Working at UoN - 2012 Your Voice Sample Survey

The 2012 Your Voice Sample Survey about working at the University of Newcastle (UoN) was held in September 2012.  The data was analysed by the Voice Project, a research and consulting group linked with Macquarie University.  UoN conducts full staff surveys about working at UoN every three years administered by the Voice Project, and the results are benchmarked against those of previous years and other universities.  UoN will be holding another full survey in September 2013.

Strengths, weaknesses, changes and areas of stability are outlined in this summary.

Strengths to celebrate

Staff engagement, and its contributing measures of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and intention to stay, have all increased from previous years surveyed and are at or above benchmark.

Staff are satisfied overall with their job, like their work and have feelings of personal accomplishment. Staff see a future in working at UoN, and the University ranks highly compared to benchmarked universities.

Areas for improvement

There are six action areas for improvement arising from the results of the 2012 survey about working at UoN.  These are the need for UoN to:

1. Improve communication with staff by actively registering staff feedback, and promote better communication across all sections of UoN.
2. Increase consultation with staff and encourage their involvement, particularly around decisions which may affect their day-to-day activities.
3. Increase time and effort spent on career planning and ensure there are appropriate opportunities for career progression within UoN.
4. Build a respectful and collaborative workplace where unacceptable behaviour is not tolerated and ensure that there are effective procedures in place to handle staff complaints.
5. Review recruitment and selection processes to ensure UoN and its leaders are clear about the types of people that are required, and match the right people with the right jobs.
6. Ensure that performance appraisal processes provide clear guidelines for improvement.

Activities arising from these priority areas have been incorporated into the NeW Directions Strategic Plan 2013-2015 and Faculty/Division corporate plans.  Watch this space for updates on the great work occurring as a result of the survey!

Below are links to the results of the survey about working at UoN.