Dear Colleagues,
Thank you for sharing your opinions on our fourth coronavirus Employee Morale Survey with a focus on appreciation.
Although most of your answers remain largely unchanged from July to September, there is a noticeable dip in mood and how you are feeling in general. As we enter the seventh month of the pandemic and begin our fall semester, there is a great deal of stress. Coupled with uncertainty over wildfires, poor air quality, racial injustice, power outages, and national elections - it’s no surprise to see stress levels increasing across the board. We are also beginning to see more long-term fatigue and gloom set in the longer we are in this pandemic. On the bright side, your responses provide ongoing evidence that your supervisors are concerned about your well-being - nearly all demographic groups on campus give their supervisors high marks on the question, "My well-being is important to my immediate supervisor."
In this last survey, we also wanted to get your thoughts specifically on appreciation issues. Here are some highlights from that survey:
Summary of Survey Results
- 47% identified your mood as "OK" or "pretty good," a decrease of five percentage points from our last survey and down 15 points from May. 36% said you felt "bad" or "not so great," an increase of six percentage points and up 14 points since May.
- 4% more of you felt that Berkeley cares about your well-being, bringing that score up from 72% in agreement to 78% in agreement.
- In response to "What could your immediate supervisor do to help you feel appreciated?" 28% answered "Recognize Great Contributions (specific kudos, gratitude, compensation, small tokens, etc.)"
- 68% (40% weekly, 28% monthly) of you said your immediate supervisors routinely give recognition or praise for you doing good work. However, the troubling takeaway is the remaining 32% of you that report your immediate supervisor only does this quarterly, annually, or never. We will be working as a campus to do a better job of making sure that people are more frequently recognized for their contributions.
- In response to the "What would make you feel appreciated?" question, 48% of you would like work time to pursue a personal project or charity work. Although we cannot pay people to pursue personal projects, we will explore ways of allowing people to engage in community projects consistent with our mission. As a reminder, staff are already permitted to engage in professional development and staff organization activities as part of their regular workday.
A full report of the survey results is now available on our People & Culture website.
Thank you again for participating. As always, our goal is to make sure we are serving you in the best ways possible now and going forward. Your feedback really does help us do our jobs better.
Thank you,
Eugene & Ben
Eugene Whitlock, Chief People & Culture Officer
Benjamin E. Hermalin, Vice Provost for the Faculty
This message was sent to all Staff and Faculty