University of Victoria
PA-13: Assessing Employee Satisfaction

UVic's strategy to assess employee engagement has been to run targeted-topic specific assessments. This means we don't have a single staff survey to include in this section for STARS. These surveys are on the topics of remote work (2021 & 2022), employee learning (ongoing), and employee housing (2022). During this period, UVic has also consulted on the creation of a new strategic plan (forthcoming) and an Equity Action Plan (released 2022).

In 2021 and 2022, UVic was considering what impacts remote work and the pandemic had on staff. This prompted UVic to launch 2 surveys. The most recent survey asked about employee experiences with remote work policies. It looked at 12 measures of staff engagement including work-life balance, satisfaction, and team culture. The survey was open to all staff regardless of if they worked remotely or in-person. The 2022 survey garnered 1,329 responses. That said, it didn't have high uptake among the CUPE 4163 components and CUPE 917 union groups. For this reason, the survey isn't consider representative of these groups. From the 2022 Oct. 31st snapshot, there are 2,295 people whose primary job was with these unions. Thus, this survey was representative of 61.9% of UVic's population (3,734 non-CUPE 4163 and non-CUPE 917 employees ÷ 6,029 employees = 61.9%). It's likely that this survey had lower uptake among these groups because:
- members of these groups are far more likely to be on casual or term contracts. Continuing employees are often more likely to engage in long-term planning.
- the survey ran in March which is a busy time for many student-staff
- many employees in these unions experienced less changes because of the pandemic (e.g. continued to work on campus)
- some of these employees are less likely to have computer access at work
UVic is exploring strategies to increase survey participation in the future.

The Remote Work Survey seems the most relevant to the STARS criteria, so it's the basis for the credit data. Read more about it: https://www.uvic.ca/hr/home/news/current/Remote%20Work%20Arrangements%20June%202022%20Update.php.

UVic runs an in-house learning program. This learning program is open to all continuing and term employees. The learning program is additional to professional development funding available to most employees. In 2022, 668 employees took 1 or more courses through this in-house learning program. All attendees were sent a survey to assess the quality of their learning experience.

The Employee Housing Assessment responded to anecdotal accounts from employees struggling with housing. While the focus of the survey wasn't employee satisfaction, it did cover aspects of work-life balance.
Specifically, the survey asked about commute times, transportation, and hours worked per week. Over 1,700 people filled out the survey (more than 25% of all employees).

The new Strategic Plan and Equity Action Plan were drafter in phases. They included many methods of engagement, to ensure broad reach. A person would contribute in multiple times (e.g. participate in phase 1 and phase 3). For this reason, we track engagements rather than unique staff who contributed. Most engagements were from staff and students but some community members also participated.

The new strategic plan, involved 62 events and had 6,000+ engagements. People engaged through a listening tour, meetings, surveys, and at pop-up booths. More information about the strategic planning process is available here: https://www.uvic.ca/about-uvic/strategic-planning.php.

The Equity Action Plan collected almost 2,000 surveys, held identity-based focus groups and had a peer oversight committee. Here is more information about the process of developing the Equity Action Plan: https://www.uvic.ca/equity-action-plan/view-progress/accountability-and-development/index.php.

In the latest Remote Work survey, employees articulated net-positive impacts of remote work. It indicated employee satisfaction/happiness, work-life balance, and work culture had all improved. As a result, UVic changed their remote work from a pilot program into an ongoing policy. The policy wording was amended based on feedback. UVic also created new resources to support employee communication.

Through the remote work survey and other channels, UVic identified a need for enhanced staff recognition. In response, UVic created the first ever Best-Fest. Best-Fest is a festival to celebrate, appreciate and connect with UVic employees. Over 1,800 engagements occurred at the 12 events in May 2022.

Feedback from the employee learning surveys have resulted in changes the learning program. Changes include modifications to course content, adding new courses, and shifting course scheduling. For example, UVic added courses on how to facilitate online meetings.

The Strategic Plan is forthcoming but already demonstrates UVic listening to staff. One of the 4 emerging themes is "Healthy People & Planet". The contributions from UVic staff and others will inform what UVic prioritizes. It will determine where and how UVic allocates its budget. It is one of the foundational guiding documents for UVic.

The Equity Action Plan advances equity, diversity and inclusion at UVic. The goals embody a vision for UVic's culture, belonging, learning, and advancement. The plan assigns a UVic leader to each committed action. The intention is to encourage implementation accountability. Some relevant commitments to employee satisfaction and engagement are:
- Senior administration will champion equity by diversifying its own representation through mentorship, encouragement and sponsorship of faculty and staff from systemically and historically marginalized groups.
- Provide equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-oppression, decolonization and cultural safety education for all members of the university including anti-Indigenous racism and other forms of oppression.
- Incentivize faculty and staff to prioritize building an inclusive and equitable campus including developing performance evaluation tools that incorporate and assess equity, diversity and inclusion skills, competencies and achievements.
- Promote and support professional development opportunities and events that build an inclusive campus and culture.
- Support mentorship, peer support and affinity group community-building initiatives for students, staff and faculty.
- Build mentorship and sponsorship programs to support employees and students from systemically and historically marginalized communities to advance into positions of leadership.
UVic has created a website about its progress: https://www.uvic.ca/equity-action-plan/view-progress/uvic-community-actions/index.php.

Remote Work Arrangements - June 2022 Update:
https://www.uvic.ca/hr/home/news/current/Remote%20Work%20Arrangements%20June%202022%20Update.php

Strategic planning process:
https://www.uvic.ca/about-uvic/strategic-planning.php

Engagement summaries for the development of the Equity Action Plan (EAP):
https://www.uvic.ca/equity-action-plan/view-progress/accountability-and-development/index.php