University of New Hampshire
PA-12: Assessing Employee Satisfaction

By design, we incorporated workplace satisfaction and campus climate questions into a comprehensive Sustainability Knowledge and Perspectives Survey. The Sustainability Institute, the President’s Office, Human Resources, the UNH Survey Center, and Communications and Public Affairs all collaborated on the development, refinement, and the campus-wide engagement and administration of the survey. This survey built upon previous worksite satisfaction related surveys. This survey is now part of a larger university-wide survey to be administered every three years.

The faculty and staff survey was completed in April 2017 via Qualtrics. Paper surveys were provided to staff members in positions that did not have regular access to a computer, such as Dining and Facilities and Spanish versions of the survey were provided to staff when appropriate. The survey was announced through multiple emails sent out by the President, Provost, Vice President of Finance and Administration, Director of the Sustainability Institute, and department leaders. Overall, 1,263 UNH faculty and staff members responded to the survey, yielding a response rate of 40%.
The survey was professionally analyzed and it was determined that the 40% sample was demographically representative of the UNH staff and faculty population as a whole.

UNH has numerous organizational units from Human Resources, the President’s Executive Committee, President’s Office on Community, Equity, and Diversity, and numerous task forces, steering committees, and commissions that are designed address concerns and issues raised related the workplace satisfaction of UNH staff and faculty. Results from the survey and numerous other engagement efforts are brought to the attention of these entities and to senior administration. In a collaborative and deliberative manner, new programs, initiatives, and outreach efforts are launched to improve the working environment for UNH employees. Here are a few of the initiatives that have taken place in the last three years:

• Free fitness classes for employees
--Wildcat Workout Project provides boot camp style classes 5 days a week (strength, cardio, flexibility) on the UNH Durham Campus.
--Cigna Fitness Center Benefit: employees can receive up to $500 per year towards their fitness center fees. They must be a member of an eligibility facility and visit at least 8 times per month to receive the benefit.

• Employee Assistance Program open to all employees
--USNH provides all employees with access to the Employee Assistance Program, providing resources and tools to help employees navigate through life's challenges.
--Previously offered only to status employees, access was opened up to include all employees

• Fair Labor Standard Act and minimum standards
--The DOL announcement in May 2016 of changes to the FLSA that were to go into effect in December 2016 prompted a deeper review of classifications to ensure that job functions and essential duties are in compliance with how we pay our employees – either on an hourly (non-exempt) or salary (exempt) basis
--As a result of this review:
42 employees were realigned from a salary paid to an hourly paid position
Realigned employees received support throughout the process. HR provided 1:1 counseling for employees, reviewing the change and impact to benefits. Employees received a transition allowance to support the payroll transition, which resulted in a three week period between payrolls. They were able to cash out vacation time prior to conversion to earned time, and could also convert sick time to sick pool at the time of conversion.
60 exempt employee’s salaries were raised to ensure they would meet the proposed minimum salary threshold even though an injunction was in place at the time

• My path to wellness new hires
--The USNH Wellness program was traditionally offered in the fall of every year, providing employees the opportunity to earn a premium incentive for completing the two step program.
--This process resulted in new hires waiting to participate, sometimes a full year. This did not provide for an effective means to engage the employee in their Health & Wellness.
--Effective January 1, 2017, with the transition to Cigna, all new hires are eligible to participate right away. They have 90 days to complete both steps and can earn the incentive, gain valuable insight to their health and be an engaged healthcare participant from day 1

• Expanded options for benefits this past year
--2017 Change to Cigna’s OAP Plan Design provided enhanced coverage and services for employees:
Eliminate requirement for listing of PCP with insurer
Eliminate need for referrals to see a specialist
Removal of dollar limits for ABA therapy
Coverage for Gender reassignment surgery is added
Expanded coverage for infertility service
Acupuncture coverage added to most plans

• Change in on-boarding process
--With a desire to improve the new employee experience, the orientation program, Getting Started @ UNH, was recently redesigned in July 2017. The new multi-phase program engages with employees several times throughout their first year. The different phases are designed to increase interaction with employees and provide relevant information to employees when they need it and are able to act upon it.
--Touchpoints upon hire, first 30 days, first 90 days, day 180 & 365
--Enhanced supervisor tool-kits were created, allowing supervisors easy access to information designed to enhance the onboarding process.