Dear Colleagues,
Good news! We are extending the ANR Administrative and Support Services Customer Satisfaction Survey deadline from June 16 to June 23, 2023, to allow one more week for employees to share their feedback to this high-priority customer service initiative.
The 18 ANR Administrative and Support Services Units included in the survey provide a broad range of services — from human resources to business operations to communications to safety services to technology support.
If you have used services from one or several of these areas, we want to hear from you! You only need to rate the services that you have used in the last 12 months, or you can rate all services if you have used all.
The 2023 survey will help us determine areas that are working well and which areas need improvement. Your feedback is vital to this effort so that we may compare results from the 2021 survey to this 2023 survey in order to evaluate our progress and develop action plans for the next phase of our customer service enhancements.
We hope to receive 150 more survey responses during this last week to make the survey statistically more reliable. The more perspectives we receive, the more robust the data to inform and prioritize changes. As a token of appreciation for those who complete the survey during this extra week, we will conduct another random drawing and award 20 additional $20 Amazon gift cards.
Please complete your survey by June 23, 2023.
To take the survey, please refer to your May 23 email invitation from “UC ANR Administrative and Support Services Customer Satisfaction Survey <ANRcustomersatsurvey@ucanr.edu>.” This email included a unique survey link and access code for each employee. As a reminder, your survey responses are confidential.
If you have any questions, please send an email to ANRcustomersatsurvey@ucanr.edu. For additional information about the Customer Satisfaction Survey project, please visit the ANR Customer Service webpage: http://ucanr.edu/anrcustomersatsurvey.
Thank you in advance. We truly appreciate your feedback.
Tu Tran
Associate Vice President - Business Operations
- Author: Deanne Meyer
We all had the opportunity to enjoy the equinox this last week. This marked the official end of summer and reminded us that cooler days are on their way. Davis had more than 3.5 inches of rain with our first storm of the season. Although rain was welcomed by those fighting the Mosquito and other fires, it wasn't as welcomed by some growers with crops remaining in the field (tomatoes, grapes, almonds, etc.). As with many other things in life, things come with degrees of goodness.
Here's a shout out to Yu Meng our Youth, Family, and Community Advisor in Imperial, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Teams she works with received awards from the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences for Communication Video ( Garden Video Project “Grow Healthy Foods, Harvest Healthy Families” (“Cultiva Alimentos Saludables, Cosecha Familias Saludables”) and Family Health and Wellness. Videos are in English and Spanish. For more information contact Yu directly.
The CalFresh Healthy Living, UC and Farm Smart teams delivered garden kits to preschools. From left, Yu Meng, UCCE Youth Family and Community Advisor; Stacey Amparano, Farm Smart Manager; Stephanie Collins, Farm Smart Outreach Assistant; Chris Gomez Wong, CalFresh Community Education Supervisor II; Vincent (contract gardener), Paul Tabarez, CalFresh Community Education Supervisor II; Rigo Ponce, Community Education Specialist II-CalFresh; and Martha Lopez, CalFresh Community Education Specialist II.
A bit ago, VP Council met. This group includes directors of each unit within ANR as well as our statewide program directors. We meet quarterly to provide input to the Vice President. It was a jammed packed meeting. I'll just cover a few take-aways from the day. Kathy Nolan reported out on the UC ANR Customer Satisfaction Survey. For those new to ANR this is a recent annual opportunity for us to identify areas for improvement in operational services within the organization. Great improvements have occurred as a result of the findings of the first survey. It's exciting to work for an organization seeking continued improvement.
We focused one session on onboarding. With all our new hires this is an essential activity. Jodi Azulai and Jona Pressman (Butte County Nutrition Education Program Manager) shared best practices to help onboard new employees. Do plan ahead and be prepared to spend time with your new hire on their first days! Human Resources is working on a great to-do list to aid in onboarding new employees. Do make time to introduce them around and make them feel welcome. Be sure the workstation and equipment needed are set up and ready. We're excited to be growing our ANR family and we want people to stay for a career!
Please extend a warm ANR welcome to our new colleagues! There were a few limited hires for camp counselors including Klacey Worthington, Glenn; and Norman Alberti, San Joaquin; student hires included Granville Goza, Santa Clara; Cedric Renaudin, Megan Cross, Nutrition Family and Consumer Science; and Evelyn Mandujano Capitol Corridor MCP; and staff research associates Efrain Barrera, Fresno Madera MCP and Daylin Wade, Central Sierra Nevada. We are happy you've joined the ANR family.
We are ANR. Together, we effect positive change in California.
Reminder to be COVID-safe over the holidays and get tested before returning in the new year
As you spend time with family and friends indoors this holiday season, be sure to follow CDC safety protocols - these actions are your best line of defense against the virus.
- Get vaccinated (including boosters as appropriate)
- Wear a mask in indoor public places
- Stay 6 feet away from others
- Avoid crowds and poorly ventilated spaces
- Test to prevent spread to others
- Wash your hands often
- Cover coughs and sneezes
- Clean and disinfect
- Monitor your health daily
To ensure a safer workplace, it is recommended that all UC ANR employees get tested or test themselves for COVID-19 before returning to their official posts of duty in 2022. Testing sites are available in every community and rapid test kits are readily available at local pharmacies. Guidance on finding testing is available here.
A message to the UC Community from President Drake on COVID vaccine boosters
Please see the message here from President Drake regarding COVID vaccine boosters.
- UC COVID-19 Vaccine Policy mandates that to be fully vaccinated, employees must have all shots and boosters associated with the COVID-19 vaccination
- Employees do not need to share their booster status yet
- UC ANR will work towards a process to track and validate booster status in the future if/as required by UCOP
ANR customer satisfaction survey deadline extended to December 22
We recognize how busy everyone has been and would like to give you extra time to complete or initiate your ANR Customer Satisfaction Survey before the holiday closure period. As such, we are extending the survey deadline from December 17 to December 22.
We currently have a 35% response rate with 100 surveys still in the "in progress" stage. We encourage those with "in progress" surveys to complete them and click on the "Submit" button by December 22. If you haven't yet started your survey response, there is still time to do so and we welcome your input. Remember: you only rate units you have worked with over the past 12 months, so you do not necessarily need to rate all 15 units included in the survey.
Thank you for your time and valuable feedback to help improve our internal ANR customer service delivery. We will have one more random drawing for $20 gift card incentives for those who have submitted completed surveys between now and December 22.
I wish you all a safe and joyous holiday and look forward to seeing you in 2022! Please take a moment to enjoy a year-end greeting from President Drake.
Glenda Humiston
Vice President