Climate Feedback Gathering and Action Planning Toolkit for Higher Ed
8 tools to turn faculty and staff climate survey results into actionable next steps
Use this toolkit to center your higher ed institution's faculty and staff needs when planning or responding to an employee climate survey.
Most leaders know they need to publish survey results and act based on the themes they heard in survey data. Many succeed in identifying high-level goals but then struggle to write and share action plans that outline the steps their institution needs to take to achieve those goals. Even leaders who implement action plans can still fail to make progress if they do not embed accountability measures from the beginning. These failures to follow through on commitments can exacerbate some of the climate concerns leaders set out to address in the first place.
Leaders must follow up on faculty and staff climate surveys by gathering input from faculty and staff, mapping out action plans, and building systems of accountability. Download our toolkit and follow the steps outlined below to turn faculty and staff feedback into progress toward an inclusive climate.
Build a Listening Plan
When institutions fail to listen to faculty and staff voices, employees feel excluded from decision-making, and leaders can miss out on valuable expertise that furthers the institution’s mission and advances the institution’s goals. Leaders can overcome these barriers to inclusion by creating a coordinated approach to gathering input from across their institutions.
Create an Action Plan
Action plans help leaders focus their efforts on three to five concrete steps they can complete in one year to address the needs identified by the climate survey and other listening efforts. To build an action plan that will demonstrate commitment to and ensure progress toward institutional or unit goals, leaders should use the SMART framework to break down goals and objectives into actionable steps and determine how they will track progress and assess success.
Ensure Follow-Up
Leaders lay the groundwork for follow-through with detailed action plans, yet the urgent day-to-day demands of higher ed distract from this important but long-term work. As a result, many leaders make plans but fail to complete them. Leaders can get ahead of this tendency by planning how they will hold themselves accountable.
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