The Employee Engagement Survey is a survey on workplace satisfaction that is sponsored by the UNC System as part of the system’s strategic plan.
The survey is administered every two years to all permanent, full-time faculty and staff at all 17 UNC System institutions.
The survey is administered through an outside vendor named ModernThink.
Why are we conducting this survey?
NC State wants to measure workplace engagement because studies have shown that the more engaged an employee is at their workplace, the more satisfied the employee is and the more productive their work unit is.
The survey’s results will help the university identify areas of strength as well as areas that need improvement.
Some UNC institutions have done similar surveys in the past, but this is the only survey to be conducted systemwide. Its results provide a common dataset for the entire UNC System.
Who participated in the survey? Is participation mandatory?
The 2024 survey was sent to all permanent full-time (75% time or more) faculty and staff employed as of January 31, 2024. The survey was available online.
Participation in the survey is always voluntary. You should not feel pressured to participate, but because this is a great chance for faculty and staff voices to be heard, we encourage your participation.
It is important for the university to hear from as many faculty and staff as we can. In the first survey, in 2018, our survey response rate was 54%. In the 2020 survey, the response rate was 57%. In 2022, as NC State was still emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, the response rate was 45%. In 2024 the response rate increased to 46%.
When was the survey given?
The 2024 survey was given between March 25 and April 12.
The survey took about 10 to 15 minutes to complete.
At NC State, the survey was available in English, Spanish and French.
Faculty and staff were allowed to take the survey either on work time or off work time using a laptop or mobile device.
What was on the survey?
The survey mostly consisted of 41 questions about your work environment.
There were also two open-ended questions for write-in responses, as well as a series of demographics questions for reporting purposes.
What happened as a result of previous surveys, and what should we expect to happen in the future?
Systemwide topline data were shared with the UNC Board of Governors and posted publicly on the UNC System website.
The UNC System has used the results to support efforts to implement essential policy and program changes, such as paid parental leave.
In most cases, progress from this program will be incremental and will not occur all at once, or it may not be visible to all employees as it happens. This means it may take time to address certain issues or for faculty and staff to see the positive effects of any actions taken.
Some faculty and staff concerns (e.g., better salaries/raises, better benefits, etc.) may be outside the control of your direct supervisor or the UNC System.
Some faculty and staff suggestions for certain changes may be cost prohibitive or may require legislative action by the North Carolina General Assembly.
What about confidentiality?
Only the survey administrator, ModernThink, has direct access to individual responses, and the data are stored on ModernThink’s servers, not the UNC System’s or the university’s. ModernThink sent the UNC System Office a variety of summary reports on the survey results.
The UNC System supplies certain initial information to ModernThink for survey distribution and reporting purposes, including each employee’s email address, organizational unit, employee type (EHRA/SHRA) and job category.
Reporting is available only if there are at least five responses in a defined demographic group. In addition, we only provide results broken out by a single group characteristic, such as for all faculty or for all females. Results are not provided for combinations of groups, such as for female faculty.
Note: The full narrative comments you submitted in the two open-ended questions were shared with management. Employees were advised to consider how they phrased their responses to ensure their remarks were not too identifiable.
Where can I get more information?
Additional information on the survey is available from the UNC System online.
In addition, ModernThink provides a help line (888-684-4658) for participants to call if they have questions about confidentiality.
For a deeper dive into NC State’s survey data, visit a site maintained by Institutional Strategy and Analysis.