Talent Acquisition & Development

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.  The second will be conducted in Fall 2024.

UA is also implementing a lifecycle survey (onboarding & exit).

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. 

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 the 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. Dashboards will be shared with results for UA Benefits-eligible staff and faculty to access.

UA System Office Leadership, Chancellors, Vice Chancellors,  as well as Deans and Directors of Colleges, Schools, and Institutes will have access to their unit's data.

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.