The University of Waterloo’s Strategic Plan has set a course for the university to be recognized as one of the most innovative universities in the world. To support this strategic vision, the university has identified eight themes, to drive the vision forward.
As part of the “Robust Employer-Employee Relationship” theme, the University recognizes that outstanding staff and faculty are, and always will be, at the heart of Waterloo’s success. The objectives of the robust employer-employee relationship are to be a destination of choice for superior individuals seeking employment and to enable staff to fulfill their potential in a career at the university.
This survey is intended to provide an opportunity for the university to hear the voice of all employees and to provide the university with invaluable information concerning its work environment and practices. The survey would serve not only to measure the University’s progress towards providing a best-in-class work environment, but also focus Human Resources’ efforts on the factors that are most important to attracting, motivating, and retaining top talent. In addition, the delivery of an Employee Engagement survey will support the University’s initiative of achieving Gold status with Excellence Canada.
The University of Waterloo is seeking to implement an engagement survey that is representative of the entire employee population including Faculty, Staff and members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). It is proposed that the employee engagement survey would be conducted every 2-3 years and would include a framework for prioritizing and executing action plans based on the results. The University of Waterloo has approximately 7,600 employees in total.
The success of an employee engagement survey is highly dependent upon buy-in from employees and senior leaders. Solutions were evaluated internally against criteria related to:
- ease of survey administration and results analysis;
- ability to gather reliable and usable employee feedback;
- measuring performance as an employer relative to other organizations;
- ability to identify the most impactful engagement drivers and;
- taking appropriate actions, and measuring progress over time.
Having evaluated different possible solutions, it was recommended that the University of Waterloo implement an outsourced employee engagement survey with a third-party vendor to manage the employee engagement survey design and execution.
Questions regarding this Request for Proposal may be submitted via email to the RFP Contact Person as follows:
Christine Wagner, CPPB, CSCP, Senior Buyer, Procurement and Contract Services
200 University Avenue West
Waterloo ON N2L 5Z5
Email: cpwagner@uwaterloo.ca or, procure@uwaterloo.ca
