This year, The Chronicle’s Great Colleges to Work For survey is based on responses from more than 53,000 people at 253 institutions: 165 four-year colleges (95 private and 70 public) and 88 two-year colleges. All accredited institutions in the United States with an enrollment of at least 500 were invited to participate, at no cost to them.
Job consultants, a misfire on gauging productivity, how to handle career milestones, and our Great Colleges to Work For report.
Of the responses received, more than 7,500 were from administrators, 18,103 from faculty members, more than 15,000 from exempt staff members, more than 1,300 from adjunct faculty members, and about 11,300 from nonexempt staff members in lower-paid job categories. The survey was sent to over 121,000 employees, with an overall response rate of 44 percent.
The survey was administered by ModernThink LLC, a human-resources-consulting firm based in Wilmington, Del. It is based on an assessment that has been used in 55 “Best Places to Work” programs and more than 4,000 organizations. A panel of higher-education experts helped to customize it for issues unique to colleges.
Each institution was asked to submit a list of full-time employees randomly selected across four job categories: administration, the faculty, exempt professional staff, and nonexempt staff. Adjunct faculty members were included for two-year colleges only. The sample size, as large as 600, was based on the number of employees in those categories. Institutions with fewer than 500 people in the designated categories were invited to survey the entire employee population.
The assessment had two components: a questionnaire about institutional characteristics and a faculty/staff questionnaire about individuals’ evaluations of their institutions. The assessment also included an analysis of demographic data and workplace policies, including benefits, at each participating college. The questionnaires were administered online in the spring.
In the faculty/staff questionnaire, people responded to 60 statements using a five-point scale, ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.” The statements were categorized into various dimensions, and from those the Great Colleges recognition categories, such as collaborative governance, were determined. A list of the 12 categories and examples of the survey statements that form them is below.
In all, 84 colleges were recognized for their employment practices this year, some in multiple categories. To determine the colleges to be recognized in each category, we divided the applicant pool into two classifications: four-year institutions and two-year institutions. Within each are three groups, based on total undergraduate and graduate enrollment: small (500 to 2,999 students), medium (3,000 to 9,999), and large (more than 10,000).
Recognition in each Great Colleges category, except diversity, was given to the 10 highest-scoring institutions in each size grouping for four-year colleges, and the four highest-scoring institutions in each size grouping for two-year colleges. In the diversity category, three four-year and three two-year colleges were recognized.
Honor Roll status for four-year colleges was given to the 10 institutions in each size grouping that were cited most often across all recognition categories. For two-year colleges, Honor Roll status was given to the four institutions cited most often in each size grouping.
