Cornell has begun to address a wide range of concerns that were identified through a universitywide staff survey conducted last fall.

The Cornell Employee Survey, developed through a partnership between President David Skorton and the Employee Assembly, working with Institutional Research and Planning, was designed to assess the engagement of Cornell staff and academic professionals in the goals and aspirations of the university. It also asked for feedback on work climate and on organizational changes that occurred in recent years. More than 70 percent of those surveyed responded, most expressing satisfaction with working at Cornell. Most survey respondents also expressed satisfaction with their own work units and with the work they do. A number of issues were identified for improvement, however.

In February 2012, Skorton wrote to survey recipients, identifying four issues on which he had asked the Division of Human Resources and Safety Services to make recommendations for improvement: workload/workload imbalance, supervisory feedback opportunities, career development/professional growth, and recognition of excellent work.

Since February, staff members across campus have joined with human resource professionals and members of the Employee Assembly to tackle these concerns. Subcommittees on each topic area met over the summer and developed recommendations in the four areas:

During this same period, Cornell deans, vice presidents and senior leaders met with staff and academic professionals in their colleges and units to discuss the survey findings. From those conversations, many committees or teams were formed to work on issues that require further work.

These teams are working on a variety of college/unit specific issues, including consistency of policy application; identifying and providing tools employees need to best perform their jobs, such as appropriate computers and proper working conditions; clarifying roles and responsibilities to address workload concerns; and developing professional development and training plans, including plans for diversity training.

Other colleges and units are in the process of gathering additional feedback through meetings, focus groups and subcommittees to determine where to focus their efforts.

The work of the universitywide committee, its subcommittees and the work of the individual colleges and units will be regularly updated. Survey results are available online.