Employee Engagement Workshop Outcomes

Faculty, staff and colleagues from around campus came together for workshops following the release of results for the 2022 Employee Engagement Survey. Across three sessions, employees shared their ideas for improving the campus culture and amplifying the employee voice. 

Workshops

In response to Universitywide invitations, Western employees gathered in three workshops from Oct. 24 to Nov. 1 to help guide senior leadership in the next steps of the University's Employee Engagement effort. Attendees advanced the work of the Survey Action Team, which distilled the results of the Employee Engagement Survey into three focus areas: appreciation, communication and transparency. After reviewing the survey results and hearing the Survey Action Team’s presentation, the President’s Cabinet also added a fourth focus area, value and support, for consideration and exploration.

At the workshops, attendees worked together in teams at individual tables. Teams at each table held lively discussions about the actions and behaviors that could result in improved employee engagement and morale for their focus area. Approximately 200 participants generated more than 300 ideas, which were created through a three-step process:

  1. Individual idea brainstorming.
  2. Sorting individual ideas into themes as a team.
  3. Prioritizing the ideas by voting.

The insight provided by the attendees was invaluable. Thank you to everyone who participated.

All the recommendations for action and behaviors generated by each team at the workshops have been organized into a workbook, organized by the four focus areas. The workbook also contains a link to a photo of each team’s original work for easy cross-referencing.

Download workbook

Each team’s work can be found below. 

With the assistance of three members of the Survey Action Team,  the recommendations for action and behaviors are now being organized into targeted action areas. This is an organization effort, with no ideas being eliminated. The next steps will be:

  1. With all of the input from the workshops organized into action areas, the Cabinet will fully consider the ideas, which will inform potential initiatives.

  2. The potential initiatives will be shared with the campus for feedback and prioritization. 

  3. The initiatives will be finalized into committed actions and outcomes and communicated to employees.

Oct. 24, 10 a.m. session

Table 3 and 4

Table 5 and 6

  • Table 5 (SUPPORT), Behaviors, Post Its: Mental Health (2), Expand community benefits, Providing staff resources, Learning Opportunities, Ask employees what they need for success, Provide autonomy in decision-making, Positive reinforcement from supervisor, One on Ones, Leadership commits time to employee, Encouragement, Conversation, Asking questions (2), Listening, University recognition, Encourage collaboration, Find decompress time, Acknowledge work ethic, Inclusive, Positivity role setting, Engaging, Car

    Value and support: behaviors

    Table 5

  • Table 5 (SUPPORT), Recommendations, Post Its: Fill vacant Staff Positions, Approval for remote work positions with VP to improve ability to attract new hires, Organized "thank you" events, Celebrate success publically, Allow employees to create their own schedules, Reduced Friday hours, Increase vacation days, Allow for more flexible hours, Allow more remote work (2), Invest in hybrid work technology, Keep Fridays off in Summer, Department mixers, Office trips, Themed/ fun staff engagement events, Create d

    Value and support: recommendations

    Table 5

  • Table 6 (VALUE), Behaviors, Post Its: Being compensated justly, Fair pay (3), Benefits that align with needs, Comparable pay to external, Being utilized for your skill set, Assist others, Completing a specific task that few others know how to do, Think outside the box, Spending break hours to get to know the crew, Respect, Be positive, Be upfront if the decision has already been made, Transparant communication, Not identifying people/work as not important, Communicate with supervisors if there are any issu

    Value and support: behaviors

    Table 6

  • Table 6 (VALUE), Solutions, Post Its: Production Value Compensation, Equal pay for work done (3), Benefits increased not decreased, Pay market value for labor done (3), Pay equal to market value (3), Raises that reflect todays inflation and cost of living rate, Awards, Input from all team members, Individual Supervisor Recognition, Reconozing Senior Leadership, Listen to and act on needs, Open door policy, Asking Questions is ok, Learn from mistakes so changes can be made.

    Value and support: recommendations

    Table 6

Table 7 and 8

Table 9 and 10

Table 11 and 12

Table 13 and 14

Table 15 and 16

Oct. 25 session, 7 a.m.

Table 3 and 4

Table 5 and 6

Table 7

  • Table 7 (VALUE & SUPPORT), Behaviors, Post-Its: Face-to-face interaction, Don't pick EOM, Listen to concerns and provide avenue for answers, Allow desired time off, Celebrate and reinforce/reward meeting goals, Hire workers where understaffed, Allow flexibility, Revisit daycare, Acknowledge individual achievement, Action, Appreciation, Access to outside vendors/tech support, Informal Recognition, Formal Recognition, Smile, Helpful, Laugh, Sad, Demonstrate caring and inclusive behaviors, Caring.

    Value and support: behaviors

    Table 7

  • Table 7 (VALUE & SUPPORT), Recommendations, Post-Its: Proper tools, Training, End performance appraisals, Evaluate performance incentive, Clear path to success, Chain of command, Rethink appreciation, Every department has a voice on union board, Utilize international student talents, Explain financial model, Stop saying you have no money, Higher wages for dining employees, Increase employee benefits, Change Severance policy to three months regardless of length of employment, Offer academic year at other

    Value and suppport: recommendations

    Table 7

Nov. 1 session, 3 p.m.

Table 3 and 4

Table 5 and 6

Table 7 and 8

Table 9 and 10