The results of last spring’s UC systemwide Staff Engagement Survey are in — and a team of UC Davis staffers and administrators is now reviewing our campus’s comments.

“Staff Assembly and HR are in the process of reviewing the results and will be communicating them in detail, along with action plans for improvement,” said Susan Gilbert, associate vice chancellor for Human Resources, who is leading the effort with Rob Kerner, chair of the Davis campus Staff Assembly.

Last spring a random sampling of staff employees around the UC system received the survey to gather opinions on what it’s like to work for the university.

“This feedback will help shape work-life and career staff programs, and support UC in its goal to be an employer of choice,” read the invitation to take the survey, sponsored jointly by the Council of UC Staff Assemblies, staff advisers to the Board of Regents, and systemwide Employee Relations.

Commenting on the preliminary UC Davis findings, Kerner said: “I liked that the results highlighted the positive work environment that is created for staff to meet their personal-family needs. 

“I was not surprised by the very low results in the areas of performance management,” he added, “and in being able to engage in honest, upward communication.

“We have a lot of room for improvement, but I am enthusiastic that positive change can and will occur with the support of the chancellor, provost and Susan.”

Gilbert expressed similar enthusiasm: “We have much to be proud of, but also opportunities to improve. We take these results very seriously, and Rob and I are developing a strategy for responding to what we learned, building action plans and organizing a staff town hall.”

(And, just as this survey finishes up, another is about to begin — equally important: the Campus Community Survey, for all staff, faculty and students, coming to email inboxes next week. Read more about it in next week’s Friday Update, including details of valuable incentives for those who participate.)

Last spring’s Staff Engagement Survey went only to nonrepresented employees, and only those with at least one year of service, at the 10 campuses (but not the medical centers), Agricultural and Natural Resources, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Office of the President.

The UC Davis sampling totaled 2,798 employees; 1,168 surveys came back, for a return rate of 42 percent, about average among all the survey sites.