By Lisa M. Rosellini
Public Information

If Debbie Wills, a staff assistant in Marketing Research, gets a call, she plans to tell those currently conducting the Faculty/Staff Survey that Penn State could be a better place to work if there were more communication within units and across campuses.

For Maureen Costello, a foreign student adviser, benefits for part-time co-workers is the answer she'd give anyone who asks her opinion about how to improve the University.

But if faculty member Reginald Hardy Jr., a University employee for 33 years, is randomly selected to take part in the confidential telephone survey, he'd tell the caller that Penn State is already a "pretty good place" to work.

Throughout February, some 448 University employees are being contacted to take part in a Faculty/Staff Survey designed as a follow-up to the more extensive 1996 Faculty/Staff Survey. The phone survey, which will gather responses from a random sample of full-time employees at all locations, is exploring attitudes about Penn State, perceptions of various practices in the workplace, and the relationship between the University's values and its reward practices.

One of the open-ended questions being asked by Diagnostics Plus, the firm conducting the system-wide survey, asks for ideas on what might make Penn State a better place to work. That question was actually asked in a 1988 survey and in a 1996 survey. Officials in the Office of Human Resources would like to compare answers to find out how the University is doing in terms of overall employee satisfaction and to help them identify opportunities for improvement.

"Calling began on Feb. 6," said Tom Hall, a member of the OHR team overseeing the survey. "This is an employee or job satisfaction survey. We're strictly looking at that aspect and our hope is to do some comparing. It's important to take a longer view of employee satisfaction, to gauge where we've been, where we're going and how effective our efforts are in getting there."

In 1988, for example, Hall said that 56 percent of the faculty and staff participating in that survey rated Penn State as one of the best places to work. In 1996, that number increased to 58 percent.

"The 2000 survey is much more closely aligned with the 1996 survey, so related information can be extracted," he said.

The 1996 survey, a questionnaire sent to all full-time University employees, was broader in scope than the current telephone survey and revealed some key messages to University officials -- one being that more communication from the top down was needed. Respondents to that survey also indicated that more professional development was warranted and training for managers and leaders across the University system would be beneficial. Both OHR and individual units responded to those concerns by adding programs, such as Mastering SuperVision and Penn State Leader, expanding the range of training programs, creating recognition programs and placing a greater emphasis on internal communication with newsletters, suggestion boxes, meetings, committees, list servs and e-mail messages.

In addition, units were asked to demonstrate in their strategic plans how they were going to address the findings of the Faculty/Staff Survey as it pertained to their areas.

For the 2000 survey, individual responses will remain anonymous and a summary of the data will be available in April. The findings will be used to guide improvement efforts to more effectively reward and recognize faculty and staff contributions. After the phone survey, colleges and administrative support areas will have the option of conducting follow-up surveys within their areas, with the help of the Center for Quality and Planning.

"Penn State has made a long-term commitment to continuously monitoring and improving the work place for employees," said Billie Willits, assistant vice president for Human Resources, who is spearheading the survey project commissioned by the Office of the President. "Employee satisfaction is one measure of organizational performance and a survey of this nature allows us to capture important information from the perspective of those who work here."

That's one point that appeals to Kim Miller.

Miller, a staff assistant in Distance Education, said seeking input from the people who are doing the job is critical to a good work environment. It's what she would suggest if she were asked how to improve the University and its operations.

"Ask what we think and then be willing to use that input," Miller said. "We see how things are being done, we're the ones doing it. We can tell you if it's going to make sense and we can usually tell you if something is not going to work."

Recognizing the value of this front-line advice, the University plans to continue seeking input from faculty and staff, according to Lenny Pollack, manager of the Human Resource Development Center in OHR and part of the team overseeing the survey. Pollack said the confidential telephone survey could be repeated every two to three years, while a larger scale questionnaire could go out to the entire employee population every five to six years.

"These surveys are an opportunity for employees to offer their ideas about how to make Penn State a better place to work," Pollack said. "It's really a way faculty and staff can help shape their future in the workplace."