Thank you for taking a few minutes to review these important and encouraging updates regarding the ongoing Total Organizational Health (TOH) initiative here at UTC. Real progress is being made and you can help this momentum to continue in 2024.

First, here’s a quick summary of the TOH-related work done in 2023:

• Engaged and worked with staff, faculty, and executive leader task forces to examine existing TOH-related data and develop initial areas of emphasis and strategies to address TOH needs across campus
• Introduced campus to the TOH initiative and its core factors through overview and discussion meetings with multiple groups, including: all campus-level leaders, full faculty and faculty senate, most (90%+) department heads, all college deans, five academic departments, more than half of campus’ division-level manager/supervisors, and multiple existing employee wellness and advocacy committees.
• Formalized and solidified our TOH initiative as a model approach to responding to UT system-level surveys and priorities addressing employee engagement throughout our system.
• Developed and presented a courageous leadership retreat for campus-level leadership, building on the principles of Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead^TM work
• I am pleased to report that there will soon be a campus website dedicated to this TOH initiative. This new website will provide updates regarding this initiative and provide a space for sharing TOH-related resources and data with our campus community.

Second, thank you for your patience as we worked to analyze, organize, and summarize the data gathered this past semester from the annual McLean Engagement survey (for staff) and the Total Organizational Health (TOH) progress check evaluation (for all employees). We had access to the data from both of these surveys in November and have worked since then to process the large amount of information from each survey that is linked to our ongoing efforts to build and sustain a culture and work environment here at UTC in which all employees can engage and thrive. Here are some key highlights from these recent surveys:

• Strong and improved response rates and general indicators of employee engagement
• Improvement on all TOH-related dimensions (using McLean indicators from 2022 to 2023)
• TOH-related challenges are evident in the areas of psychological safety, belonging, support, sense of mattering/impact, and learning and growth (differing somewhat for staff vs. faculty employees)
• Improvements (on average greater than 6%) are evident from 2022 to 2023 on all McLean engagement “driver” scores and all but 1 survey item - especially notable changes:
• +12%: “In the last year, the training I have received has helped me do my job better.”
• +10.5%: “The university's stated mission, vision and values are reflected in the day-to-day activities of the university.”
• +8.6%: “The Chancellor/Vice President of my campus/institute inspires me.”
• +9.9%: “I am satisfied with the compensation I receive for the work I do.”
• +10.8%: “I am more satisfied with my job now than I was a year ago.”

If you are interested in seeing a more detailed summary of the findings from these surveys, please review the attached summary report for our campus overall. Area/department-specific reports will be shared with division and area/department leaders over the next couple of weeks (wherever minimum response thresholds were met to ensure confidentiality of responses).

Third, as we push into 2024, our focus for TOH efforts extends from these recent data and the efforts of our staff and faculty task forces that met throughout 2023. Here is a high-level summary these key focal areas for this year:

• Working to address challenges pertaining to employees’ sense of belonging, perceived social support, and opportunities for learning and growth
• Focusing on continuing to improve the quality of relationships between leaders/supervisors/managers and their employees and improving trust in leadership and awareness and availability of social support
• Addressing lack of clarity and consistency in performance evaluation and feedback criteria and standards/expectations
• Increasing awareness of shared responsibility for the need for “ownership” and “choice to engage”

This work can only be successful with your participation and involvement. Thank you in advance for staying tuned for more TOH updates and for making the choice to engage in helping UTC reach its full potential. If you have any questions about the information summarized here or would like to discuss the ongoing TOH initiative and its applications within your area or department, please feel free to contact me at [log in to unmask] or 423-425-4264.

Chris Cunningham

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Christopher J. L. Cunningham, PhD

TOH initiative facilitator

Guerry Professor and UC Foundation Professor

Industrial-Organizational and Occupational Health Psychology

MSIO Graduate Program Director

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga