Tulane University. Tulane University Employee Satisfaction Survey Results. February 2011

Transcription

1 Employee Satisfaction Survey Results February

2 Organization of Results Objectives 3 Methodology 5 Top Findings Comparisons 9 Executive Summary: Loyalty and Satisfaction 12 Executive Summary: Compensation and Benefits 15 Executive Summary: Benefits 18 Executive Summary: Other Issues 21 Frequently Asked Questions 22 2

3 Objectives Obtain a baseline measurement of employee satisfaction from the ~2,880 non-academic staff from which to compare to future studies. Knowledge of and satisfaction with Tulane s Employee Value Proposition based on Engagement, Community, Sense of Place and Tradition, and Challenge and Growth. Knowledge of and satisfaction with Tulane s Total Compensation Philosophy, that is Understandable, Flexible, Equitable, and Career-driven compensation for all staff. Knowledge of and satisfaction with compensation, pay, and pay policies, including current performance management policies and the Hay methodology (a job evaluation method). Knowledge of and satisfaction with other benefits: Tuition Waiver, Tuition Exchange, Child Care Programs, Long Term Disability, Accidental Death and Dismemberment, Basic Group Life Insurance, Domestic Partnership Benefits, Term Life Insurance, Health Benefits, Dental Plan, Flexible Spending Accounts, Vision Program, 403(b) Retirement Plan, 457(b) Deferred Compensation, Family Medical Leave, Vacation Transfer Pool, etc. Knowledge of and satisfaction with Performance Management, career development, and intraorganization management and communications. 3

4 Methodology 4

5 Methodology Tulane hired an outside consulting agency, The Olinger Group, to conduct the survey. This is the same firm that conducted the staff survey in The population for the study was all full-time, Tulane staff employees. There are approximately 2,880 Tulane staff employees. The population was contacted by Tulane using and invited to an online survey. Additionally, 225 print versions of the survey were sent to staff not regularly online. The survey instrument used to gather information was both an online and print questionnaire that was custom designed for its current use and adaptable for future tracking studies. The survey included some items comparable to those of the instrument used in the 2000 study, but in general reflected changes in the current employment practices of Tulane. 5

6 Top Findings 6

7 Top Findings Most Tulane staff employees said they are loyal to the university and committed to their jobs. They report strong feelings of pride in their roles in the Tulane community. They feel committed to the success of Tulane, its image and mission. They find their work at Tulane personally fulfilling. They are very likely to stay at their jobs, though many would leave for better base pay. The loyalty of Tulane staff employees largely stems from satisfaction with their jobs. Overall satisfaction with their jobs comes from being satisfied with supervisors, Tulane s direction and plans for the future, as well as compensation. Despite widespread job satisfaction, over half of staff employees say Tulane could take steps to make their jobs more satisfying and to make them more successful. Staff employees said they are generally satisfied with overall compensation. Satisfaction with base pay is the primary driver of satisfaction with compensation. One-time pay policy is the least satisfactory aspect of compensation, but has no significant impact on satisfaction with overall compensation. Satisfaction with benefits plays a markedly limited role in staff overall satisfaction with compensation. Staff employees said they are satisfied with their overall benefits and with most specific benefits. Staff are most likely to be satisfied with the benefits they know and use, thus most used benefits have highest satisfaction ratings and rankings. The benefits both most used and most satisfactory are: Health Plan, Sick Time, and Vacation Time. 7

8 Comparisons 8

9 Comparisons Highlights From 2000 to 2010 Domestic Partner Policy adopted Increase contribution to Staff Retirement (employer portion) Move from Self-Funded and Fully Insured Health Plan options to Fully Insured Health Plan Salary banding of Health Plan Premiums Adoption of DMC Structure Adoption of Winter Recess Hurricane Katrina Renewal Plan implementation Compensation study Partial implementation of Phased Compensation Plan for faculty and staff Introduction of new Performance Management Tool Extraordinarily low health plan premium increases until 2010; university absorbed increases fully one year and partially one year 9

10 Comparisons The 2010 Employee Survey was in both its intent and execution very different from the 2000 Employee Survey, allowing for few direct comparisons. Five measures are the same or sufficiently comparable for direct comparison of employee satisfaction at the two points in time. These measures capture overall job satisfaction, general loyalty to Tulane, overall satisfaction with compensation, and dissatisfaction with two of the most important components of the benefits package: health plan and retirement. Four of these comparisons show statistically significant improvement since The greatest magnitude change is a 57% increase in employees reporting satisfaction with compensation, that is a sixteen percentage point (16%) increase from 28% to 44%. Interpretation of this change should be tempered by the mere two percentage point (2%) drop in dissatisfaction with compensation. Average overall job satisfaction increased 4.4%. Average employee loyalty, based on pride in working at, increased 4.3%. The similarity of these two changes in orientation toward Tulane as an employer is consistent with the expectation that loyalty and satisfaction co-vary, in this case over time. The only negative change for Tulane is the increase in dissatisfaction with the health plan benefit. While substantial, the increase from 10% to 17% saying dissatisfied may be a reflection of the complexity of the health plan benefit offerings and the relatively large percentage of employees who are not certain about their plan. 10

11 Executive Summary 11

12 Executive Summary Loyalty and Satisfaction Tulane staff employees said they believe in the importance of Tulane to New Orleans (95%) and feel they contribute to the university (90%). Staff employees said their work is personally fulfilling (76%). Thirty-eight percent (38%) would remain at Tulane rather than take a job paying 10% more. Job satisfaction is widespread among Tulane staff employees. Two-thirds of staff employees said they are satisfied (46%) or completely satisfied (16%). Another one-quarter of staff employees said they are somewhat satisfied. Only one-quarter of staff employees said Tulane does not need to do more to make their job satisfying, make them more successful on the job, or make their career more successful. 12

13 Job Satisfaction Overall General Satisfaction With Your Job At Tulane Only 9% report dissatisfaction, compared to the 16% who say they are completely satisfied with their job at Tulane and 88% of Tulane staff employees who say they are satisfied. 13

14 Loyalty Tulane Staff Employees Said 14

15 Executive Summary Compensation and Benefits Satisfaction with overall compensation is widespread. Nearly half (44%) of staff employees said they are satisfied or completely satisfied and no employees said they are completely dissatisfied with overall compensation for work at Tulane. However, one-quarter of staff said they are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with overall compensation. Compensation satisfaction is a single orientation dominated by satisfaction with base pay received, ranges of base pay for job descriptions, and annual base pay changes. More than half of staff said they are dissatisfied with one-time pay received. Satisfaction with the overall benefits package is widespread. More than three-quarters of staff (86%) report some degree of satisfaction with benefits. Though satisfaction with overall benefits package is part of satisfaction with compensation, it plays a markedly less important role. While staff employees express widespread satisfaction with their benefits package, less than one-third say it meets their needs or expectations. 15

16 Compensation Satisfaction With Nearly two-thirds of Tulane staff employees are satisfied with overall compensation from Tulane for their work. Only 9% of staff are somewhat dissatisfied with overall compensation. 16

17 Compensation Drivers Of Satisfaction With Overall Compensation Satisfaction with compensation is primarily driven by satisfaction with base pay. Despite the high frequency of satisfaction with benefits, it plays a relatively small role (about 13%) in determining satisfaction with overall compensation. Satisfaction with annual base pay changes and range of base pay play even smaller roles in determining satisfaction with overall compensation. There is a single underlying orientation to satisfaction with compensation primarily impacting satisfaction with base pay, range of base pay, and annual base pay changes. While satisfaction with the overall benefits package and one-time-pay are related to the underlying satisfaction with compensation, they are independent orientations. 17

18 Executive Summary Benefits Most staff employees ( 75%) said they understand their employee benefits package. Health plans are the most widely known and used benefit. Aided awareness of specific benefits of the staff employees' package ranges from 53% to 98%. Usage of specific benefits also varies widely. Health plan, vacation, and sick time are the most used employee benefits (more than 80%). Tuition waiver is among the best known of the benefits (97%) and used by more than 40% of staff and 44% of those who know about it. An additional 34% of staff employees said they plan to use the tuition waiver in the future. Satisfaction with health plan and retirement plan are the primary drivers of overall satisfaction with staff employee benefits package. Vacation, health plan and sick time are the most important benefits according to staff employee rankings. 18

19 Benefits Importance Of Benefits We asked staff employees to identify the three most and three least important of their benefits package at Tulane. The most important benefits are primarily the most used benefits based on these rankings. 1. Vacation 2. Health Plan 3. Sick Time (b) Retirement Plan 5. Tuition Waiver The least important benefits are primarily the least used benefits based on these rankings. 1. Child Care Centers 2. Reily Center Discounts 3. Domestic Partner Benefits 4. Tuition Exchange Two benefits are ranked among the least important although among the most used. 1. Tulane ID for Event Admission 2. Discounts for Bookstore, Dining, and Retail 19

20 Benefits Here we see the importance of specific benefits based on rankings plotted against satisfaction. Notice how all but three benefits are plotted above the main diagonal, indicating that relative satisfaction exceeds relative importance. Initial attention should be directed to benefits that appear below the red diagonal in orange and red. Notice also how several of the highest satisfaction ratings are for relatively low importance benefits. The primary exception is the tuition waiver program. 20

21 Executive Summary Other Issues About three-quarters of staff employees said they have operating unit meetings regularly, report regular meeting with their supervisor. Most (96%) Tulane staff employees use to communicate on campus. More than three-quarters of staff employees report using Tulane Talk from President Cowen, New Wave the online newspaper, and the emergency text message system. Tulane receives average grades from staff employees for its policies, goals and objectives, mission, and growth and future plans. 21

22 Frequently Asked Questions The survey results show that Tulane employees are concerned about competitive base pay. What is the university doing to address that? The university is committed to competitive compensation and benefits for its employees. In 2008, the university did a thorough market analysis of all of its staff positions and introduced a new pay grade and job evaluation system. Additionally, the university addressed those job groups which were under-market and adjusted compensation accordingly. The pay grades are reviewed annually and adjusted to insure that they accordingly reflect market changes. Despite widespread job satisfaction, over half of staff employees say Tulane could take steps to make their jobs more satisfying and to make them more successful. What is the university doing to address this? Supervisor training opportunities are being developed to implement in the Fall semester, A pilot Performance Management process is in its second year. This allows supervisors to measure employee performance, not just on the basis of their job duties, but how they demonstrate core Tulane Values and how they grow in the jobs. This new tool opens the dialog between supervisor and staff member about how to improve and grow in their jobs. 22

23 Frequently Asked Questions Compared to the survey taken in 2000, the 2010 survey shows that more employees are dissatisfied with the health plan benefit than before. What is the university doing about this? When the survey was first done in 2000, Tulane operated its own health plan as well as offering a fully insured option. Today we offer a fully insured option with three tiers. There have been premium increases over the years and employees have generally paid 40% of the increase and the university has paid 60%. Is this the first Staff Satisfaction survey conducted by Tulane? No. A similar survey was conducted in Does Tulane plan to survey the staff on a more frequent basis going forward? Yes. We are moving to an annual survey that will target different, specific groups and topics. I would like to see all of the results. Is this possible? Yes. You can see the entire survey results that were presented by the Olinger Group ( ) by clicking here. 23

24 Frequently Asked Questions I was not invited to participate in the survey. Why? This survey was sent to full-time staff members only. Faculty and Administrators were not included in the survey group. What is Tulane going to do with this information? These survey results are an important part of the information needed to make decisions that affect staff employees. What does this survey mean? In general, the survey indicates an improvement in overall employee satisfaction since the last survey was completed in It also indicates that staff employees are most concerned about their vacation, sick time, retirement and health benefits. Who can I speak with if I have more questions? You can contact Barbara Dirks, Workforce Management, at or her at bdirks@tulane.edu. 24