Update from Stacey

 

Update from Stacey

Every other fall, the University conducts an Employee Engagement (E2) survey of all employees and provides results to supervisors. We are at roughly the mid-point between surveys, so it’s a useful time for ASR to reflect on our survey results and employee engagement efforts that have happened since fall 2023. Employee engagement work is important to our organizational health and making sure ASR is a high quality workplace. While imperfect, I think the survey provides us with important feedback and metrics, and a good incentive to stop and reflect also. 

Each unit in ASR has reviewed its E2 results and has plans in motion. The Office of the Registrar has conducted feedback sessions with staff and has a small working group making recommendations to its managers. Both One Stop and ASR-IT have done mini-surveys to get some more detail to inform particular efforts. Some units including Operations & Strategic Initiatives are using regular meetings to focus on DEI topics and other areas of note from the survey.

On an ASR-wide level, there have been a few initiatives related to E2, whether created specifically because of E2 or other needs in ASR. As always, we look at the alignment of our organization, teams, and processes in an effort to be efficient and support employees. What’s changed since fall 2023? The development of our project intake and prioritization process and implementation of ClickUp is directly related to feedback from the survey—I see these as key parts of our ability to say “no” to work or defer work that does not fit, creating transparency about what we are able to get done, and what teams across ASR are working on.

Another way we support employee engagement is by having effective supervisors—Natasha, Amber, and Carin have formed supervisory development cohorts to promote discussion and sharing of best practices on a variety of topics (e.g., hiring practices, coaching and giving feedback) across ASR units. As an organization it is important that we cultivate the knowledge and skills for success and develop our supervisors and future leaders.