Posts Tagged: survey
Employees of UC ANR, we heard you
Through your comments on the three ANR@Work surveys, at the 2023 Statewide Conference, in our Town Halls, in the development of our Strategic Plan, in outreach sessions and other engagements, you shared your ideas, needs and experiences about working at UC ANR. Your feedback was and continues to be informative and powerful. It fuels our commitment to better UC ANR's work environment while we grow, adapt and deepen our impact on California's challenges and opportunities.
On Tuesday, Sept. 26, the fourth ANR@Work survey will be emailed to you. Please, take the time to respond to its questions. As the summary below shows, your voice is valued and critical to the ongoing success of our mission.
What follows is a snapshot, with links if you wish to learn more, of what has been done since the pandemic in three core internal areas: employee and organizational wellness, learning and development, and staffing and retention strategies.
Employee and Organizational Wellness
Employee comments emphasized the need for more knowledge about navigating within the UC ANR community. An urgency to address diversity and equity in the organization's programs and environment was also clear.
o Our first Director of Workplace Inclusion and Belonging was hired. Elizabeth Moon is responsible for developing and implementing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and programs for our community.
o An agreement with the UC Davis Ombuds Serviceswas established to strengthen employee resources for conflict management and problem solving.
o A partnership with the UC Davis Harassment and Discrimination Assistance and Prevention Programwas established to ensure objectivity.
o Delayed by pandemic restrictions, the first ANR Statewide Conference in five years was held with over 800 attendees, the highest attendance ever.
o Two new employee resource groups (ERGs) were established. The Latinx & Friends Affinity Group, UC ANR Black and Allied Employees, People of Color ERG, and the LGBTQ+ ERG all foster communication, support and opportunities for employees with shared interests or affiliations. Contact Bethanie Brown if you are interested in starting a new ERG.
o The UC ANR Staff Assembly, of which all staff employees are members, strengthened its education and wellness reimbursements, established an Employee Experience and Engagement Challenge, and expanded its communications through a new e-newsletter, The Current.
o To enhance customer service, all administrative service units took part in related trainings, surveyed customers to learn their needs, and are now creating action plans in response.
Learning and Development
UC ANR is a complex organization, and employees expressed the need to better understand it from the get-go. More seasoned employees look for professional development opportunities to improve specific skills and shape themselves for career advancement.
o We continue to invest in learning and development, which increased 35% in FY22-23 and will double in FY23-24. Additional trainings and professional development presentations were archived to serve as a resource available at any time.
o For new employees, more regular administrative and programmatic orientations were established, supported by less formal monthly virtual informational meetings and a New ANR Employee Guide.
o A nine-month mentorship program was established to enable staff mentees to better understand UC ANR, establish contacts and design their career paths, and for academic mentees to help with program planning, research collaboration, outreach and the merit and promotion process.
o Daniel Obrist was hired as academic vice provost of academic personnel and development to oversee the recruitment, development, mentoring and evaluation of UC ANR academics.
o As part of all UC ANR operations, less-formal opportunities are available to employees, such as serving on committees, employee groups and recruitment panels, and, in coordination with their supervisor, evaluating and improving current responsibilities.
Staff Planning and Retention
Salary competitiveness and equity continues to be very high priority for employees. The constriction and post-pandemic workforce instability impacted the staffing of units across the organization.
o Successful recruitment for vacant staff and academic positions increased 25% over last fiscal year, although much work remains to fill vacancies.
o A centrally funded process for recruitment advertising was created to accelerate recruitments.
o Internal promotions of current employees increased 20% over last year, and reclassifications of current employees were up 35% over last year.
o To recruit and retain quality employees in areas where current pay levels are below competitive levels and to provide a more transparent pay philosophy, a multi-year equity program was implemented for non-represented employees. An academic equity adjustment program is currently under review.
o All non-represented staff and academics received a general pay increase.
o All UC ANR collective bargaining agreements for represented staff are in place, with covered employees receiving guaranteed pay increases for the duration of their agreement.
o Guidance for managing visas and work eligibility of international employees was created.
o Several statewide programs and administrative units have undergone an organizational review and developed customized staffing plans, including career-ladder opportunities for current employees.
o UC ANR increased funding for the annual Staff Appreciation and Recognition awards.
Bethanie Brown
Interim Executive Director of Human Resources
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A monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, nectaring on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A buckeye butterfly, Junonia coenia, on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
ANR Customer Satisfaction Survey deadline extended to June 23
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
Growers invited to take indoor farming survey
Researchers seek insight on emerging controlled environment agriculture trends
Greenhouse operators are encouraged to participate in the 2023 State of Controlled Environment Agriculture survey. IUNU, a technology company that specializes in AI and computer vision solutions for the agriculture industry, and the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources are conducting the survey to gain insights on emerging trends and challenges to share with the controlled environment agriculture industry.
The survey takes approximately 25 minutes to complete. All growers using CEA – greenhouse, high tunnel or indoor – are invited to participate. All data collected is confidential and shared only as anonymous trends. No identifying information is ever shared. Growers who participate will get early access to the survey results report and will get access to an exclusive webinar to discuss the results with the authors of the report.
The fourth State of CEA Survey can be completed at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FVXJSY9.
The report, first released in 2016, was formerly titled “State of Indoor Farming” and managed by Artemis, which was acquired by IUNU in 2021.
This year, IUNU has expanded the survey to include the different leading segments of the controlled environment agriculture industry: greenhouse fruit and vegetable, and greenhouse ornamental production.
UC ANR's VINE agrifood technology innovation program, Global Controlled Environment Agriculture Consortium (GCEAC), and UC Davis-led AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems (AIFS) are collaborating on the report.
“An industry-led, market-driven approach to guiding innovation priorities and investments is critical as we consider the future of indoor farming,” said Gabe Youtsey, UC ANR chief innovation officer and co-founder of The VINE. “I'm thrilled to partner with IUNU on the development of this State of CEA report with our UC innovation teams from The VINE, GCEAC and AIFS to create a robust state of CEA report that will guide our CEA open innovation priorities this year.”
Since the survey launched in 2016, more than 500 growers have participated in the survey and more than 2 million people have downloaded the report. The industry reports have become one of the most widely circulated and respected sources of industry data.
"This report is a trusted resource for the industry and we're thrilled to bring it back in an expanded capacity,” Allison Kopf, IUNU chief growth officer, said. “Over the past year, we've seen a swell of news around our industry. This report will go deeper into those stories and share data on how companies are performing, big market opportunities, and the real challenges growers are facing.”
Past CEA reports are available for download at https://artemisag.com/guides_reports.
About IUNU
Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Seattle, IUNU aims to close the loop in greenhouse autonomy and is focused on being the world's leading controlled environment specialist. IUNU's flagship platform LUNA combines software with a variety of high-definition cameras – both fixed and mobile – and environmental sensors to keep track of the minutiae of plant growth and health in indoor ag settings. LUNA's goal is to turn commercial greenhouses into precise, predictable, demand-based manufacturers that optimize yield, labor and product quality. www.IUNU.com
About The VINE by UC ANR
The VINE is California's agriculture, food and biotech innovation network powered by the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. We believe that the state's continued prosperity rests on creation of more productive, sustainable and equitable food systems. Every day, we harness the power of open innovation to connect entrepreneurs to a broad network of public and private sector resources to enable them to grow and scale globally, build collaborations that catalyze the development of climate-smart technology-based solutions to solve industry challenges, and grow regional capacity to support global innovation as an economic opportunity – because our future, and the nation's, depends on it.
The Global Controlled Environment Agriculture Consortium – an initiative of The VINE – seeks to build a worldwide ecosystem to bring technology to market that addresses global challenges in food, health and sustainability. GCEAC is an open innovation partnership between industry, university and government sectors in the United States and The Netherlands, led from California.
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