UAB and partner ModernThink held focus groups on campus on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016, along with informational meetings open to all UAB faculty and staff members. Based on tremendous response to these meetings, we held four additional focus groups on Dec. 13. Participants at all of these meetings were candid and highly engaged. The feedback we received (see below) was incorporated into specific questions on the engagement survey.
We welcome comments and questions. If you have any questions about the UAB Campus Engagement Survey not answered by this FAQ page, please send an email to
The following is a summary of general observations from the eight focus group discussions in November and December 2017, plus participants' answers to questions posed in the focus groups:
General observations across the eight groups
- Participants volunteered their time because they felt this initiative was important to help make UAB a better place.
- Faculty and staff noted, “If done right, the engagement survey could yield tangible results.”
- Participants appreciated being given a voice and a safe place to share information and ask questions.
- Participants were excited about the opportunity to take part in the survey process and help develop solutions to complex issues and challenges.
- Participants left the session feeling good — they reported that they learned things about UAB they would not have learned otherwise and remarked on the value of this safe roundtable/town-hall forum.
Summary of responses to questions
1. What do you appreciate the most about UAB?
- Educational benefits for self and family
- Health benefits and options
- Diversity of the community of students, faculty and staff
- World-class reputation, opportunities and access to resources
- Growing and thriving campus that is an active community partner
- A drive toward excellence and continuous improvement
- Encouragement/opportunities to be innovative and entrepreneurial — try new things
- A “helping orientation” and emphasis on collaboration — e.g., a willingness to share research among faculty, and to share information among staff
2. What is important to you that we should ask about in the survey?
- Impact of FLSA changes
- Communication—what channels are effective, and where are the gaps?
- Transparency
- Performance, to move toward consistency in how performance is managed across the institution
- Opportunities for professional growth, learning and development
- Job satisfaction, recognitions and rewards, including compensation (pay scale, merit increases)
- Morale and quality of work life (there were concerns around diversity, equity and inclusion)
- Leader and manager effectiveness
- Trust and confidentiality
- Understanding and effectiveness of operations and service functions
3. There is a committee working on survey design, a committee discussing the survey demographics, and a committee working on communications. What advice would be the most helpful to these committees and the survey process?
Survey Design
- Ask “the tough questions” that might lead to negative responses
- Provide easy access to the survey, including options for those without computer access
- Consider separate questions for faculty and staff that apply to their expectations, roles
- Ask the right questions in a “condensed” way — focus on the important questions
- Provide ability to stop and complete later, and to change answers before submitting
- Focus on what we can change/actionable
- Align with other surveys to avoid survey fatigue
Demographics
- Collect as much data as possible while protecting confidentiality and anonymity
- Collect data about life situations to understand pressure points: child care, elder care, etc.
- Choose self-select demographics carefully—to protect confidentiality
Communications
- Do not set a goal of 100% participation — that leads to less-than-thoughtful responses
- Explain why we are doing the survey, what will happen, timeline and how results will be shared/distributed
- Provide evidence of why this survey is different from previous institutionwide survey efforts
- Provide multiple incentives to increase participation
- Be consistent in how leaders are held accountable
- Communicate all results from the survey — not just those questions on which respondents “strongly agree”
4. What’s not being talked about at UAB that should be?
- Inequities with pay and career growth
- Raises are disparate and not administered with consistent policy
- Across the board increases, while welcomed, don’t address performance appropriately: there is a lack of accountability for poor performance, and lack of recognition for excellent performance at all levels
- Vacation and pay accrual difference for faculty and staff
- Concerns about credibility and integrity
- The “why” behind decisions is not always shared
- Lack of demonstrated concern for/investment in people
- Inconsistent communication — over-reliance on grapevine
- How we talk about ideas:
- Fear of retribution when sharing a dissenting opinion or asking challenging questions
- The votes of no confidence — assumption that people have moved on
- Approach to budget and finance — changes in budget mode were not openly discussed and are causing angst
- Lack of alignment/duplication of administrative services (HR, Finance, IT, etc.) across the enterprise
5. If you had to focus on one priority to improve the quality of the workplace and strength of the culture, what would it be? Additional probe: What suggestions do you have to do that or achieve that?
- Overhaul of performance management process, including salary structures, merit pay, raises
- Look inward for talent. There is a feeling that we look outside to fill positions.
- Management training and mentorship to provide consistency, capabilities and accountabilities for managers and leaders — include helping managers with FLSA changes
- Communication — true, open dialogue with transparency that is consistent, honest, respectful
- Morale — find ways to “lift low morale”
- Improve consistency in administrative policy and procedures
- Advocacy for faculty and staff — focus on people
- Continue improvements in safety and security