2026 Faculty & Staff Engagement Survey

About the Survey

W&L is committed to hearing directly from those who make the university such a special place to learn and work. The 2026 Faculty & Staff Engagement Survey is an opportunity for employees to share confidential feedback about their workplace experience.

About ModernThink 

• ModernThink is a nationally recognized strategic organizational development and management consulting firm specializing in workplace quality, organizational assessment and stakeholder engagement in higher education.
• Co-founder of The Great Colleges to Work For® program (with The Chronicle of Higher Education) since 2008.
• Has surveyed over 1,200 universities with unparalleled benchmark data
• Using a third-party administrator ensures employee anonymity and a neutral perspective.
• W&L is also scheduled to conduct a survey in 2029 to provide a consistent framework for measuring employee engagement over multiple years.

 About the Survey Instrument 

• Customized version of ModernThink’s Higher Education Insight Survey©
• Consists of 60 statements (5 specific to faculty)
• Includes 22 benefits satisfaction ratings
• Asks two open-ended questions
• Takes approximately 20 minutes to complete

Why Participate

Your Voice Matters

Hearing broadly from faculty and staff ensures we gain an accurate and meaningful understanding of the employee experience across campus. Every perspective adds insight into what is working well and where we have opportunities to grow. With an upcoming presidential transition, the survey results will also provide a timely opportunity for our new President to learn about the employee experience and what’s most important to our community.

Decade of Change

It has been 10 years since W&L’s last ModernThink survey. Our campus has experienced substantial change — including the pandemic, shifts in how we work, and leadership transitions. Gathering feedback now will help us understand how these developments have shaped the employee experience and provide a benchmark for comparison to the findings from the next survey in 2029.

Celebrate and Improve

Survey results will help us celebrate what is going well and identify opportunities to strengthen our campus community. We are committed to sharing emerging themes with faculty and staff to initiate important conversations.

Great Colleges Program

W&L will also participate in the Great Colleges to Work For® program, providing an opportunity to benchmark our workplace culture against peer institutions.

Survey Timeline

How to Participate 

Taking the survey:

• Faculty and staff will receive a unique email invitation from ModernThink
• Survey is available 24/7 during the survey window
• Can be completed from work or home (hourly employees: record time as hours worked)
• ModernThink Help Desk will be available to assist respondents from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• If interrupted, use the “Save & Continue” button to return to the survey later

Confidentiality and Privacy

Key confidentiality points:

• External administration: Survey is hosted on ModernThink’s secure server — W&L has no access to the survey site
• No name required: You will not be asked your name on the survey
• Email not linked: Your email is used for access only and is NOT linked to your individual responses
• Aggregate reporting: All results are reported in grouped format only — no individual results are shared with W&L. To protect confidentiality, results by demographic characteristics, job category, or department/division will be reported only when there are five or more respondents are in a group
• Data purged: Email addresses are purged from ModernThink’s system once the project is completed

Frequently Asked Questions

Review the FAQ webpage.

Contact and Support

Survey Questions (W&L)

• Contact: Jodi Williams
• Email: jwilliams@wlu.edu 

Technical Support (ModernThink)

• Phone: 888-684-4658
• Email: surveys@modernthink.net
• Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. ET (after-hours messages returned promptly)