This post was updated Nov 15, to include the bold ADDITION: sentence in the second paragraph.
As part of our commitment to be a workplace where every employee is valued and included, all CIRES employees are being asked to complete the Institutes Culture Survey. You will receive a link from CU Boulder’s Office of Assessment, Insights, and Measurement (AIM) on October 23, 2023. The survey will take 10-20 minutes on average to complete.
The Institutes Culture Survey is designed to gather data about your experiences in the academic and workplace environments at CIRES. If you are a tenure-track or tenured CU Boulder faculty, please refer to your institute-based experience rather than your departmental experience. ADDITION: If you are a NOAA-based CIRES employee, please refer to your institute-based experience, and therefore the CIRES employees that you engage with frequently, rather than concentrating on your role as an embedded employee in a federal lab. The results of this survey will be used to benchmark CIRES’ DEI efforts in support of the CU Boulder IDEA Plan. We encourage everyone to answer completely and honestly to provide the most accurate results.
CIRES administration will use the results from this survey to better understand our existing workplace culture and to identify both strengths and areas of concern, allowing us to make informed decisions for future DEI strategic programming. The survey will remain open until November 19 at 11:59 pm.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the 2023 Institutes Culture Survey
Who is administering the survey?
This survey is administered by AIM which resides within CU Boulder’s Office of Data Analytics (ODA). ODA administers most of the large-scale surveys that occur at CU Boulder and follows best practices in survey and data security standards.
What steps are being taken to protect my anonymity?
Personally identifiable data are released only to the AIM staff who are responsible for the survey administration and data analysis. When a participant submits their survey, the identifying information that allows the database manager to send reminder emails will be removed from the data file. In other words, once you submit your survey, your responses will be anonymized. In addition, this data file is encrypted and password-protected on the ODA server. No raw data will ever be shared with CIRES administration or any other CU Boulder office or employee. Information will only be reported in aggregate and any aggregation that has fewer than 10 individuals will not be reported/displayed.
How secure is my data?
ODA currently safeguards sensitive employment and student data with state-of-the-art data security protocols. The survey platform, Qualtrics, meets Vendor Security Assessment Questionnaire (VSAQ) data standards. Read more about Qualtrics security. Once the survey has closed, data will also be encrypted in transit to ODA. The full database of anonymized responses will then be held by ODA in encrypted form on their secure server. The de-identified data will be stored to allow investigation of trends by comparison with future surveys.
How will the survey results be used?
The Culture Survey results will be examined for making program improvements and are not intended for research use. Survey responses—even though anonymized—will never be shared at the individual level or for groups of less than 10 responses, even for the purposes of conducting research. Survey results will be used to identify where CIRES is doing well in terms of workplace culture and where improvements should be made. This will inform an action plan to be implemented by CIRES. Aggregated results may be used in presentations or publications about the CIRES DEI Program.
What kind of questions are on the survey?
The questions address the culture of the workplace as well as experiences of negative treatment and protected-class discrimination and harassment. There are no open-ended questions on the survey; most questions use a six-point disagree-agree rating scale. There are also demographic questions at the end of the survey because members of different groups may be having different experiences inside and outside the classroom and in the workplace. Demographic questions have been developed in collaboration with DEI campus experts to be both sensitive and useful for DEI strategic programming. Results for demographic groups will not be shared if there are fewer than 10 members in the group.
Is the survey accessible to a screen reader?
Yes, it is. The survey will be administered through Qualtrics, an online survey platform. CU’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) has tested Qualtrics’ compatibility with screen readers extensively. Only question types that have been tested and shown to be accessible are used in the Institutes Culture Survey. Learn more about screen reader compatibility.
Can I take the survey on my smartphone or mobile device?
Yes, you can take the survey on your smartphone or mobile device. However, it may be challenging to review and complete the survey on a smaller screen. It is highly recommended that you complete the survey on a desktop computer.
Who should I contact if I have questions?
Please feel free to contact Becca Edwards, CIRES Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Director, with any questions regarding this survey (becca.edwards@colorado.edu). Becca is available to attend group meetings or other events to talk about this survey. You may also contact Angela Knight, CIRES Human Resources Director (angela.knight@colorado.edu), fill out the anonymous CIRES feedback form, or contact Z Reisz in the AIM unit of the Office of Data Analytics. If you would like to see more FAQs, please visit the CU Boulder Culture Survey FAQ
