Office of Faculty Diversity

SAC STAFF MORALE Committee Survey Results

From The Staff Advisory Council Website

An open-ended survey was made available through filer.case.edu. The purpose of the questionnaire was to gauge the morale of staff at the university, the reasons behind these beliefs, and possible solutions. The exercise was also designed to encourage staff to open up and talk about their work life. Several notices were sent out to staff through Staff Advisory Council emails and Case Daily drawing attention to the questionnaire. There was also a posting on forum.case.edu.

There were 470 staff respondents, making the response rate approximately 20% of staff on campus. Those who did not respond in the on-line format were encouraged to submit their responses as hard copies resulting in 10 additional submissions.

The Staff Morale Committee agreed to address only the first question of the survey, which was “In your own opinion, is morale high or low at the University?” Each response to question one was reviewed and evaluated by one individual on the committee. Morale was coded as high or low if it was specifically stated in the answer to the question or there was a strong indication towards one of the two categories. An indifferent category was utilized in those cases where the answer was ambivalent.

Of the 470 respondents, 361 indicated that morale at the university was low or responded negatively. 32 responded that morale was high or their response was positive, and 68 were indifferent. Nine respondents opted out of the first question and either responded to one or all of the remaining three questions.

It is clear that within this sample, the overwhelming majority believed staff morale was low. It is probably safe to say staff is more likely to believe morale is low than to believe it is high.

Those who responded to question one negatively cited that their feelings of negativity stemmed from the lack of a cost of living or merit increases, the increase in workload associated with the loss of staff in their departments, fear of additional layoffs, the lack of respect for them as an employee of the university, what they consider the mismanagement of finances at the university and lack of confidence in current leadership.

The remaining questions follow: the second question was “List changes that you would like to see occur,” the third was “If you believe that morale is high in your department or group, explain why that is. What exactly does your department do to boost morale?” and the last question was “Make suggestions that you believe would help to boost morale. We are looking for constructive recommendations that would promote positive policy, procedural, and environmental or campus climate changes.”

Because of the overwhelming negative responses to question one, the SAC Staff Morale Committee would like to recommend the prospect of continuing to investigate opportunities to boost morale among staff with the information contained in the remaining questions.