Original: February 8, 2011 Issue 10
By: Rocio Rossi
Staff Writer
Reveals ups and downs among MC’s faculty and staff
Recently, the college’s Office of Employee Engagement and Labor Relations released the latest results collected by the Employee Engagement Survey. This survey was forwarded to five college groups: all full time (FT) and part time (PT) professors, college administrators, and members of the college’s bargaining and non-bargaining units. One of its aims was to reflect on the levels of engagement, working environment comfort, and communication dynamics among Montgomery College’s employees.
The October 2010 survey was answered by 1,375 employees of the college. This represents a collegewide participation rate of 53 percent, more than double the rate of the October 2009 survey.
Besides the other three groups mentioned above, 60 percent of FT and 34 percent of PT faculty responded to the survey.
The responses showed an increased sense of work satisfaction among FT and PT professors since 2009. 96 percent of professors answered “always” or “mostly” to categories such as, “I am proud of the college’s mission,” and “the work that I do is personally fulfilling.”
More than a quarter of PT professors feel they could not evaluate this category.
When asked to rate their relationships with their supervisors, so only the responses of FT faculty were taken into account. 82 percent of FT professors feel that their supervisors keep them informed on the issues that affect their department, 91 percent feel treated with respect by their supervisors, and 72 percent believe that their supervisors “consistently apply the college’s policies and procedures.” Only 63 percent did in 2009.
This last statistic is particularly interesting because it shows that almost a third of participating professors disagrees on the consistency with which their supervisors enforce college regulations and procedures.
When it comes to collegewide communication, the survey revealed improvements as well as downfalls in opinions. 71 percent FT and 81 percent PT professors feel that MC’s administration keeps them informed on the issues that impact the college. This category shows a lot of improvement since 2009, when only 51 percent FT and 69 percent PT faculty felt that way.
It is worthy to note that the 2009 survey was conducted while the college’s former president, Dr. Brian Johnson, was under scrutiny by the Board of Trustees (BOT) for allegedly using MC’s money for lavish personal spending purposes. During this time a lot of professors, especially PT faculty, felt left out and uninformed.
Also, results showed that only 67 percent FT and 42 percent PT of the faculty feel that they have the opportunity to contribute to discussion of collegewide issues. These figures are lower than those obtained in 2009. Even though it is true that not all of MC professors’ opinions can be heard by the BOT, the percentage of these with the “opportunity” should be higher.
One of the reasons why the Employee Engagement Advisory Group (EEAG) conducted this survey was to find areas where the spirit and sense of engagement among employees of the college need to be raised. In February, it will provide briefings on each campus to review and discuss the survey results.
It is also in the process of seeking employee volunteers from the five sectors to create “focus groups” that would provide insight and suggest ideas as to how these areas can be best improved.
