MHCC uses satisfaction surveys to make improvements

 

This spring, Mt. Hood students will have the opportunity to give input about ways the campus opperates. Feedback from the survey will be evaluated and considered when deciding what improvements to make on campus.

The bi-annual campus satisfaction survey normally reaches 30 percent of the college’s population, but this year researchers hope to achieve closer to 50 percent.

During the spring term, MHCC will conduct a student satisfaction survey to learn more about how students feel about the college so administrators will know what kinds of improvements could make campus life more convenient.

Such surveys have been conducted every other year since 1994, according Tim Green, research associate for Mt. Hood’s Information Technology department. He hopes to hear from at least every other student.

The survey poses questions on about 40 different topics that include student satisfaction with academic advisers and instructors, and how students feel about certain areas of the college.

“It gives us a very rich data set from which we can prioritize where we need to allocate resources and improve the situation,” said Green. Data consistently gathered every other year is crucial to the process, he said.

During the fourth week of spring term, Green will randomly select a number of students, then send an email asking them to take the survey. Students who are not selected may still participate by going online.

One direct outcome from previous student surveys is the way the MHCC Library is now run.

Going back several years, Mt. Hood had seen “steady declines with satisfaction with the library, and the library services that were available,” said Green. “The library went through some drastic changes, both in making librarians available, and making food service available in the library itself” and adjusting the hours it was open, he said. Satisfaction has increased, as a result.

Last year, Mt. Hood conducted an employee satisfaction climate survey, which hadn’t been done since 2008.

Green said the long gap resulted from too big a transition in leadership “and no one really knew what the priorities were.” Current President Debbie Derr has shown “she is committed to gathering this information on a systematic regular basis, so we are planning on giving it every two years from now on,” he said.

“This is an important piece of information for the college to function effectively: understanding where folks have problems, where we might work to improve how we deliver the services that we deliver.”

The main concern raised by the employee survey was communication problems, Green said: “(W)e’re talking about top-down: highest-level administrators communicating decisions and (the) reasoning behind decisions that are being made.”

Communication issues are rise from the bottom up, he said. “Employees need to feel that they are being listened to, and that any ideas or suggestions that they might have for improvement are being listened to and evaluated,” he said. “Horizontal communication” that goes between different departments is another key issue, he said.

Results from the employee climate survey are now used to inform the Culture of Excellence training sessions that Derr has introduced, said Green. “We should see a mesh with the Culture of Excellence and this survey… and results of this survey.”

Final results and reports for the employee satisfaction survey are now available online.

Go to: http://www.mhcc.edu/About.aspx?id=936 and see the reports atop the current list of documents.