President Petersen puts an interesting spin on the results of the second 
"biennial" survey of employee satisfaction.  Some questions occur:

This survey was initiated two years ago in response to an earlier survey 
conducted by United Campus Workers.  Prior to that, UT seems to have been 
entirely UNconcerned about workplace satisfaction.  Is is not the case that 
UT's feigned interest is likely to last only as long as UCW continues to grow?

Unlike reporting on the 2003 survey, results are not broken down by 
campus.  This might be of particular interest to UTC employees, since in 
that survey employee morale was lowest in almost every category at 
UTC.  How has this changed in the last two years?

President Petersen's idea of "fair and equitable compensation" has the ring 
of "fair and balanced reporting" touted by Rupert Murdoch for Fox News.  If 
the results were broken down by employee type, would the same results hold 
for faculty on campuses where compensation for some was financed by taking 
money away from others?  And what empirical evidence can President Petersen 
offer for his assertion that UT is retaining and recruiting the very best 
faculty and staff?

Fritz Efaw.

At 12:56 PM 4/11/2006 -0400, Cindy Carroll wrote:
>April 11, 2006
>
>The following message is to all faculty and staff from John Petersen, 
>President of the University of Tennessee:
>
>I am pleased to share with you the results from the biennial Employee 
>Satisfaction Survey, which you participated in last September. The results 
>show improvement in employees' feelings about most areas of their jobs.
>
>By assessing work environment, communication and compensation, the survey 
>tells us what has worked well to reach employees and improve their job 
>satisfaction. It also reiterates the key areas that most require our attention.
>
>In short, here are a few of the significant findings:
>
>--74 percent of employees think the university is a good place to work, 
>compared to 68 percent in 2003.
>--74 percent said they've had opportunities to learn and grow in the past 
>year, as compared to 71 percent in the last survey.
>--61 percent said the university does an excellent job in communicating, 
>up from 48 percent in the last survey.
>
>While progress has been made, we realize there is much more to do 
>especially in our communication with you. I want to assure you that we're 
>listening and acting upon your suggestions.
>
>Since the 2003 survey, the university has enhanced its supervisor training 
>and initiated new programs to recognize its best employees. We've also 
>improved employee understanding of the Position Description Questionnaire 
>and began an annual evaluation process. Thirty-two hours of training for 
>all employees now is required each year to help everyone grow both 
>personally and professionally.
>
>While we've made strides for fair and equitable compensation, we continue 
>to work toward the flexibility and the resources that allow us to recruit, 
>reward and retain the very best faculty and staff needed to fulfill our 
>mission.
>
>I encourage everyone to continue to share their ideas for improvement. I 
>also encourage you to participate in employee representatives groups, such 
>as faculty senate, exempt staff council, employee relations committee and 
>other task forces. In this survey, respondents rated elected 
>representatives as the top source for useful information shared with 
>others about the university.
>
>To view a longer summary of the results, please visit
>http://pr.tennessee.edu/news/default.asp
>
>To read the survey report, visit http://www.tennessee.edu/employeesurvey
>
>If you'd like to share additional comments about the survey, use the 
>feedback links on the Web pages.
>
>Thank you for your participation and for all your efforts on behalf of the 
>University of Tennessee.

* UTCSTAFF home page:  http://raven.utc.edu/archives/utcstaff.html *
* unsubscribe:  mailto:[log in to unmask]  *
*   subscribe:  mailto:[log in to unmask]    *