Employee Experience graphic

 

UA Employee Experience Surveys

At UA, we are launching a comprehensive series of employee experience surveys starting in fall 2023. Our aim is to take a holistic approach to measure and enhance the employee experience. Instead of relying solely on one-time surveys, we will routinely assess the entire employee journey – from the initial job application, through the current employee experience, and even at the point when an employee decides to leave UA.Survey timeline graphic

If you require accommodation or encounter any accessibility barriers while using the survey, please contact ua-feedback@alaska.edu.

The Significance of Employee Experience Surveys

These surveys play a vital role in understanding employee perspectives and identifying strengths and areas for improvement. The data collected will serve as a guide for our strategic planning, helping us enhance existing programs, address culture-related issues, and prioritize employee needs. By doing so, we aim to boost engagement and overall job satisfaction. Research, such as the CUPA 2023 Employee Retention Survey, demonstrates that engaged employees are happier, more productive, and more likely to stay. This benefits both our employees and the university, fostering stability within the organization and encouraging collaboration and innovation. Ultimately, these factors enable us to better serve our students, support one another, and help our diverse communities across Alaska thrive.

Background

While UA Human Resources is at the helm of this effort, the UA Chief Human Resources Officer initiated the development of the UA Employee Feedback and Assessment Steering Committee. This advisory group, established with input from staff governance leaders and other key individuals, created a Charter that outlines responsibilities for planning, scoping, and communicating employee engagement information. It's an important step in maintaining transparency and structure within the committee.

Thank you to the Feedback and Assessment Advisory Committee Members for their extensive assistance and significant amount of time working to bring the employee experience survey to fruition. Some representatives were transitioning into different roles or shared the work of providing input;  thank you all! 

2024-2025 Committee Members

Ahmbra Austin, UAA VCAS Representative

Carla Browning, UAF VCAS Representative

Louisa Cryan, UAS VCAS Representative

Matthew Cuellar, UAA Faculty Senate Representative

Leah Burmann / Jennifer Carroll, UAF Faculty Senate Representative

Brian Blitz, UAS Faculty Senate Representative

Jessica Slavik, UAA Staff Council Representative

Katie Best, UAF Staff Council Representative

Chelsey Okonek, UA System Office Staff Council Representative

Lana Clark, UAS Staff Council Representative

Rebecca Lawhorne, UA Public Affairs Representative

Ahmbra Austin / UAA VCAS Representative

Carla Browning / UAF VCAS Representative

Louisa Cryan / UAS VCAS Representative

Matthew Cuellar / UAA Faculty Senate Representative

Abel Bult-Ito & Jennifer Carroll / UAF Faculty Senate Representative

Glenn Wright & Jennifer Ward / UAS Faculty Senate Representative

Jessica Slavik & Dawn Humenik / UAA Staff Council Representative

Ronnie Houchin & Derek Bastille / UAF Staff Council Representative

Lauren Hartman / UA System Office Staff Council Representative

Lana Clark / UAS Staff Council Representative

Rebecca Lawhorne / UA Public Affairs Representative

Margo Griffith / UA HR - Committee Chair

Qualtrics, a third-party vendor, is a crucial partner in this process. They are assisting with survey development and distribution, as well as conducting data analysis, which will provide valuable insights into the employee experience at UA.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

By measuring employee engagement, the UA knows that we can:

  • Improve key outcomes. Studies have found that companies with high engagement scores also experience higher performance, business performance, and innovation.
  • Collect feedback at scale. Employee engagement surveys enable teams to collect across the organization, empowering UA with the right data – the data representing the collective voices of our employees rather than the loudest voices of a few people.
  • Take informed action on improving company culture or our employee’s experiences at work. The UA wants to provide leaders with feedback from our employees so that we are able to improve your employee experience and the university’s reputation.

Understand areas of improvement. Employee feedback collected through engagement surveys will help flag problem areas before they become detrimental to productivity and the university culture. With a regular cadence of surveys, we will be able to spot workplace issues before they get out of control and see what’s motivating our employees to go above and beyond.

UA has invested in tools through Qualtrics (an independent 3rd party) to obtain feedback from employees and job applicants. The feedback will provide a holistic view of an employee's experience with information from different stages of the employee lifecycle including recruitment, onboarding, current employee feedback, and feedback requested at the time an employee leaves university employment. This tool will also be used for routine pulse surveys on various topics that influence the overall employee experience.

UA is starting with a baseline employee experience survey in Fall 2023.

No, participation is voluntary, however, all UA employees are encouraged to participate. 

Participation is a confidential way individuals can highlight what we do well and where we have opportunities for growth and change.

UA employees will receive an email invitation from ua-feedback@alaska.edu with a survey link unique to them. Do not share this link with others. If you do not receive an email with the link, please contact ua-feedback@alaska.edu.

The survey will NOT ask for your UA ID and password or any other information that are often included in phishing-type emails.

 

Yes. Responses are confidential, and results will only be reported in aggregate. Responses are anonymized and aggregated by Qualtrics (survey tools host) which means personally identifiable information, such as name, employee ID number, email, or other unique identifiers is not associated with your responses. The personally identifiable information is not available to UA. 

Information will not be broken down when there are fewer than ten employee responses. 


Near the end of the survey, you may provide voluntary written comments or feedback. Comments will be reported back as written and could be identifiable depending on the content of your comment.

The information you provide will be used to inform and improve support, policies and practices. Disclosing misconduct in the survey does not constitute reporting the incident to the university and may not result in any action, disciplinary or otherwise. To report an incident, please use the UA Confidential Hotline at https://www.alaska.edu/audit/hotline/.

 

This survey was reviewed for accessibility, to ensure everyone has equal access to the survey content. If you anticipate or experience a disability related barrier to using the survey tool please contact ua-feedback@alaska.edu

 

This survey focuses on employee engagement across all of the University of Alaska. It is a new survey that has not been done before in this format. It is different from recent benefits surveys, the UAF DEI survey, Staff Council morale surveys, and others.

Employee feedback is critical for continuous improvement and informed decision-making. Two-way feedback is useful to leaders at every level of the organization. Research shows that leaders who participate in active listening and are open to feedback, help to foster psychological safety and a culture of trust. 

 

Qualtrics, a third-party vendor, will be distributing the Employee Engagement survey to university employees, and conducting data analysis to provide insight into the employee experience at UA. Qualtrics is advising UA Human Resources’ Talent Acquisition and Development Team and the Employee Feedback and Assessment Committee on the development of the survey. 


To participate, please watch for an email from ua-feedback@alaska.edu containing your survey link.

The Employee Feedback and Assessment Committee is an advisory group to the UA chief human resources officer, made up of both faculty and staff to include: Governance representatives, UA HR, vice chancellor for administrative services representatives, and UA public affairs. UA’s chief human resources officer appointed the advisory committee in May 2023. The committee charter is located here.

Qualtrics will analyze the data and provide recommended action planning that may be useful to improve engagement in specific areas.

Once the survey is complete, the UA president, senior administration at each university, and the System Office will receive the aggregated (high-level) data reports along with recommendations. Senior administrators are committed to engaging with their university community, and in consultation with UA HR, on developing strategies to address and take action on the recommendations. We are in this together!


It’s important to highlight that all UA employees have a role in celebrating what we do well and making improvements in areas we have opportunities for growth. Employees are encouraged to not only think about what they can do individually and within their role but also work with their university leadership, supervisors, and governance groups.

 

Less than 15 minutes.

We’re using a mix of both quantitative and qualitative survey methods. All employees at UA will have an opportunity to participate in the survey and will self-select whether they choose to do so. The University of Alaska has contracted with the Qualtrics Employee Experience module (Qualtrics EX25) to ensure the data we collect is actionable.

Qualtrics has developed a tool called EX25, which uses a holistic approach to measuring and optimizing employee experience, or EX. Engagement, as a single metric, is not a sufficient measure of employee engagement. The most successful organizations are moving beyond measuring employee engagement alone to routinely measuring the entire employee experience throughout the whole employee journey from application to the exiting of an organization. 

EX25 consists of two question sets: EX KPIs (key performance indicators) and Drivers of EX. The methodology enables companies to measure five KPIs for the employee experience and link them with the 25 drivers they can act on.

EX KPIs are the outcome measurements a company should track to ensure they are providing a great employee experience.

  • Engagement
  • Experience vs. expectations
  • Intent to stay
  • Inclusion
  • Wellbeing

Drivers of EX are the critical topics that influence KPIs. They incorporate the aspects of work important to employees today. Understanding the score in each driver provides critical signals to improve the employee experience by identifying areas of strength and opportunities for growth. The design of this survey allows organizations and supervisors to develop action plans to improve engagement.

 

Survey Details

This section contains the active survey timeline and reports from completed surveys. 

2023 Employee Experience Survey Timeline
Timeframe Details
Spring 2023 Employee Feedback and Assessment Steering Committee established
Summer 2023 Survey development begins (in consultation with Qualtrics and UA Leadership)
November 21, 2023 Survey Opens
December 8, 2023 Survey Closes
December 2023 Qualtrics analyzes feedback
February 7, 2024 UA Employee Experience Survey results released by President Pitney through ua-outreach@alerts.alaska.edu
Due to IRB requirements, the data can only be accessed by inputting your UA Credentials
Spring  2024 MAU leadership begin to engage their university community in action planning
Fall 2024 Next Employee Experience Survey deployment

 

Reports

To access the UA Employee Experience Survey Results, click the button below.  Only UA employees can access results by logging in using their UA credentials. 

Results button

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Survey Access Resources

 

References and resources for managers

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