Background and Purpose

The Employee Engagement Survey is an initiative of the UNC System Office to support the development of excellent and diverse institutions, a key goal of the System’s strategic plan. The biennial survey is conducted by ModernThink, an independent management consulting firm. The survey questionnaire is based heavily on a survey administered by ModernThink for the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Great Colleges to Work For project, with input from the UNC System Office and representatives of each campus.
The survey was first administered to all employees in the UNC system in January 2018 and repeated in February 2020 and February 2022.
The System Office uses the survey data to compare systemwide results to the aggregate results of four-year public institutions participating in the Great Colleges to Work For survey and evaluates differences in results between UNC institutions. Survey results help the System Office identify concerns, such as those related to human resource policies, and advocate for improvements at the state level. University leaders at each institution use their school’s results to develop action plans that build on their strengths and address areas in need of improvement.

Survey Questions

The 2022 Employee Engagement Survey included 30 belief statements categorized into nine topic areas:

Job satisfaction and support
Faculty and staff well-being
Performance management
Supervisor/department chair effectiveness
Communication and collaboration
Diversity, inclusion and belonging
Mission and pride
Confidence in senior leadership
COVID-19 response

Respondents were asked to indicate their level of agreement with each belief statement on a scale of 1 (“strongly disagree”) to 5 (“strongly agree”). The survey also asked respondents one multiple-choice question: why they would consider leaving NC State. And it gave them the opportunity to answer two open-ended questions:

What do you appreciate most about working at this institution?
What would make this institution a better place to work?

Respondents were asked to provide demographic information about themselves (such as gender, age, race, ethnicity), how long they have worked at NC State, salary and tenure status. It is important to note that in completing the survey, many respondents may not have provided requested demographic information or may have selected the “Decline to respond” option.

Respondents were automatically assigned to their employee type (e.g., faculty, EHRA, SHRA), job category, and the college or division in which they work. In most cases, respondents were also automatically assigned to one of several combined groups of departments in the college or division (e.g., all academic departments in the college, combined, all those in departments reporting to a specific vice provost or vice chancellor). The colleges and divisions worked with NC State’s assistant vice provost for institutional survey research and analysis to identify their specific organizational tier structure for reporting purposes. To protect the confidentiality of the respondents, none of these units or tier groups has fewer than 10 employees, and the vast majority have no fewer than 25.

The survey was available in English, Spanish and French.

Survey Administration

Four days prior to the launch of the survey, Chancellor Randy Woodson emailed all of NC State’s full-time permanent employees to remind them about the systemwide initiative and to encourage them to participate in the 2020 survey.

On Feb. 4, 2020, ModernThink emailed NC State employees information about the project and provided recipients with a link and a unique password to access their confidential online survey. All surveys were administered online in 2020, a change from 2018, when employees in skilled crafts, service and maintenance jobs received paper questionnaires.

Those who did not respond to the survey were sent email reminders from ModernThink and from Marie Williams, associate vice chancellor for human resources. The survey closed on Feb. 25.

Survey Population and Response Rates

All full-time, permanent employees were included in the survey population, which totaled 8,947 employees. Of these, 5,096 employees responded, for an overall response rate of 57%.

Employee Engagement Survey Response Rate, by Job Category

	Survey Population	Survey Responses	Response Rate
	N	N
Overall	8,947	5,096	57%
SAAO tier 1	20	14	70%
SAAO tier 2	283	233	82%
Faculty	2,089	1,025	49%
EHRA	2,356	1,385	59%
SHRA	3,998	2,335	58%
County Extension	200	104	52%

Analysis and Reporting

ModernThink was responsible for the initial analysis of the data and reporting NC State’s results to the university. NC State was not given access to unit record data. The reports provided to NC State included the following information:

• Response rates
• For each belief statement:
  • Responses overall and by job category
  • Percentage giving a favorable rating (saying “strongly agree” or “agree”) overall and by each demographic and job category
  • Various benchmarks for favorable rating (e.g., aggregate favorable rating for all four-year public institutions participating in the 2019 Great Colleges to Work For survey)
• Overall results for questions related to benefits
• Results for question asking why respondents would consider leaving their current position, overall and by each demographic and job characteristic group
• Verbatim responses to open-ended questions

NC State is using the results provided to create tailored presentations for various campus constituents, as well as summary reports.

Survey Administration

About one week prior to the launch of the survey, Chancellor Randy Woodson emailed all of NC State’s full-time permanent employees to tell them about the systemwide initiative and to encourage them to participate in the survey.

On Jan. 29, 2018, ModernThink emailed NC State employees information about the project and provided most recipients with a link and a unique password to access their confidential online survey. The only employees who were not asked to participate in the online survey were those who held jobs classified as skilled crafts, service or maintenance. ModernThink sent a paper copy of the survey to these employees via their campus mailboxes. The survey packet included a cover letter explaining the purpose and importance of the project and a return envelope preaddressed to NC State’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning.

In order to maintain confidentiality and ensure that only those invited to participate in the survey did so, employees who received a paper copy of the survey were instructed to seal their questionnaire in the return envelope and sign their name across the seal. Sealed and signed envelopes were delivered to the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, where they were boxed intact and shipped to ModernThink for processing.

Those who did not respond to the online survey were sent email reminders from ModernThink. The survey closed on Feb. 19.

Survey Population and Response Rates

All full-time, permanent employees were included in the survey population, which totaled 8,538 employees. Of these, 4,633 employees responded, for an overall response rate of 54 percent. Fifty-seven percent of those asked to complete the online survey did so (4,720 of 7,488), compared to 35 percent of those provided with the paper version of the survey (363 of 1,050).

Employee Engagement Survey Response Rate, by Job Category

	Survey Population	Survey Responses	Response Rate
	N	N
Overall	8,538	4,633	54%
SAAO tier 1	18	9	50%
SAAO tier 2	266	210	79%
Faculty	2,014	942	47%
EHRA	2,019	1,235	61%
SHRA	4,026	2,138	53%
County Extension	190	99	52%

Note: Job category was missing for 5 employees in the survey population.

Analysis and Reporting

ModernThink was responsible for the initial analysis of the data and reporting NC State’s results to the university. NC State was not given access to unit record data. The reports provided to NC State included the following information:

• Response rates
• For each belief statement:
  • Responses overall and by job category
  • Percentage giving a favorable rating (saying “strongly agree” or “agree”) overall and by each demographic and job category
  • Various benchmarks for favorable rating (e.g., aggregate favorable rating for all four-year public institutions participating in the 2017 Great Colleges to Work For survey)
• Overall results for questions related to benefits
• Results for question asking why respondents would consider leaving their current position, overall and by each demographic and job characteristic group
• Verbatim responses to open-ended questions

NC State is using the results provided to create tailored presentations for various campus constituents, as well as summary reports.