UCPath puts Staff@Work survey insights into action
August 25, 2025 •
The Staff@Work survey reflects UCOP’s commitment to centering employee voices in shaping our workplace. In 2024, UCOP launched its inaugural Staff@Work Survey to learn what staff thought about key aspects of our workplace. The survey – which included expanded demographic categories to help us better understand how our workplace affects diverse employee groups – highlighted strengths and surfaced opportunities for growth – giving us a roadmap for our ongoing efforts.
The overall UCOP results are just the beginning. Determining what we do with them is an essential next step. That work is now underway across UCOP divisions.
Since receiving results in December, our divisions have been sharing them with their leaders and staff, developing division-specific action plans to address staff feedback and beginning to implement changes. The Staff@Work action planning team is available to consult with divisions as/if requested.
This article is the first in a series highlighting how different UCOP divisions or departments are approaching this work, their progress and what they’ve learned thus far. It’s important to remember that being responsive to survey results is an ongoing process, not a one-and-done exercise.
We’re starting with UCPath, one of the larger departments within the UC Operations division. UCPath graciously agreed to share how they’re moving forward.
Engaging staff
UCPath began its work by sharing the overall UCPath S@W department-specific results with its extended leadership team in virtual sessions.
“While we are very early on in our S@W efforts, our leadership team has responded positively to the overview sessions,” said UCPath Executive Director Calvin Turner. “We appreciate the importance of sharing the information and we are committed to take action on the insights.”
After these sessions, UCPath posted the survey results to the UCPath SharePoint site for employees to review and launched two survey-related series:
- Virtual sessions for all employees to learn about the insights from the survey – Completed July 2
- Small group sessions with department leaders to review their specific results – Completed in July
Key learnings
UCPath is focusing on the following primary opportunities from the Staff@Work survey:
- I am satisfied with my opportunities for career advancement.
- I believe the organization fosters an environment of trust.
- UCOP leadership is genuinely interested in hearing the ideas and opinions of staff members.
- I have a voice to provide my ideas and suggestions on how to improve UCOP.
- I feel I am a valued member of the UCOP community.
UCPath found these opportunities mirrored the following themes from its December 2024 UCPath vision survey, which was a pulse check on progress toward achieving an ongoing, long-term initiative to “become the premier HR systems, payroll and benefits administration provider in U.S. higher education.”
- I feel comfortable sharing ideas with management for ways to improve things.
- We communicate in a way that encourages cooperation and collaboration.
- We treat others with respect.
- We consider how others are affected by what we do.
These similarities validated UCPath’s earlier findings and reinforced that they have identified the most relevant opportunities for action.
Focus forward
UCPath chose to focus on “trust” because leadership believes it’s the most impactful way to make a positive change. Trust is also essential to the success of other engagement and transformation efforts.
“Trust is an underlying, essential element for us to successfully navigate our challenges and opportunities,” noted Director of Organizational Transformation Tiffany Landrum. “Therefore, we feel we can make the most immediate impact.”
As a first step, UCPath recently began a “trust series” to provide leaders a common language for talking about trust. Leveraging a customized workshop created by UCOP Operations for their leaders, the series includes how to recognize trust-building strengths and cautions, adopt trust-enhancing behaviors, and lead effective conversations about trust.
As they hold more sessions in the series, UCPath also plans to continue this work in several ways, such as developing leadership toolkits to enable leaders to facilitate trust dialogues and continuing efforts to enhance communication skills.
Read more on the overall UCOP Staff@Work survey results
Your continued engagement – and that of your colleagues – reflects UCOP’s commitment to building a workplace that includes and serves us all. The next Staff@Work survey will be conducted in spring 2026.
Questions?
- Email general Staff@Work survey-related questions to staffatwork@ucop.edu.
- For more about UCPath’s Staff@Work efforts, email Tiffany Landrum.
