Your Voice in action: Dal survey insights drive innovation at work

Listening is essential to learning and doing better.

That鈥檚 certainly the case with the Your Voice workplace survey 鈥� a critical tool for 鲍鱼tv leaders to hear from faculty and staff about their experiences in the workplace. It is open to all employees every two years and provides results across the organization 鈥� institutional and departmental. This feedback helps shape how the university directs its resources where employees need them the most, whether it鈥檚 career development, wellness opportunities, or employee recognition.

The last was conducted in November 2023. As the university begins to plan the 2025 survey for this fall, it is a good time to reflect on and celebrate the actions undertaken during the past 18 months and recognize where the university needs to focus on its improvements.

鈥淲e approached the survey results differently and engaged Your Voice champions in each of our Faculties and units across campuses to share their individual results with their teams and build action plans,鈥� says Grace Jefferies, vice-president, people and culture. 鈥淔or the first time, we also shared valuable data into how equity-deserving employees view their work experiences at Dal with our equity-deserving groups and caucuses on campus and asked for their feedback on the data, identified areas of improvement, and ways we can improve on participation in future workplace surveys.鈥�

Highlights from the last survey

The 2023 workplace survey results found faculty and staff feeling motivated to do a good job, having a strong sense of achievement from their work, and having workplace flexibility. However, they continue to experience challenges with workload, and some do not feel recognized or valued by the university.

See full report:

• More than 80 per cent of faculty and staff at 鲍鱼tv consistently report feeling motivated to do a good job, feel a sense of accomplishment through their work, and feel they work with people who are committed to their work.
• More than聽70 per cent聽of faculty and staff say they look forward to coming to work, while a majority of both staff and faculty feel a sense of pride in the university鈥檚 accomplishments and would recommend 鲍鱼tv as a good place to work.
• Notable numbers of faculty (54 per cent) and staff (38 per cent) report feeling highly pressured at times while working at 鲍鱼tv.
• 41 per cent聽of faculty and聽59 per cent聽of staff say they feel recognized for their achievements.
• 51 per cent聽of faculty and聽66 per cent聽of staff report that they have access to career development opportunities at the university.

Campus achievements

Some of the university-wide initiatives that have been introduced during the past 18 months include:

• The development of a where employees can reach out and receive support with workplace conflict
• An eight-part initiated during 2025 Employee Appreciation Week
• A for employees and leaders with resources to help prevent burnout and support it when it happens
• A refresh of the university鈥檚 is underway to provide employees with more options around the way they work.

Faculty/Unit highlights

Here are just a few examples of actions Faculties and Units have taken in response to their individual Your Voice survey results:

Faculty of Graduate Studies

鈥淲e noted four themes from our survey results: engagement, resiliency, harassment/discrimination, and relationships with supervisors so we focused our action plan around those,鈥� says Trisha Estabrooks, HR and office administrator in the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Actions include:

• Improved communications through weekly emails, a dedicated Teams channel, holiday lunches, and encouraging opportunities for employees to represent the Faculty on university-wide councils.
• Leaders/supervisors connect regularly with the team to see if there is flexibility for one team to help another when overloaded and a session on resilience was held.
• Reminders about the importance of reporting any harassment and discrimination and a session on understanding and navigating microaggressions was held.
• Monthly meetings with supervisors sharing resources have begun, and annual reviews are now tracked by an administrator to ensure they are completed regularly.

Schulich School of Law

鈥淥ur action plan centres around ways to build a culture of respect, maintaining and improving recognition and communication efforts, and creating a community of belonging,鈥� says Joanne Tortola, director, finance and administration in the Schulich School of Law.

Actions include:

• Held a series of professional development sessions with faculty focused on difficult conversations and student well-being, as well as an orientation session with first year law students on bystander training.
• Created an annual Schulich School of Law Staff Excellence Award, with the inaugural award presented in March 2025.
• Refreshed the Staff Lounge (with funding from Dal鈥檚 Workplace Wellness Grants program), with regularly scheduled monthly staff coffees.
• Welcomed opportunities to create inclusive spaces in the Weldon Law Building for students, faculty, staff and visitors, such as the African Nova Scotian Quilt installation in the Atrium and the new Alan Syliboy exhibit on the 2nd floor.

Faculty of Dentistry

鈥淥ur action plan really came out of expanding on the work we had already started with respect to burnout and employee recognition,鈥� says Kerri Greene, HR Advisor, Faculty, Dentistry. 鈥淪ince these were identified as ongoing challenges, we knew that we needed to continue to focus on the feedback that we received from our faculty and staff.鈥�

Actions include:

• Regular reminders about vacation utilization are shared with managers and staff, and clinics are not scheduled on Wednesdays from 1 鈥� 2 p.m. so managers can use the time to meet to share and discuss any concerns.
• Working closely with the Faculty鈥檚 Continuing Professional Education Office, the Faculty hosts two professional development days annually for all faculty and staff, with programming focused on areas identified in the survey results.
• The Faculty has an Appreciation Committee that puts together small events throughout the year to show support and appreciation to all faculty and staff, ranging from Welcome back coffee breaks in September, hot chocolate/ice cream socials, book and puzzle exchanges, and lunch-time trivia.

Faculty of Computer Science

鈥淭he Faculty of Computer Science is working on projects that focus on the two main themes that emerged in our 2023 Your Voice results - recognition and a sense of belonging,鈥� says Emily Wishart, HR advisor in the Faculty of Computer Science.

Actions include:

• The Faculty Wellness Committee continues to hold events such as coffee socials, lunch-time trivia, yoga sessions, and hiking adventures to help foster a sense of belonging. This is especially critical as the Faculty is currently spread across four different buildings.
• Planning the implementation of Dal鈥檚 new Performance Management & Development Process for staff to ensure all staff are having annual conversations around goals and professional development opportunities.
• A Faculty-specific milestone recognition program is being planned for staff and faculty on their 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25- year work anniversaries.'
• The Culture of Respect in Computer Science Committee is developing a five-year plan with equity, diversity, inclusiveness, and accessibility (EDIA) priorities. One of the themes in the plan is 鈥榗ommunity鈥� where the focus is on cultivating a culture of respect and sense of community and belonging.
• The Culture of Respect in Computer Science Committee is developing a charter of shared values for the Faculty, which will define a shared commitment to trust, respect, and civility for all members within the Faculty. The goal is to foster a sense of belonging in the Faculty while also creating a culture of respect.

Information Technology Services (ITS)

鈥淥ur administrative unit is large and complex, and our action plan focuses on improving our internal communications within our multiple teams, and employees鈥� well-being as we prepare to transition to a new office space,鈥� says Dasiele Martins, Communications Specialist, ITS.聽

Actions include:

• Created an internal newsletter to keep staff informed.
• Expanded the ITS Staff Hub on myDal as a channel to share information and files.
• Regular communication to staff about the upcoming office move with plans to create an inaugural office event focusing on staff well-being.
• Developed plans to provide coaching sessions on how to navigate difficult situations involving harassment and discrimination.

Senior Leaders

鈥淪enior leaders are committed to developing an action plan for ourselves as a group, as we focus on leadership development, workload for ourselves and others, and exploring ways to work more effectively together,鈥� says Jefferies-Aldridge.

Actions include:

• Committed to (and held) more regular meetings with members of the senior leadership team to ensure group remained informed and had opportunities to contribute to future planning and decision making.
• Held sessions designed to develop and explore different leadership styles, including a session on resilience led by Dr. Michael Unger and a panel discussion with university presidents from across Canada.
• Increased focus on reducing the number of meetings and dedicating specific weeks throughout the academic year as meeting-free.
• One VP unit created a Teams channel for regular communication and a channel specific to team kudos within the group.
• Another VP unit promoted clear communication on managing time after hours encouraging vacation, out of office messages, and establishing back-ups for leave periods.
• The President鈥檚 Up Beat newsletter was developed to communicate with faculty and staff. It shares monthly updates and key work/events happening across Dal.聽

Stay tuned for more success stories that will continue to be updated to on myDal.

鈥淲hile we recognize there is room for improvement, particularly around ways to address burnout and workload during these challenging times, we want to acknowledge and thank all of the Your Voice champions for accomplishing so much of their action plans during the past 18 months,鈥� says Jen Davis, Manager, Wellness and Accessibility. 鈥淲e look forward to engaging with you and the broader Dal community as we plan for the next survey.鈥�

If you have questions about the聽Your Voice聽workplace survey results, please send them to聽YourVoice@dal.ca.