Faculty & Staff Experience Survey

We are seeking your insights to guide us in making meaningful decisions by helping us focus on what matters most to you, our faculty and staff. It is an opportunity for you to share your thoughts, observations, and ideas on how we can continue fostering an environment where everyone feels valued, supported, and empowered to do their best work.

Collecting this feedback is crucial for recognizing effective practices and addressing areas that need attention. Your voice matters, and your participation in this confidential, anonymous survey is essential to supporting UCF’s strategic plan to become a leading institution for work and learning in Central Florida — a goal that requires collective effort.

ModernThink LLC is a nationally recognized organization with expertise in conducting surveys for higher education institutions. Their extensive experience in supporting universities to improve work and learning environments ensures that they will provide us with reliable and relevant data to guide our decision-making. Additionally, the higher education benchmark data provided by ModernThink will offer valuable insights into how UCF compares to other universities across the nation.

No, this survey will not replace the COACHE survey. The COACHE survey captures faculty sentiment on various aspects of the academic workplace, such as teaching, service, research, tenure and promotion, departmental engagement, and collegiality. In contrast, the faculty and staff experience survey aims to understand the experiences of all campus members in support of our strategic plan. This broader survey gathers, summarizes, and synthesizes feedback from a wide range of stakeholders, helping leaders identify key themes, trends, and patterns to make informed, data-driven decisions.

A steering committee, along with a comprehensive advisory group that included faculty and staff of all levels from across various colleges and units, diligently worked on the design and implementation of the survey in collaboration with our partner, ModernThink. ModernThink assisted in customizing and administering the survey, ensuring confidentiality, and aiding in the dissemination of the results.

The survey statements solicit feedback on a broad range of topics focused around the following themes:

• Access and Belonging
• Collaboration
• College/Unit Leadership
• Communication
• Confidence in Senior Leadership
• Faculty & Staff Well-being
• Job Satisfaction & Support
• Mission & Pride
• Performance Management
• Professional Development
• Supervisors/Department Chair Effectiveness

The university would like to see as high a response rate as possible. Average response rates for ModernThink surveys typically range between 40% and 65%.

Your participation as a valued member of our UCF community is essential. Higher response rates improve the accuracy of the survey results, providing a clearer picture of UCF. This opportunity allows you to contribute your ideas, opinions, and solutions through the survey and the subsequent action planning. Your involvement is critical in demonstrating our collective commitment to continuous improvement.

Yes, participation in the survey is completely voluntary but strongly encouraged.

Faculty and staff (A&P and USPS) of UCF are invited and encouraged to participate in the survey. Adjuncts and OPS employees, as well as students, are not eligible to participate.

Faculty and staff will be invited via email to take the survey hosted on ModernThink’s secure website. The survey is available for two weeks and may be extended depending on the response rate.

You will be asked to enter a username and password, which will be provided in an e-mail invitation sent to you directly by ModernThink.

You may take the survey at any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from work or from home. Internet access is required.

Your answers will be stored each time you select the SAVE & CONTINUE button at the bottom of a survey page. If you get interrupted, you can come back to the survey. You will need to log on to the ModernThink survey site to re-access the survey. To protect your confidentiality, you will not be able to access the survey after you click the SUBMIT button on the last page of the survey.

For technical questions or problems with the survey site please contact ModernThink at (888) 684-4658 or surveys@modernthink.com, M-F 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. EST. After hours, leave a message and your call will be returned as promptly as possible.

The online survey should take approximately 15 – 18 minutes to complete. If you are unable to complete the survey after you begin, you will have the option to save your responses and access them later.

The survey consists of statements that faculty and staff respond to using a five-point agreement scale (Strongly Agree, Agree, Sometimes Agree/Sometimes Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree). Additionally, there is a Not Applicable response option. The survey instrument also includes item benefits satisfaction component and open-ended questions.

The purpose of the survey is to get honest feedback. UCF is using an external partner (ModernThink) to administer the survey. It is web-based and automated with a secure internet connection.

Each faculty and staff member will receive an email invitation from ModernThink to participate in the survey. Once you click on the survey link, you will go directly to ModernThink’s website. UCF has no access to this website. Your responses will be submitted directly to ModernThink’s database, and all processing will be done by ModernThink. You will not be asked your name on the survey. The email will include unique password information for each user. This information is stored on the ModernThink server. This information is for access only and will not be linked to your individual survey responses.

At no point will your manager or any other UCF employee see your individual survey results; they are combined and only reported back to UCF in the aggregate/grouped format. No one at UCF will know if or how you personally responded.

Yes, the survey includes pre-loaded job-related data for specific demographic categories such as:

• Job category
• Years of service
• Campus location
• Employment status (i.e., full time/part time)
• Supervisory status
• Bargaining unit (if applicable)
• Academic role (for faculty)
• Tenure status (for faculty)

However, it’s important to note that self-identifying information like gender identity, age, and race/ethnicity is not included in the survey. The pre-loaded data helps provide meaningful insights, while ensuring that sensitive personal information is not part of the survey process.

No. The survey will be completed on ModernThink’s private server. The email address is only used to access the survey and to ensure that only one survey is completed per faculty and staff member. Emails are purged from ModernThink’ s system once the survey project has been completed.

After the survey period is complete, ModernThink will analyze the data and deliver the results to the university in early Spring 2025. Following this, the President and senior leadership will share the findings with the university community. Action planning will then follow, based on the survey results, to address the identified areas for improvement and implement strategies for enhancement.

While the formal timeline for the next survey is not yet established, UCF is committed to establishing a regular cadence for collecting feedback from faculty and staff and has contracted with ModernThink to administer multiple surveys. This year’s results will provide us with important baseline data, allowing us to track and assess our progress over time.