Faculty Experience Survey

The Faculty Experience Survey was developed in an effort to attract, cultivate, and retain an engaged and diverse workforce grounded in our core values through accountability, transparency, and effectiveness. This survey will help identify areas where faculty experience respect and integrity in relationship to the institution, to better support and sustain faculty well-being and belonging, and to increase equity and justice at UMB.

By participating in the survey, you will help us better understand your perceptions on institutional, department, and school-level factors that impact your work, research, teaching, and overall performance. Ultimately, our goal is to continue to build and maintain a culture of continuous improvement and to ensure that UMB core values are fully integrated in the faculty experience. We will share the analyzed findings with the institution. Results will be used to engage in strategic planning, inform changes in policy and practice, and maintain accountability.

The purpose of the Faculty Experience Survey is to understand how you feel about working at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and about a variety of specific topics concerning your work setting and environment. It measures department and leadership performance from the employee’s perspective and provides valuable data for improving the work environment.

Your perceptions and participation are vital. We need to hear from you!

We want to hear from you! Faculty Experience Survey - Diversity | Culture | Faculty Experience | Transparency | Positive Change | Belonging

Survey Details

The Faculty Experience Survey is completely web-based. All surveys must be completed online.  You will receive an email invitation directly from umbexperience@umaryland.edu, which has a unique security password for you. Login information cannot be shared with others.

The survey takes, on average, about 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

Schedule and Deadline

The survey will launch on March 7 and run through March 31, 2023. You must complete the survey by March 31, 2023.

Does Everyone Have To Complete A Survey?

All seven schools and administrative units (e.g. Administration and Finance, President’s Office, Research and Administration) at UMB will receive the survey.

All faculty are strongly encouraged to participate in the survey. The Faculty Experience Survey is important, as it will help us learn more about your perceptions about and experiences in your work environment as we seek to continue to improve performance of our units, schools, and UMB.

Higher rates of participation help to ensure that we are collecting the most valid data and reliable data on which to make changes.

Anonymity

Responses will be summarized by a third party, Tritonlytics, into one report for each department. Individuals will not be identified, and only aggregated data will be reported. Further, to do our best to ensure that survey responses are anonymous, we have done the following:

  • Pre-established "blind lists" of email addresses, grouped by reporting area that are never directly visible by administrators.
  • Randomized the distribution of ResponseIDs, eliminating the possibility that a specific user's response could be identified based upon survey or alphabetical order.
  • Ensured that no respondent IP addresses, email addresses, or other identity-related information is logged or stored (i.e., no cookies.)
  • Ensured that outside of the emailed invitation itself, no record exists correlating a specific user with a specific response.
  • Ensured that a secure SSL certificate is utilized for all online survey activity, preventing others from "listening in" on the survey responses.
  • Ensured that only invitation recipients can take the survey. By utilizing a uniquely generated passphrase per ResponseID, the emailed link to each respondent cannot be modified to respond for others.

Other Details

Why Is The Faculty Experience Survey Being Used? How Does It Differ From The Staff Experience Survey? ▾

The previous environmental survey was a single survey for all faculty and staff. This year each group will receive separate surveys with specific questions related to the work of each population.  Questions that are similar from the previous surveys will be mapped and coded to look at changes over the last 6 years. The new questions about interpersonal behaviors, conduct, core values, and diversity will serve as a baseline for future years. 

How Will Information Be Used? What Will Faculty Find Out About The Survey Results? ▾

After the survey is closed, Tritonlytics, the external survey administrator, will present insights and recommendations to university leaders and managers to assist us in creating actionable plans for improving the work environment, enhancing staff experience, and strengthening employee engagement.

The results of the survey will be available for departments/units/schools providing at least 5 respondents. Unit responses will be further summarized at the administrative/school unit and department levels and then ultimately at the university-wide level.

University survey results will be available on the HR website, the EDI website, and our new Institutional Dashboard site.

Departments with 5+ respondents will receive department level reports with results for each question and theme, and departments with 25+ respondents will receive the reports with scatterplots and findings by demographic groups. Department leaders are expected to share the results with their teams.

What Does DEPARTMENT Mean In The Survey Questions? ▾

DEPARTMENT may be defined differently for each reporting unit. Clicking on those words in the survey questions will bring up information on how the terms are defined for your unit.

What If I Have Recently Changed Departments? ▾

If you changed departments ON or BEFORE August 20, 2022, you should respond to the survey items based on your NEW department. If you changed departments AFTER that date, you should respond for your OLD department.

What If I Can't Finish It All At Once? ▾

If you cannot finish the survey all at once, you can return to it later. Click the FINISH LATER button. Your responses will be saved from where you left off. Be sure to keep your original email to re-enter your survey. If you delete this email, you cannot be sent another one.

Survey Help

For questions or concerns, please email umbexperience@umaryland.edu.

If you have a conflicting priority or some other reason for not completing the survey, please consider discussing it with Human Resources, using the survey email link.

Since 2015, other universities have been participating in the Faculty Experience Survey. This means your responses not only positively impact UMB's efforts to enhance the workplace climate, but also contribute to an expanding benchmarking study which is benefiting higher education.