University at Buffalo
PA-12: Assessing Employee Satisfaction

The survey is administered to faculty/staff and is based on the ModernThink Insight Survey. This is an evaluation tool that has been used with more than 4,000 organizations, in over 55 “Best Place to Work” programs. The survey was created by analyzing and speaking with organizations that have successfully built workplace cultures and improved performance. The survey measures employee engagement and in the organization and therefore the quality of the workplace. The survey collects demographic data, and then capture’s faculty/staff opinions on topics such as compensation, benefits, policies, practices, communication techniques, training and development. This provides us with information on the benefits and programs which are most effective, recognizing best practices and creating benchmark data based on different categories.

The survey provides UB with information on the concerns raised by and broken out by Administration, Faculty, Exempt Professional Staff, and Non-Exempt Professional Staff for each of the 15 themes. We then take those concerns and try to address them through our internal Work Life Services office which is comprised of Wellness and Work/Life Balance, the Employee Assistance Program, and Organizational Development & Training. We continue year round to make efforts to improve UB’s workplace climate based on the feedback we receive through the survey. We have discovered that our institution as a whole needs to be more mindful of faculty concerns and faculty engagement. In an effort to address these issues we have taken the following actions: developed a comprehensive presentation from Human Resources to present at faculty orientation, established a new lunch and learn series directed towards faculty, and are in the process of creating a brochure for new faculty to make them aware of the services available to them.