The University of Tennessee has finished gathering data for the Fall 2011 Employee Engagement survey. The survey covered topics such as pay, leadership, communication, training, job satisfaction, performance evaluation and others.
    
“University leadership wants to make UT the best employer it can be,” Mary Lucal, senior trainer and employee relations coordinator at UT, said. “Critical to that is hearing directly from employees on what is being done well and what needs to improve.”
    
A link to the survey was sent to all faculty and staff through e-mail on Nov. 1, with a paper copy available from supervisors and the human resource departments. Surveys were completed Nov. 15.
    
The survey was sent to all of the University of Tennessee’s campuses, including Chattanooga, Martin, Tullahoma, Memphis and Knoxville. However, the majority of UT Knoxville’s faculty and exempt staff did not have to take the survey, as it was already given to them in the spring.
    
The fall survey was only offered to any UT Knoxville campus faculty or staff that had been hired since April, had worked at least 60 days and who also work at least 50 percent time.
    
The data from the spring and fall surveys will be compiled together for analysis.
    
The results will be sent to UT in early 2012. An open forum for employees will be coordinated in April to discuss the results and what actions should be taken in response. The forum will be for employees only, but the results of the survey will be posted for all to see at http://yourvoice.tennessee.edu.
    
The Chronicle of Higher Education and ModernThink are the sponsors of the survey. They work as a third party group that will analyze the data and keep the survey anonymous. The Chronicle is a newspaper and website that generates stories specifically for college universities and students, while ModernThink is a leading management-consultation firm.
    
They will send the results of the survey to UT in early 2012.
    
Originally, the spring survey was only offered to faculty and exempt staff at the UT Knoxville campus. However, non-exempt staff were invited to participate in the fall survey, provided that they work at least 50 percent time.
    
According to the Chronicle’s website, “non-exempt staff” is defined as jobs such as “technical and paraprofessionals, clerical & secretarial, skilled crafts and service maintenance.” They are usually not part of the survey’s data.
    
Often times, non-exempt staff are not included because of union contracts. The Chronicle had cases where other universities would have been barred from taking the survey if they included non-exempt staff because of union agreements. UT has had no such difficulties.
    
Employees across campus all have an interest in the survey and what results will come from it, although some staff have doubts if anything at all will happen.
    
“They ask questions. They get answers. Nothing happens,” Patrick Pardee, a maintenance specialist at Hess Hall, said. “One of the questions was, ‘What can we do to change the culture of the campus.’ What does that even mean?”
    
Though Pardee was cynical about the survey, he was impressed by how much depth the survey went into.
    
“They tried to hit everybody,” Pardee said. “Faculty and staff.”
    
His biggest concerns were pay and improving building conditions.
    
Celcelia Mackerson, a service aid at UT Knoxville, did not take the survey but heard plenty about it. Pay was also a topic of big concern for her.
    
“It’s decent now,” she said. “But I’ve been here for 11 years. I’ve seen it gradually go up.”
    
She doesn’t know whether she’ll be able to go to the employee forum in 2012, but she hopes to.
    
“It’ll depend on when and where it will be, but I’m definitely interested in it,” Mackerson said.
    
The Chronicle will be discussing some of the results in its own publication. Part of UT’s motivation for taking the survey is the chance to compare its results with those of other state universities that are also taking the survey, which is a part of the Vol Vision and Top 25 Initiative.
    
However, it is ultimately about hearing from the employees at UT.
    
“Faculty and staff feedback will be a key consideration toward steps to make UT a better place to work,” Lucal said.