UNT staff survey indicates employees feel like they are part of the UNT community

A report based on the results of the 2004 UNT Staff Survey is now available online for the UNT community to review at www.unt.edu/ir_acc.

According to Allen Clark, senior director of institutional research, 77 percent of survey participants feel that they are a real part of the UNT community and 94 percent of participants feel that their work contributed to the overall goals of the university.

The survey also shows that many staff members (42 percent of participants) find their workplaces "overly stressful."
"A heavy workload and relationships with their supervisors were the two largest contributors to this stressed feeling," Clark says.

Though almost half of the participants said they were overly stressed, a large portion (88 percent) indicated that they were treated with respect by their coworkers. Staff members are also glad to be able to work out their stress with the fitness programs available at UNT.

"One major change indicated by the 2004 survey was the increase in satisfaction level with the availability of recreational and fitness programs at UNT," Clark says. "In 2002 the satisfaction level was 53 percent; in 2004 the satisfaction level is 62 percent. This would imply that staff are also satisfied with the new recreational facilities."

The Enterprise Information System indirectly took a hit, based on the 2004 survey results.

"A number of departments received lower ratings of the quality of their service than in the past," Clark says. "The departments that saw the largest decrease in the rating of the quality of their service were those departments that were heavily involved in the EIS implementation."

Of the 2,100 surveys distributed to retirement-eligible staff, 674 (31 percent) were returned — a 10-percent participation decline from two years ago.

The greatest under-representation of respondents was in the service category, so Clark says the Office of Institutional Research and Accreditation created a Spanish version of a survey and will do more to promote that version to Spanish-speaking employees prior to a survey set for distribution this fall. That survey will focus on the effects of workplace stress on employees.

BY MICHELLE HALE mhale@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• Service will honor Steve Miller
• Formula funding is top priority for UNT during 2005 legislative session
• Coretta Scott King to speak at UNT conference
• Library Mall renovation work continues
• New UNT degrees approved by Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
• Murphy entrepreneur contest winners named
• University Union's Corner Store gets a face-lift
• Leadership Texas chooses three from UNT
• Hispanic higher education magazine names UNT to its Publisher's Picks List
• UNT gifts made holidays bright for residents in need
• Faculty Senate holds final meeting of 2004

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