University Staff Needs Assessment FAQ

• Now that we have approved the University Staff competencies, our next step is to build employee learning and development opportunities that map to the University staff competencies, supervisory skills, and management skills.

• We are also reviewing the research on the critical work skills our employees will need for the higher education workplace of the future.

• To help us build robust employee learning opportunities that are aligned with these competencies, we are asking the campus community to engage in a needs assessment.

• This assessment will help us prioritize and illuminate the most critical learning and development needs.

• We want to understand where there are gaps between the critical skills our employees need and their current ability level and performance.

• We want to understand from supervisors and managers what they view as the most critical employee development needs for those they supervise, how those needs align to staff competencies, and how we can address them through interventions.

• Individual contributors (university staff)

  • We will invite a sample of participants from the individual contributor group to complete the survey. Not all employees in this category will receive the survey.

• Supervisors (university staff)

• Managers (university staff who are supervisors of supervisors)

• Assistant and Associate Vice Chancellors and Vice Provosts

• The current skill level of their immediate team (individual contributors)

• The current skill level of the group they supervise (supervisors, managers, AVCs)

• The importance of critical skills for the future higher education workplace

• The skills and behaviors they want to focus on for their own learning and development

• Their awareness of existing employee learning opportunities offered by campus HR

• To identify and prioritize the most critical skills for employee learning at all levels.

  • We are assessing employee skills at the group level, NOT at the individual level. Responses will be anonymous and reported in the aggregate.

• To guide our employee learning curriculum: 

  • Align with staff competencies and critical skills of the future

  • Enhance and improve existing programs

  • Phase out programs that are no longer meeting employee needs

• To inform future employee learning programs (trainings, organizational development interventions)

• To align our employee learning opportunities closely to our performance management  expectations and processes

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