Penn State Job Satisfaction and Engagement Survey

The University is committed to fostering and promoting a work environment that attracts and retains world-class employees. Gathering perspectives on the employee work experience will help Penn State’s leadership understand the bright spots, and areas for improvement.

Honest feedback from employees will allow University leaders to determine where to focus these efforts. This survey, in combination with a separate faculty satisfaction survey, will establish a baseline of how Penn Staters feel about the work they do. The survey findings will help us continue to drive Penn State to future success.

ModernThink is a nationally recognized organization specializing in surveys of this kind for higher education. 

The survey was created using a set of questions designed for ModernThink’s Higher Education Insight Survey, which aims to measure organizational dynamics and competencies in higher education. The survey measures the extent to which faculty and staff are involved and engaged in an institution and ultimately, the health of the culture and quality of the workplace experience. The questions were adjusted and modified based on input from Penn State Human Resources, the University Staff Advisory Council, and the Office of Planning and Institutional Research, and others in partnership with ModernThink, to address the University’s environment and workplace.

The survey also includes a small number of custom questions that are being asked across this survey and the COACHE faculty satisfaction survey.

The online survey should take approximately 18-22 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 employees 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 also includes open-ended questions.

Demographic questions on gender identity, age, and other factors are included at the end of the survey. While these questions are not required, respondents are encouraged to complete them.

As a member of the Penn State community, your voice matters. The survey offers an opportunity to share your thoughts, ideas, and solutions for the University as we grow and change. Higher response rates give a more accurate picture of the University and its individual departments and provide more information to consider as actions are taken to improve the University as a whole.

Yes, participation is voluntary.

All full-time Penn State staff, technical service employees, administrators, academic administrators and executives are being asked to participate in the survey.

Participants will be invited via email to take the survey hosted on ModernThink’s secure website. The survey will be 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 email invitation sent to you directly by ModernThink. You may take the survey at any time while it is open for responses.

Yes. Penn State and ModernThink are committed to preserving the confidentiality of survey results. We understand this may be a concern for some, and participants can rest assured that their responses are confidential. ModernThink, the company conducting the survey, will never share identifiable information or raw survey data with Penn State. It is critical that our employees feel comfortable providing open and honest answers, which will help us enormously as we all work to make Penn State the best it can be as an employer and as a place where our talented staff can build rewarding, impactful careers. The privacy of all participants is paramount and will be upheld in all published results. The survey will be conducted on ModernThink’s secure website. Responses will be processed by ModernThink, and provided to Penn State in aggregate to protect the identities of individuals and small groups. Group demographic data will only be reported when there are five or more respondents in a particular group.

As a part of the normal practice in launching and administering a survey, an institution provides ModernThink with basic information, such as email address, business area (for example, academic college or campus), administrative unit, years of service, employee type (such as regular staff), etc. Providing this information to ModernThink reduces the survey length and helps to ensure accuracy. No protected class information was provided, and individual data will never be reported back to Penn State. Answers provided by participants are separated from individual identities, and all data will eventually be deleted by ModernThink.

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 employee. Emails are purged from ModernThink’s system once the survey project has been completed.

The demographic information that you choose to provide (i.e. gender identity, age, race/ethnicity, etc.) is important, because it will help to better understand the patterns and themes in the survey data. Data on campus, college, administrative unit, employee type, and years of service will be automatically loaded into the survey through Workday. As the confidentiality of your responses is critical, ModernThink will only report data to Penn State in aggregate. Group demographic data will only be reported when there are five or more respondents in a particular group.

The end of the survey includes a section of optional demographic questions. While we encourage employees to respond to the self-selected questions, they are not required. De-identified demographic data is only reported if there are at least five respondents for an option. The demographic information will help ModernThink better understand the patterns and themes in the survey data.

Your answers will be stored each time you select the “Save and Continue” button at the bottom of a survey page. If you close the survey, you can come back by logging on to the ModernThink survey site to re-access it. To protect your confidentiality, you will not be able to access the survey after you submit the completed form.

For technical questions or problems with the survey site please contact ModernThink at 888-684-4658 or [email protected], Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. EST. After hours, leave a message and your call will be returned as promptly as possible.

A high response rate is important in creating the most accurate picture of Penn State’s environment, and all invited employees are encouraged to participate. Average response rates for ModernThink surveys typically range between 40% and 65%.

University leadership is committed to gathering feedback, identifying and prioritizing areas of action, sharing the findings with the community, and developing follow-up plans to address concerns.