Faculty and Staff Engagement Survey 2025: Survey deadline has been extended until May 7!

Faculty and Staff Engagement Survey, 2025

The 2025 Faculty and Staff Engagement Survey will launch Tuesday, April 15, 2025. The survey deadline has been extended until Wednesday, May 7.  This is the fourth engagement survey the university has conducted. The survey is administered by CU Boulder Department of Human Resources, in partnership with the Arthur J. Gallagher Co., sponsored by CU Boulder Chancellor Justin Schwartz and Provost Russell Moore. The survey will measure the status of our workforce and several research-based elements of engagement—enthusiasm for one’s work, career satisfaction, pride in the institution, intent to stay, connection to the institution's mission, and others. 

  • The survey will focus on key engagement elements like career growth, wellness, teamwork, and key communications.
  • In 2023, we had a 76% staff survey response rate and a 55% faculty response rate, with an overall response rate of 66%. We hope to surpass the overall response rate in 2025 to further engagement and action steps towards improving the work experience of the CU Boulder campus community.
  • The goal of the engagement survey is to gather information from our faculty and staff to inform interventions and initiatives that enhance the faculty and staff experience. Survey findings will provide insight into the impact of leadership actions and provide trending data on key themes of importance to the campus community.
  • CU Boulder is committed to making information and resources available online accessible to all users. If you require assistance in accessing and completing the survey, or if you plan to use screen-reading software to complete the survey, please contact ADA Compliance at adacoordinator@colorado.edu. ADA Compliance will coordinate with Human Resources to ensure you have an opportunity to complete the survey. 
2025 Timeline
  • April: Survey Distribution
  • June - July: Executive Briefings
  • August: University/Unit Results Shared
  • August – December: Unit Action Planning

Facts and Figures, 2023

The 2023 survey closed on Friday, April 28, 2023. Results were shared with executive leaders and engagement champions in July. With help and guidance from Engagement Champions, departments will review their results and conduct action planning in the fall of 2023. The Faculty and Staff Engagement Survey was administered by the CU Boulder Department of Human Resources. The survey was sponsored by CU Boulder Provost Russ Moore and Chief Operating Officer Pat O’Rourke.  

  • The survey measured several research-based elements of engagement—enthusiasm for one’s work, career satisfaction, pride in the institution, intent to stay, connection to the mission of the institution, and others. The 2023 survey also measured aspects of faculty and staff wellness, as well as information on the hybrid work environment.
  • The goal of the survey was to gather information from our faculty and staff to inform interventions and initiatives that enhance the faculty and staff experience. Survey findings provide insight into the impact of leadership actions and provide trending data on key themes of importance to the campus community.
  • The Department of Human Resources partnered with the Arthur J. Gallagher Co. to administer the survey.
  • The 2023 survey was the third engagement survey conducted by the Department of Human Resources. Previous surveys were conducted in 2017 and 2020.

Current & Previous Survey Results

Engagement Champions 

Engagement Champions are representatives from respective units across campus who assist in the support and facilitation of faculty and staff engagement in their specific departments. Click here for a complete directory of engagement champions. 

 

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

General Results
General

The survey is a formal opportunity for faculty and staff to express their opinions related to their workplace. The University of Colorado ( CU Boulder) has partnered with Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. ( Gallagher) to administer a survey that measures faculty and staff engagement. CU Boulder will use the results to create action plans to implement change in the work environment for all faculty and staff.

 The field of engagement includes concepts such as satisfaction, commitment, and empowerment. For our purposes, we define engagement as the "involvement and enthusiasm of employees with their work and their work environment.”

 Yes. five additional questions are asked of the faculty.

The survey system meets the WCAG 2.1 and 508-compliant. If you require assistance in accessing and completing the survey, or if you plan to use screen-reading software to complete the survey, please contact ADA Compliance at adacoordinator@colorado.edu. ADA Compliance will coordinate with Human Resources to ensure you have an opportunity to complete the survey. 

The University of Colorado Boulder is committed to hearing the voice of our faculty and staff. One of the ways we do this is through regular assessments; different surveys are implemented by various groups and measure different dimensions of the faculty and staff experience and target different campus populations.  We survey frequently to identify the impact of organizational changes, stay informed about the staff and faculty and experience, and guide organizational changes.

The Campus Culture Survey examined the workplace environment and practices, as well as experiences of incivility, harassment, and discrimination, and demographics. While there is overlap between the two surveys, the faculty and staff engagement survey measures satisfaction, motivation, wellness, commitment, retention, recognition, pay, and other dimensions of the faculty and staff work experience.

 Yes. The survey is confidential, and no individuals are identified. No one from CU Boulder will see individual survey results. Results will be grouped together and only reported at the unit level if five or more respondents responded. If a work group has fewer than five responses, results can be reported when combined with another group.

Personally identifiable information is released to no one outside of Arthur J. Gallagher, not even the campus sponsors or facilitators. Survey results will not identify you individually; only aggregate findings will be used for organizational improvements.

If you have general questions with regard to the survey, contact employeeengagement@colorado.edu.

 

 

 

Results will be shared with executive leaders in the summer of 2025 and then distributed to units, supervisors, and the rest of campus in the fall of 2025.

 All regular tenure/tenure-track faculty, research faculty, and other faculty are invited to participate in the survey. Temporary appointments and retirees do not participate in the survey.

 Personally identifiable information is released to no one outside of Arthur J. Gallagher. Survey results will in no way identify you individually, and aggregate findings will be used for organizational improvements.

The survey has approximately 46 close-ended questions. Participants respond to survey items on a six-point scale.  6=Strongly Agree and 1= Strongly Disagree.

Survey questions fall into the following categories: 

  • Engagement (belonging, pride, satisfaction, and others)
  • Career growth
  • Communication on key issues
  • Pay and benefits
  • Wellness and burnout
  • Supervisor Relationship
  • Teamwork
  • Work environment

 Key drivers are those items on the survey that have the greatest impact on engagement for our faculty and staff. These survey items are the most powerful indicators of engagement.

 The survey results provide both overall scores, as well as engagement index scores. The engagement index score is derived from items on the survey that are most highly correlated with research on engagement. 

 As part of the survey modeling and design efforts, the reliability of our survey items and thematic groupings of items are confirmed through multiple regression modeling (to understand the magnitude of the empirical relationship between survey items and key outcomes of interest), factor analytics (to ensure the integrity of the survey categories), various tests of validity (such as criterion and predictive validity, and non-statistical variations such as face validity), as well as reliability testing such as Chronbach’s alpha (to assess how well items are coalescing as categories).