb. 24 through March 7, overlapping with Employee Appreciation Week, a time dedicated to celebrating your contributions and hearing your perspectives. This alignment underscores our commitment to fostering a workplace where every voice matters. Your survey responses will directly inform future initiatives and enhancements, just as past feedback has shaped our current draft action plan.
Thank you for your engagement and ideas—together, we’re building a stronger, more connected community. For more information contact Jamee Harrington on Teams or by phone at 541-956-7017.