Your Opinion Matters: 2023 Staff Engagement Survey Coming Soon

By Monica Shirley

Two UCSF female custodial workers stand with their colleague at Millberry Gym.
Xiulian Su (left) and Yinen Situ (center) senior custodians in Facilities Services, with their colleague (right) at a Staff Resource Day event. Photo by Susan Merrell.

UC San Francisco will launch its annual engagement survey of all staff on April 11. This is your chance to provide candid feedback on UCSF’s ongoing efforts to provide a more inclusive and engaging place to work.

New to this year’s survey are questions related to wellness and conversations about race and equity, as part of UCSF’s Anti-Racism Initiative.

The short, confidential survey, administered by Gallup, is open to staff across campus, including UCSF Health, Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and UCSF Benioff Children’s Physicians. The survey can be completed via mobile phones, tablets and computers.

“At UCSF, we want everyone to be able to do their best work in a supportive and inclusive work environment,” said Chancellor Sam Hawgood, MBBS. “I encourage all staff to take the survey and share their thoughts about working at UCSF so we can assess our progress and identify areas for improvement.”

As with the 2022 survey, survey participants can indicate their primary work setting – whether on-site, off-site or flexible – allowing for a deeper understanding of UCSF’s evolving workplaces and their relationship to engagement. Last year’s survey questions will also be included.

The data derived from the survey will provide information that can be used at the UCSF-wide and team levels. UCSF-wide results will be evaluated for trends and patterns to identify ways to improve the working environment across the institution. The UCSF Action Plan continues to drive work building roadmaps for staff, helping managers serve as advocates, and identifying and addressing unconscious bias. Managers and work teams will be able to use the staff survey results to create action plans designed to build upon their strengths and to overcome challenges that are under their control.

Learnings from 2022

The 2022 staff survey found that overall engagement at UCSF held fairly stable – as measured by Gallup’s Grand Mean, a composite score of engagement indicators. UCSF’s Grand Mean showed a small decrease over the previous year from 3.94 in 2021 to 3.92 in 2022. Last year’s score puts UCSF at the 45th percentile of organizations surveyed by Gallup and indicates that UCSF has opportunities to move more of our teams towards world-class engagement, leading to better patient outcomes, greater innovation and productivity, and higher rates of retention and advocacy for staff. Yet, as an organization, UCSF’s greatest strength is that staff feel their teammates are committed to doing quality work.

The 2022 survey results continued to show that the UCSF environment is perceived as diverse, yet it does not foster inclusion to the same degree for all staff groups, particularly those who identify as Black and Latinx. Addressing this sense of belonging is an important element of the organization-wide action plan, and UCSF has seen increases in both engagement and a sense of belonging that our Black and Latinx teammates experience in the last few years.

Survey Results Town Hall: June 29

While survey results will be available across UCSF on May 16, UCSF’s Learning and Organization Development team will share the 2023 survey results in a town hall meeting on June 29, analyze staff feedback, and refine the UCSF-wide action plan to address identified issues.

“The voice of staff is one of our great catalysts for change and an inclusive culture,” said Nancy Duranteau, UCSF’s chief learning officer and director of Learning and Organization Development. “The staff engagement survey results continue to be a go-to data point for all leaders that drives and informs UCSF-wide and team-level decisions and action plans.”