Employee Experience

Hello, Eagle Family!

One month ago, we put out a call to volunteers to sign up as Employee Engagement Champions, and we are thrilled that so many of our staff and faculty raised a hand to help build a better workplace at FGCU. That shows our collective passion to enhance our campus culture.

To follow up on the February 24th email regarding the results and next steps of the “Great Colleges to Work For” and Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) surveys, we are pleased to announce the creation of a steering committee to the Taskforce on FGCU Values. As previously announced, this taskforce will guide the development of FGCU’s values through campus engagement efforts.

Please stay tuned as Cabinet is continuing to review applications for Employee Experience Champions for placement on the Taskforce on FGCU Governance (to be chaired by Dr. Eileen DeLuca) and the Employee Engagement Collective (to be chaired by Sara Stensrud).

The membership of the Taskforce on Values is currently being invited to participate from the pool of applicants who indicated interest in this process. Vice President Kitty Green is leading the steering committee to support the taskforce alongside:

• Allison Bacigalupi – Senior Director of Retention and Graduation Services
• Jessica Essary – Professor, Early Childhood Education
• Pamela McCabe – Director of University Communications & Media Relations
• Clay Motley – Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences
• Emily Nanna – Associate Director of the Office of Institutional Ethics and Compliance and Senior Deputy Title IX Coordinator
• Jena Padilla – Staff Advisory Council President, Assistant Director of Business Operations in the Lutgert College of Business
• Jana Sabo – Assistant Director of Employee Relations & Employee Development.
• Rob Sillevis – Chair of the Rehabilitation Sciences Department, Program Director of the Physical Therapy Program and Associate Professor in Marieb College of Health & Human Services.

Together, the steering committee and taskforce will lead the university’s efforts to further define and celebrate the behaviors we have come to expect of ourselves and one another at FGCU, as we work collaboratively to achieve our mission.

Next Steps: Listening Sessions

The committee will gather input from faculty and staff during listening sessions at college, school, divisional, shared governance and department meetings. These events will be focused on educating the FGCU community about this initiative and collecting descriptions of what employees think our values should be. The committee is also working with the Internal Communications Committee to schedule additional listening sessions for anyone who may not have participated in another session. The goal is for everyone to have the opportunity to share their thoughts about what values will make FGCU a uniquely great place to work.

As they are booked, listening sessions will be published on the website fgcu.edu/employee-experience. You can also sign up to host the committee at a department meeting by emailing Pamela McCabe at pmccabe@fgcu.edu.  

FGCU Values to Launch August 11

The committee will analyze your feedback, look for themes, and coordinate with the Taskforce on Values to help define what those values mean. That work will then be discussed with focus groups during the summer, with a final set of no more than five core values being announced Monday, August 11, during FGCU’s annual Fall Welcome event at Alico Arena. Once finalized, FGCU’s values will be used to craft new competencies for staff and out-of-unit faculty’s annual performance review process, and they will be used to define our collective actions and steps forward in our Journey to Excellence.

It is important for you to know that we do not have any preconceived notions of what the results of this initiative will be. The final set of values will reflect what we hear in the listening sessions, so your participation in the process is critical.

If you have any questions or suggestions, contact Kitty Green at KCGreen@FGCU.edu.  

Wings Up & Go Eagles!

Hello, Eagle Family!

About two months ago, President Timur announced our next steps forward related to the feedback received from the “Great Colleges to Work For” survey about our work culture and environment. Since then, president’s cabinetmembers and campus-wide leaders, including the deans of our colleges and schools, hosted conversations about the survey results in their areas. Based on feedback from these conversations and the data supplied by our ModernThink consultant, FGCU’s executive leadership team has identified four focus areas for our improvement strategy:

• Develop institutional values to guide our daily behaviors and expectations of how others should act
• Build trust, connection and supportive pathways to senior leadership to provide an inclusive and supportive workplace environment
• Enhance our shared governance across campus to increase faculty and staff participation in campus-wide decision-making
• Engender employee well-being and job satisfaction with Human Resources’ programs, the expansion of professional development opportunities and a communications process that addresses how information in shared.

This leads us to our next phase in the process: action planning. The primary goal of this phase is to learn how to transform abstract goals or objectives into tangible, actionable steps. This empowers FGCU to turn aspirations for workplace excellence into concrete achievements with systematic planning, the execution of those plans and evaluation.

In the coming weeks, our college and school deans, as well as our campus leaders, will participate in action-planning training, which will then filter down to our academic chairs and department leaders. Collectively, they will learn about the process of action planning and how we can make our campus environment the best it can be for all employees.

We are also launching three working groups that will assist in the work ahead:

• Taskforce on FGCU Governance: An advisory group that will work on more fully promoting the accomplishments of the university’s unique vision and mission through shared responsibility and accountability among stakeholders. This group will build on the successful work of the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) Shared Governance Work Group, increasing the scope of the effort to include the staff and faculty perspective.
• Taskforce on FGCU Values: An advisory group that will focus on defining, through campus engagement efforts, the behaviors we expect of ourselves and one another as members of the Eagle Family.
• Employee Engagement Collective: An advisory group that will bring together the insights of the Internal Communications Committee, Human Resources and other employee advocacy groups from across campus to discuss elements that can be added to our work life to make FGCU a better place to work.

If you would like to be considered for a taskforce position, let us know by filling out the Employee Experience Champion form online by February 28. Those who have already filled out the forms do not need to take further action, and we thank you for raising a hand in helping build a better workplace at FGCU.

Wings Up & Go Eagles!

Dear Eagle Family,

Students are at the heart of our strategic plan, Innovating for Student Success: FGCU’s Journey to Excellence. But the backbone of this incredible work comes from our world-class staff and faculty, who enrich the lives of our 16,000 students and ensure they reach their full potential.

As our university adopts a mindset of continuous improvement, it is essential that we evaluate how the university is performing as an employer so that we can foster an environment where all staff and faculty feel that they can thrive and grow. This is not just a goal in our strategic plan – it is the right thing to do.

To assist in this effort, we have used various efforts to solicit feedback from our employees, with each of these tools providing us with key information about employee’s perceptions of what it is like to work at FGCU. Through the Internal Communications Committee, we launched a survey that helped us understand how you want to receive information from the university and one another. I am sure you recognize that we have executed many new initiatives. We formed a taskforce to plan action steps with regards to the feedback we received from faculty on the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) Survey, which you will hear detailed updates on the progress soon. And, as we conclude the fall term, I am pleased to say in this email that we are closing the loop in sharing updates about our recent town hall topics.

First, I want you to know that FGCU has received the final report from the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS). The full report can be found online at www.fgcu.edu/facultystaff, and the October 28th town hall recording is available on my website.

Second, I am pleased to announce our next steps for ModernThink’s “Great Colleges to Work For” Survey results. When staff and faculty participated in the survey during the spring 2024 semester, I promised you that the university would use your anonymous feedback to guide our steps forward. I stressed how important it was for you to share your experiences – the good and the bad – with us so we could fine-tune our work culture and environment.

And that is exactly what we are doing.

Since the October 24th town hall, we knew it was critical for us to have ongoing discussions about the data, helping us collect ideas from across campus. Divisional vice presidents and the deans of our colleges and schools are continuing the conversations about the survey results in their areas, and I encourage you to join these discussions and share your ideas for a better employee experience at FGCU. These ideas will come before Cabinet in January so we can establish a top five list of campus priorities, which we will then share university-wide. Units will integrate these priorities so that we can move forward together.

To chronicle our efforts moving forward, FGCU has launched an employee experience website. Please visit fgcu.edu/employee-experience to find key resources like our 2024 “Great Colleges to Work For” survey data, the town hall recording and a list of frequently asked questions. The website also outlines opportunities for staff and faculty to get involved in our next steps, including being able to share anonymous feedback and sign up to become an Employee Experience Champion.

As we look ahead to 2025, FGCU will be focused on bringing all the feedback we received from these four instruments to further analyze what we learned so we can move forward with strategic initiatives to improve, change and innovate. We all have work to do individually and collectively. Through these efforts, we are ensuring our campus is a better place to work.

I know I can count on all of you to help our university in our journey forward.

Wings Up & Go Eagles!