UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — There was strong participation in Penn State’s 2025 Job Satisfaction and Engagement Survey conducted this spring, with more than half of full-time staff and technical service employees taking part. Jennifer Wilkes, vice president for Human Resources and chief human resources officer, thanked employees for taking time to share their feedback.
Results of the survey will be shared this fall. The survey and analysis are being conducted by ModernThink, a third-party survey group with extensive experience in higher education.
Of the 13,834 surveys sent to staff members earlier this year, 7,188 took part in the effort.
“We are pleased to see that more than 52% of our staff members across all Penn State’s locations took part in the survey,” said Jennifer Wilkes, vice president for Human Resources and chief human resources officer. “We know the average response rate for similar surveys conducted by ModernThink is around 43%. The fact that so many of our staff and technical service employees participated will help us to paint a clear picture of their experiences. This, in turn, will help us be even more effective as we chart out next steps for strengthening the employee experience at Penn State.”
Wilkes said the University remains on track to provide survey results this fall.
The Job Satisfaction and Engagement Survey was launched in February to assess job satisfaction and employee engagement of full-time staff, technical service employees, administrators, executives and academic administrators across the University. The survey was designed to provide insight into the lived experience of Penn State employees, and seeks to better understand staff engagement and job satisfaction in areas such as collaboration; communication; diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging; benefits; wellbeing; and performance management.
The University also launched a separate COACHE faculty job satisfaction survey this past spring. Penn State saw strong participation from faculty to the COACHE survey, as well, and results for that survey also are expected to be released this fall.