A Message from the Dean

One of the things UK has done in recent years to enhance employee engagement and improve overall management and leadership is to gather faculty and staff feedback through the UK@Work Survey. It turns out that these surveys, which began in 2015, meshed well with some college initiatives also undertaken in 2015 through our strategic plan, “Building Our Future on the Land-grant Legacy.”

The UK@Work survey, which was conducted again in 2017, 2019, and 2021, works well with our college plan and gives useful information on many measures of job satisfaction and employee engagement across the units, including Extension and other off-campus employees. These surveys are important to our college and university as staff and faculty job satisfaction is critical to our success.

In March 2021, we provided an additional college opportunity for faculty and staff feedback concerning themes of work effectiveness and well-being as compared to the end of 2019, and to identify potential ideas for helping people.

The UK@Work survey focuses on sustainable engagement; empowerment; communication; working relationships; stress, balance and workload; diversity and inclusion; leadership; working environment and university culture. Data from each year is evaluated and compared to past survey results. Unit-level reports are provided to CAFE chairs and unit directors with at least 10 respondents.

The September 2021 survey results show improvements in key areas, clarify some of the challenges experienced by faculty and staff since the prior UK@Work survey in 2019, and mirror much of what was expressed in the internal college well-being survey of March 2021.  

The college responses showed that the majority of faculty and staff have a sense of accomplishment from their jobs, believe they have the resources available to do their jobs and that their departments are operating effectively. Additionally, responders said their unit leadership recognizes and respects the value of human differences and supports equal opportunities.

As always, there are opportunities for improvement, and we have some areas to work on. In 2022 and 2023, we focused on helping people in our college community to find productive and healthy ways to reduce stress, and we met with department chairs and unit directors to learn from them about the specific sources of success and challenges faced within the units related to employee engagement. While many of our results are favorable compared to the university and to the average of all participating universities, we still have more to do.

Several resources are available for faculty and staff, and we will be working to provide additional resources going forward.

Current resources include:

• UK Human Resources Work-Life
• Martin-Gatton CAFE Business Center Employee Resources
• Martin-Gatton CAFE Office of Diversity
• UK Bias Incident Support Services
• UK Office of Institutional Equity and Equal Opportunity

Approximately 65% of Martin-Gatton CAFE faculty and staff responded to the 2021 survey, up from 48% in 2019. Thank you to those who participated. The 2023 UK@Work Survey will be available September 11 and we look forward to learning current perceptions from our college community regarding employee engagement and job satisfaction.

Martin-Gatton CAFE 2021 UK@Work Survey Results

Martin-Gatton CAFE 2021 Faculty and Staff Feedback Survey

Martin-Gatton CAFE 2022-2023 Action Plan

Archived UK@Work Reports

Martin-Gatton CAFE UK@Work Survey 2019 Results 

Martin-Gatton CAFE UK@Work Survey 2017 Results

Martin-Gatton CAFE UK@Work Survey 2015 Results

Action Plans

• Action Steps Submitted to the Provost (January 2019)
• Action Steps Submitted to the Provost (January 2016)
• Table of Quarterly Progress Reports (2016-2017)
• Summary Report of College Progress (August 2017)