Measuring Department Wide Staff Satisfaction at Queen’s University Canadian National Higher Education Information Technology Conference -- June 2003 Trish Forrest, Ph.D

Overview  History  How did we get here?  Lessons/challenges  Staff Satisfaction Survey Development  Survey criteria  What is a useful survey?  Survey constructs & writing good items  Benefits  Questions

History  Services Review – March 1999  Winter-2000 team building/service reorganization  Lessons learned  Summer-2000 staff satisfaction survey

Staff Satisfaction Survey Criteria Survey Anonymous Hardcopy Short & Simple Voluntary Useful Results Disclosure to staff Confidential

What Is A Useful Survey?  Asks questions that we need answers to on various topics (staff satisfaction constructs)  Answers enable us to make decisions and take action (increase satisfaction)  Repeated to objectively assess change  Links survey results to change for staff

Survey Development Steps  1. Research job satisfaction constructs  2. Select and add other constructs  3. Define each construct  4. Write a pool of items based on these definitions  5. Evaluate and select items  6. Create comment items and demographic variables

Staff Satisfaction Constructs  Autonomy  Authority  Career  Compensation  Environment  Job Security  Mgr Relations  Peer Relations  Positive Attitude  Pride  Personal Dev.  Professional Dev.  Recognition  Responsibility

Staff Satisfaction: Core Constructs  Autonomy  Compensation  Job Security  Mgr Relations  Supervisor Relations  Personal/Professional Development

Fowler, F. (1995) Improving Survey Questions: Design and Evaluation. Sage.  1. Consistent understanding  2. Consistently administered  3. Adequate answers consistently communicated  4. Respondents must be able to answer all questions  5. Respondents must be willing to provide answers

Staff Satisfaction: Writing Good Items  1. Short & simple language Long clauses introduce ambiguity  2. Single thought You need to know what is being responded to  3. Marker items (Response sets)

Benefits Improved Staff Satisfaction Engaged & committed staff Improved service delivery Improved Customer Satisfaction Increased External Image