UK Faculty and Staff Survey Results Shared with Board of Trustees

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 21, 2012) – During today’s meeting of the Human Resources Committee of the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, Office of Work-Life Director Robynn Pease presented feedback from a full-census survey of university staff and faculty conducted in October 2010.

The survey, known as UK@Work, followed a similar survey in 2005-06 and offers insights into the university’s progress on employee satisfaction and perceptions of work-life support. Nearly 8,000 UK staff and faculty completed the survey, which featured questions related to the university's work environment, support for work-life, benefits and leadership. In 2011, Pease hosted several open forums to present university-wide survey results and provided colleges and major units with customized reports highlighting results from their respective areas.

Pease highlighted the importance of the UK@Work surveys to the university work-life initiative, which was launched in 2001.

“UK@Work is unique at our institution -- and unique among our benchmarks -- in offering all employees the opportunity to provide feedback, which in turn continues to help shape our benefit offerings, work-life initiatives and our workplace culture,” said Pease. Her presentation stressed the importance of senior leadership’s commitment to the success of the UK@Work surveys and related initiatives.

Today’s presentation provided the university administration and the Board’s Human Resources Committee members with a broad overview of results, including significant highlights and potential areas of opportunity. Highlights shared by Pease included the following:

Strengths

•           Both staff and faculty were generally satisfied with their positions and their supervisors, and they remained committed to the university’s mission.

•           Significant majorities of staff and faculty perceived the university and their supervisors as supportive of employees’ need to balance personal and professional responsibilities, with scores representing improvement in this area since the prior survey was administered in 2005-6.

Areas of Opportunity

•           Compensation and burnout were indicated among significant areas of opportunity.

•           Staff and faculty survey results highlighted opportunities to improve trust and recognition across the university.

Overall, the 2010 survey showed improvements in perceptions of benefits and work-life support, while certain aspects of institutional or leadership support changed little since the prior survey was administered.

Today’s presentation offered the university’s leaders fresh insight into the opportunities to further engage UK staff and faculty.

“We are pleased to have this tremendous resource, featuring meaningful and substantive insights from the vast majority of our staff and faculty, to ensure we continue to motivate and align our efforts to reach shared goals,” said UK President Eli Capilouto.

The Office of Work-Life’s full survey report is available online, including a video of Pease’s open forum presentation: http://www.uky.edu/HR/WorkLife/2010_survey_introduction.html.

In other action Tuesday, the Board of Trustees honored long-time UK President's Office senior administrative associate Peggy Way at her final Board of Trustees meeting before her retirement Feb. 29.  Way has been working with the board for several years providing administrative support.

She has worked at UK for 41 years, and most of those were in the President's Office where she worked for five university presidents:  Otis A. Singletary, David P. Roselle, Charles T. Wethington Jr., Lee T. Todd Jr., and Eli I. Capilouto.  The board presented Way with a gift and a framed resolution the trustees approved in her honor outlining her exemplary service to UK.

The Board of Trustees also accepted the 2010-11 Endowment Match Program Annual Report.  The program, also known as "Bucks for Brains," provided state matching money for gifts used to endow professorships and other positions involved in research activities.

As of June 30, 2011, UK had received $11.06 million in state Endowment Match Program funds from a 2008-10 state appropriation.  This amount helped create a total of 91 endowed chairs and 211 endowed professorships at UK since the "Bucks for Brains" program begin in 1998.  Funding also created 263 fellowships, lectures, enrichments and endowments to support research and the William T. Young Library.