AP Committee Survey Fall 2013

1. AP Committee Survey Fall 2013 • Survey opened on 9/27 & closed on 10/18 (open for 3 weeks) • 193 Responses (out of approx. 580) = 33% response rate • Start dates of those who responded  • Topics Surveyed: • Group assignment • Communications from committee to staff • Satisfaction of staff with committee • AP Forum • AP Awards • Professional Development

2. Assignment to AP Groups • No mandate for change • A better alternative (to division based on geography) is not obvious. • AP staff are a very diverse group. If groups were assigned according to similarity of role, how many groups would there be? • Departments vary greatly in their numbers of AP staff, so grouping by department could yield groups of very disparate sizes

3. Communications with AP staff • Responses and comments clearly show: • AP staff prefer to receive information via email • AP Committee must do a better job of maintaining more regular communication with AP staff • Other notable suggestions: • Face-to-face meetings between group members and their representatives would be welcome. A “brown-bag” format seems to lend itself to such meetings. • Representatives should be reaching out to new hires within their groups, introducing the concept and function of the AP Committee.

4. Satisfaction with the AP Committee • Overwhelming majority of dissatisfied (includes “somewhat dissatisfied”) comments cited lack of communication between committee and AP staff. • Two comments addressed grievances and the fact that the AP committee has no role in hearing them. • The Committee should make a point of informing AP staff of the process already in place for addressing grievances • Perhaps discussions should be had about creating a role for the AP committee in hearing grievances?

5. Annual AP Forum • 80% of respondents did not attend last May’s Forum • No clear indication of a better time of year to hold the Forum • No clear indication of a better time of day to hold the Forum (other than around lunchtime) • Most common comments from non-attenders: too busy; schedule conflict • Despite poor attendance, the majority of comments regarding the Forum are positive or at least indifferent. There are no calls to discontinue it.

6. Issues to address regarding the Forum: • Location: Non-Allendale AP staff have a hard time attending, especially with the mid-day scheduling of the event. • A solution would be to webcast the Forum. • Format: To be clear with AP staff, questions for the Senior Management Team are submitted in advance, and the Forum is not a town-hall style Q and A. • Is there any action for the committee to take regarding this issue? Does it diminish the value of the Forum that questions are submitted ahead of time, rather than on the spot? Is it actually the case that SMT would not answer a question from an attendee at the Forum? • Several respondents critical of the Forum claim that (paraphrasing) “no one will ask the tough questions”. • The Committee needs to make it clear to AP staff that questions can be submitted anonymously through the Committee. Emails soliciting questions should go out well in advance of the Forum.

7. Satisfaction With Excellence Series • Responses show the majority of people, 71.2%, rate that they are extremely or somewhat motivated to attend professional development sessions. • Data also shows that the majority of people, 61.2%, are satisfied with the Excellence Series events offered

8. Areas for Improvement • 58.8% of respondents were not aware they could suggest topics for the series and some of the most common comments from non-attenders was that the topics weren’t relevant to them. The committee will make a point of informing group members they can suggest topics and making sure that is clear to all who attend seminars.

9. Encouragement to participate in Professional Development • Many respondents noted that there was no encouragement or they were somewhat encouraged to attend events (55.3%) • The committee discussed possibility of creating incentives to attend • Possibly create a Leadership Academy with a variety of topics throughout the semester to encourage more people to participate?