College Employee Satisfaction Survey
Assess faculty and staff satisfaction, the college employee experience, your work environment, and your campus culture.
Understand College Employee Satisfaction and the Employee Experience at Your Institution
Find out how your employee community feels about key topics as well as their prioritization of institutional goals, feedback on institutional strengths and areas for improvement, work-life balance, and likelihood to retain.
Designed exclusively for colleges and universities, the College Employee Satisfaction Survey (CESS) has been refreshed based on our 25+ years of helping our campus partners assess faculty and staff satisfaction, the employee experience, the work environment, and campus culture. It’s appropriate for every level of college employee, including:
- Administrators
- Staff
- Faculty Members
More Than 60 Standard Survey Items, Plus Custom Questions
The survey offers a thorough array of questions, covering every facet of campus employment. You can also add up to 28 custom items specific to your campus.
- Answer critical questions such as whether employees would recommend your institution as a good place to work, how satisfied they are, and their likelihood to retain at your institution.
- Assess employee engagement
- Identify which institutional goals are most important to your faculty and staff
- Understand employee perception of your culture and work environment
- Assess the importance of key aspects of employment such as pay, benefits, and work-life balance and satisfaction with those items
- Gather feedback on your institutional strengths and areas for improvement as perceived by faculty and staff
- Utilize survey findings in institutional planning processes and to support accreditation requirements
A Refreshed and Survey for Today’s College Employment Experience
Institutions participating in the refreshed CESS in 2026 receive 25% off the standard administration.*
The CESS has been refreshed to reflect changes to the college employee experience. In addition to refreshed question sets, institutions now receive the following additional reports as part of the standard survey price.
- Overall report
- Faculty response report
- Staff response report
- Benchmark National Norms Report**
- Raw data file (excluding demographics and open-ended comments)
Institutions that participate in the CESS more than once in a five-year period will receive a complimentary longitudinal comparison report. Existing campus partners may elect to utilize the prior version of the CESS through December 2026.
*This discount does not apply to additional supplemental analysis or consultant analysis.
**Benchmark reports will be sent to participating institutions once seven institutions of their type like 4-year publics, 2-year publics, or 4-year private conduct the 2024 CESS.
Receive the Full Data and Ask for Additional Reports
Once the survey is completed, you’ll receive a survey data file (excluding demographics and open-ended comments) and a complete set of summary tables including an overall report, faculty and staff reports, and a benchmarking report (when available). In future years, returning intuitions will receive a longitudinal trends report for their institution.
In addition, colleges and universities may order additional segmented or comparison reports and can elect to have a consultant analysis and presentation of the findings.
Ask for Samples and Learn More
Ask for samples of the College Employee Satisfaction Survey and talk with an Encoura research expert to learn how you can improve employee satisfaction and retention.