2023 Faculty & Staff Climate and Engagement Survey

In early 2023, UW-Green Bay will be facilitating a faculty & staff climate and engagement survey.  UW-System coordinated a climate survey for students in 2021, but a concurrent faculty and staff survey was ultimately postponed due to COVID.

We appreciate your participation in taking the upcoming survey and encouraging peers to complete the survey as well. With that in mind, please see below for some frequently asked questions regarding the 2023 Faculty & Staff Climate and Engagement Survey:

Why should I complete the climate and engagement survey?

It is important to make your voice heard so that the institution can better understand the faculty and staff experience. Assessing campus climate and employee engagement is critically important to support strategic planning, faculty & staff recruitment/retention, and professional development activities. By capturing faculty and staff perceptions of diversity and campus climate issues (among other topics), we can better understand employee needs and what we can do to improve the experiences of all employees here at UW-Green Bay.

When will the survey be distributed?

The climate and engagement survey will be distributed starting on January 31, 2023 and collection of survey responses will continue through March 9, 2023.

What survey instrument will be used?

The determination has been made to utilize the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA (or HERI) surveys for faculty and staff. While a couple of other survey options were considered, the HERI survey was chosen because it is so commonly used (allowing us to utilize comparison groups), the questions asked especially in the faculty survey go well-beyond climate (i.e. pedagogical practices, research & service, faculty experience, etc.), and UW-Green Bay has utilized the HERI survey multiple times in the past so we have consistency in historical reporting.

Will all employees be invited to participate?

All active, professional employees at the time of distribution with an appointment of at least one semester will be invited to participate. Student employees and graduate assistants will not be a part of this survey since those populations were invited to participate in the 2021 student climate survey.

Will all employees get the same survey?

There is a separate survey for faculty and for staff. Employee whose responsibilities are primarily instructional (tenured/tenure-track faculty, instructional academic staff in teaching professor titles, and temporary/part-time lecturers) will be invited to complete the faculty survey. Those whose primary responsibilities are non-instructional will be invited to complete the staff survey.

How will I get the link to the survey?

The actual request to participate with the link to the survey and reminders during the collection period will be sent from HERI directly from the following email addresses: 

About a week prior to the January 31st distribution date, all employees will receive a communication from HR which will prepare them for the information they can expect to receive from HERI.

How long will the survey take to complete?

In their administration materials, HERI has communicated that if all questions are answered, the survey will take approximately 25-30 minutes to complete.

Can I complete the survey on paid work time?

Yes, the survey can be taken on work time, and supervisors are encouraged to work with employees to set aside time for survey completion.

Are any of the questions required?

Every question on the survey is optional, so you can refrain from answering anything that may make you feel uncomfortable.

Are my responses confidential?

The HERI survey is confidential. You will not be asked identifying information including name or address. HERI will request your email address for potential follow-up surveys, however if you answer “no” your email address is not retained. Even if answering “yes”, your email address will not be linked to your survey results in any form. In the HERI-provided sharable reports, any item with fewer than five respondents will be suppressed in order to protect confidentiality. For more information about HERI confidentiality, please see https://ucla.box.com/v/FAC-Confidentiality-Privacy

How will response data be handled by UW-Green Bay?

The Senior HR/AA Officer will receive a data file of responses, however the data will not be attached to email addresses and may only be used for statistical analysis and reporting of aggregate information, not for the investigation into specific individuals. Before receiving the data, the Senior HR/AA Officer will certify compliance with HERI’s confidentiality agreement, which states that nobody at the institution will use the data to investigate any individual responses. The Senior HR/AA Officer will generate any requested reports in aggregate so as not to inadvertently disclose the identity of respondents, and data will be stored in the secure, restricted HR drive.

When will the results be published?

We expect that HERI reports will be released in the late summer of 2023. For information about HERI’s data reporting, please see https://ucla.box.com/v/FAC-Data-and-Reporting.

What happens after we get the climate study results?

In order for a climate and engagement survey to be meaningful, there must be recognition of the results and recommendations for action as warranted. Both leadership and the work group are committed to continuing the survey process into the fall to include a period of time in which recommendations for action based upon survey results can be considered.

Who should I contact if I have questions?

You are welcome to contact anyone on the climate and engagement survey work group. Members include:

    • Melissa Nash (HR)
    • Stacie Christian (University Inclusivity & Student Affairs)
    • Courtney Sherman (Academic Affairs)
    • Kristin Bouchard (Marketing & University Communications)
    • Devin Bickner (Resch School of Engineering, UC Chair)
    • Georjeanna Wilson-Doenges (Psychology, Faculty Representative)
    • Kate Farley (Library, Academic Staff Representative)
    • Kim Mezger (Academic Affairs, University Staff Representative)

 

 

HRS Extended Outage from 5pm Friday, November 11 to 2pm Sunday, November 13

Employees will not have access to online timesheets, earnings statements, and other related documents and services during a UW Human Resources System (HRS) outage from approximately 5:00 p.m. on Friday, November 11 through 2:00 p.m. Sunday, November 13. The outage is due to HRS System maintenance.

The following self-service features that employees access through the MyUW portals, UW System institutions, and UW-Madison will be unavailable during this outage:

    • Online timesheet
    • Absence reporting
    • Benefits Self Service
    • Updates to personal information
    • Access to electronic earnings statements, tax statements (W-2, 1042-S, etc.), leave statements and other HR, Payroll and Benefits documents
    • Access to TAM job application service
    • EPM Data Warehouse
    • Security Requests for HRS/EPM

The rest of the MyUW portal, with the exception of the HRS System related features and documents, will be available during the HRS outage.

During this time, applicants will be unable to access the online applicant management system to apply for positions. Please contact jobs@uwgb.edu with any questions regarding this outage for applicants. All other questions can be directed to hr@uwgb.edu

Announcing New Employee HR Orientation

Our HR Talent Acquisition Team is working hard to enhance our onboarding program for new employees. We are in the final stages of developing an HR Orientation session that will include a headshot photo provided by Marketing & University Communication, a presentation from our Talent Team about UW System and UW Green Bay, along with a condensed employee-centered campus tour led by Admissions.

We will be holding HR Orientation sessions twice a month on the 2nd floor of the Cofrin Library on Wednesdays, with our kick off session on Wednesday, November 2nd. The first Wednesday of the month, the session will be from 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm and the third Wednesday of the month will be from 9:00 am to 11:30 am. These sessions are for new, ongoing University Staff, Academic Staff, and Limited employees at this time and HR will be sending out individual invitations to the sessions for each new employee. For our first session, November 2nd, we will be inviting those employees who have started since August 23rd (the day after Phoenix Orientation). After the first session, we will invite those employees who have start dates that land between our sessions dates.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program can help employees pay off their student loans.  This program forgives the remaining balance on qualified federal loans after borrowers have made 120 qualifying monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan while working full-time for a qualifying employer, such as the University of Wisconsin System.  Further information can be found at the Department of Education website at https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service.

There are a number of federal income-based repayment plans. Whether the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is right for an individual can vary.  A student loan borrower needs to work for a public service qualifying employer to qualify the loan forgiveness benefit.

The Department of Education recommends that if you would like to qualify for this program now or in the future, you would complete the Employment Certification form (https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/public-service-application-for-forgiveness.pdf) as soon as possible. You would complete sections 1 and 2 of this form, as well as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness cover sheet (https://uwservice.wisconsin.edu/docs/publications/voe-uws-pslf-request.pdf), and fax or mail (don’t email due to the confidential information on the form) the forms to UW-Shared Services (fax number and address is listed on the cover sheet). This website from UW-Shared Services offers detailed instructions: https://uwservice.wisconsin.edu/loan-forgiveness.

The Department of Education website also has instructions for submitting applications digitally (using the PSLF Help Tool): https://studentaid.gov/pslf/

FY 2023 Pay Plan Information

Last year, JCOER approved a 2021-2023 pay plan for UW System employees, which provides a base rate increase to all eligible employees of 2% in FY22 and 2% in FY23. At this time, the Office of Human Resources is taking measures to prepare for the second 2% pay plan increase for eligible employees, which will be effective on January 1, 2023.

During the next month, we will be determining which employees are eligible for pay plan under the UW-Green Bay Compensation and Pay Plan Policy. Eligible employees for the proposed FY 2022 pay plan include faculty, academic staff, limited, university staff, and university staff project appointments in ongoing positions with a budgeted FTE of 50% or greater. Pursuant to the UW-Green Bay Compensation and Pay Plan Policy, SYS 1278: UW System Pay Plan Distribution Framework, and other publicized guidelines, the following list represents employees who would be ineligible for pay plan:

    1. Employees paid from provisional, non-budgeted salary lines, including all temporary appointments and positions less than 50% FTE.
    2. Employees represented by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Respective pay increases for pay plan will be negotiated separately through the CBA.
    3. Employees currently under a performance improvement plan (PIP).
    4. Employees with performance which does not merit eligibility for pay plan, per their most recent performance evaluation.
    5. Ongoing employees with three-months of service or less as of the effective date of pay plan (those with a start date after 9/30/2022).
    6. Faculty, Academic Staff, and Limited employees without a current Outside Activities Report (OAR) on file
    7. Employees who have not completed required campus compliance trainings. Required trainings include:
        1. Sexual Harassment (Title IX) (Required every three years)
        2. Information Security Awareness (Required annually)
        3. Mandated Reporter (One-time training required at time of hire)
        4. Injury and Illness Prevention (EDU) (One-time training required at time of hire)
        5. FERPA Basics (One-time training required at time of hire)
        6. Tools for an Ethical Workplace (One-time training required at time of hire)
        7. Campus Security Authority Training (required annually for employees designated as Campus Security Authority (CSA) only)
    8. Supervisors who do not have completed, up to date evaluations on file and OAR forms approved for all of their direct reports. The performance evaluation periods to assess for FY23 pay plan are as follows:
        1. University Staff: 1/1/2021 – 12/31/2021 (and probationary evaluations as applicable)
        2. Non-Instructional Academic Staff / Limited:  7/1/2020 – 6/30/2021 (and 6-month evaluations as applicable) – please note that we are using last year’s evaluation due to the AS/LI evaluation calendar change
        3. Faculty / Instructional Academic Staff: 2020-2021 Academic Year (these annual evaluations were due in early spring, 2022)

In order to be eligible for the proposed pay plan, required trainings, OAR forms, and performance evaluations must be complete by November 30, 2022.

During October and November, the HR Office will be sending reminders to employees any missing training and/or performance evaluation requirements. You will only receive emails from our office if you are missing something. Please make sure to be looking out for these emails over the next month. Our timeline of communications is outlined below:

Week of October 17th Initial Communications

    • Blog post announcing Pay Plan Information for FY2023 and inclusion in HR Connect newsletter.
    • Direct email from UWGB HR to employees who need to complete trainings, evaluations, or OAR forms prior to November 30, 2022
    • Tracking spreadsheets sent to Dean/Division Leaders
Week of November 7th Reminder Communications

    • Direct email from UWGB HR to employees who still need to complete trainings, evaluations, or OAR forms prior to November 30, 2022
    • Updated tracking spreadsheets sent to Dean/Division Leaders
November 28th Final Reminder Communications

    • Final direct email from UWGB HR to employees who still need to complete trainings, evaluations, or OAR forms prior to November 30, 2022
    • Updated tracking spreadsheets sent to Dean/Division Leaders
November 30th Deadline for completion of trainings and return of evaluations and OAR forms
Late December/Early January UW Shared Services will send out notices to employees communicating their individual pay plan increase.

If you have questions about the FY 2023 pay plan, please feel free to contact Human Resources at hr@uwgb.edu or (920) 465-2390.

 

Kognito Simulation Training Wellness Challenge

Students today face increasing pressures that can lead to emotional distress, depression, anxiety, substance abuse and even thoughts of suicide. As faculty and staff, we can take small steps that make a big difference. UW-Green Bay has adopted the Kognito online avatar-based conversation simulation platform “At-Risk Mental Health” for Faculty & Staff, to help us learn to notice signs of distress, use techniques to discuss our concerns, and refer students to appropriate resources. The simulation training lets you practice these challenging conversations at your own pace through role-play with virtual students.

In order to participate in the simulation go to https://uwgb.kognito.com and select “Employee” for the User. This 45-minute training can be completed in multiple sittings as your progress can be saved.

The Wellness Committee will be awarding 20 employees who complete the training by December 31st. If you have already completed the training, your participation will be included. A drawing will take place on Thursday, January 12th and winners will be contacted via email by Friday, January 13th.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact Amy Henniges or the Wellness Center Counseling Team at 920-465-2380 or wellnesscenter@uwgb.edu .

New Career Opportunities Page Launched

We are excited to announce that our Career Opportunities webpage has a new look! In partnership with the Marketing and University Communications Team, our Talent Acquisition Team has worked to update this page and showcase our talented and innovative university to job seekers. One of the exciting new features is the ability for our potential applicants to search our job postings on our Position Listing page by keyword, category, or even campus location! We encourage you to explore our new modernized webpage and share it far and wide with anyone who may be looking for their next opportunity to rise.

Well Wisconsin Incentive Deadline Approaching

The Well Wisconsin deadline is fast approaching! If you are enrolled in the State Group Health Insurance program, be sure to claim your $150 incentive by October 14! To qualify, complete all three of the following activities by the deadline to earn your $150 gift card:

  1. Take the online health assessment.
  2. Complete a health check.
  3. Complete a well-being activity.

Visit webmdhealth.com/wellwisconsin to get started.

New how-to resources available

Learn more about how you can complete these three activities by:

  1. Watching a brief Well Wisconsin Last Chance video
  2. Joining a 30-minute Well Wisconsin Last Chance webinar. Join us for a webinar on Thursday, October 6 at 12 pm Central or Friday, October 7 at 11 am Central to learn what you still have time to complete and the easy steps you can take. Get answers to your questions during our live webinar Q&A section. Click here to sign up for one of our two webinars.
  3. Verify your Well Wisconsin Incentive Completion.

Contact WebMD Customer Service

For assistance, contact WebMD Customer Service at 1-800-821-6591, Monday through Friday from 7:30 am to 7 pm CT.

*The Well Wisconsin incentive program is a voluntary program available to employees, retirees and spouses enrolled in the State of Wisconsin Group Health Insurance Program, excluding Medicare Advantage participants who have incentives available through their health plan. The Well Wisconsin incentive will automatically be issued to eligible participants upon completing the applicable activities. All wellness incentives paid to participants are considered taxable income to the group health plan subscriber and are reported to their employer, who will issue a W2. In some cases, the Wisconsin Retirement System acts as the employer. Retirees, continuants and their spouses will have some taxes withheld from the incentive amount earned.

Reminder Regarding Reporting of Safety Concerns

An item of concern raised by many members of the University Community has been the lack of clarity in the process to make a report about a safety concern at a campus location. Unfortunately, many people believe that a report has been made, but had provided the information to an area that could not take action, or the receiver of that report did not know what to do. In response, the Safety, Risk and Compliance area streamlined the reporting process to allow for digital reporting of these concerns which will be immediately noticed to the Environmental Health, Occupational Safety, and Emergency Manager.

Moving into the school year, we wanted to make sure that all supervisors, as individuals who often receive these reports from employees, students, and members of the public were aware of the process located on the Safety & Environmental Management webpage.

As an important reminder, this process does not replace the use of #2300 / #911 to address emergency situations such as injury, need for immediate medical attention, threat of violence or immediate harm to property. In those matters, individuals on the Green Bay Campus should call #2300 and those at the Additional Locations should call #911. If you have an ongoing concern about personal security please reach out to Human Resources hr@uwgb.edu to discuss options.

The process shown below will allow for employees and students to report a safety concern. Once a report has been submitted, the initiator of the report will receive confirmation that the concern was received and a response on how the concern will be addressed.

Report a Safety Concern: Click here to access the Safety Reporting page. Instructions on How to enter Safety Concern.

Here are Protocols for reporting safety concerns. The University has established protocols for reporting safety concerns that clarify the difference between general concerns and emergency situations everyone should be aware of.

Please review the above links and guidance and feel free to make reference to this process when responding to an employee or individual who has raised a safety concern with you or your operational area.

If you have any questions about this process or the link, please feel free to contact Scott Piontek at pionteks@uwgb.edu.

Jakob Pflederer Joins HR Team!

We are delighted to announce that Jakob Pflederer has joined our Human Resources team as an HR Assistant. In his role, he will performs routine human resources activities and provides general administrative support in functional areas such as records management, compliance, recruitment, and payroll and benefits. Jakob will serve as the office coordinator and as a resource to disseminate general HR information internally and externally. Jakob comes to us after 4.5 years at UW-Platteville.

Welcome Jakob!