News-Record.com

GREENSBORO — Employees at UNCG and Greensboro College rank the schools among the best to work for in the country, according to a new survey.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, a weekly publication for college professionals, released this month the results of its first “Great Colleges To Work For” survey.

UNCG ranked in the top five of six categories.

Among colleges of its size, UNCG ranked in categories including collaborative governance, healthy faculty/administration relationships and confidence in senior leadership. Greensboro College ranked second for colleges its size in teaching environment.

The results of the survey aren’t surprising to employees, said Scott Milman, director of UNCG Parking Operations and chairman of the staff senate committee. He said that under retiring Chancellor Patricia Sullivan, top administrators have always collaborated with the staff senate and its sister organization, the faculty senate.

“When there are things that need to be changed here at the university, we’re all brought in early on,” he said. “That goes a long way in terms of job satisfaction.”

The school ranked fourth in job satisfaction, one of four fourth-place rankings.

Faculty and staff representative organizations have existed at the school since 1909 and 1972, respectively. Representatives of both groups held seats on the recent chancellor search committee.

For Sullivan, creating a collaborative work environment works in two ways. Meet the desires of your employees and they’ll be happy and loyal, and that makes recruiting new talent easier, she said.

“What I’ve tried really hard to do is create a quality work environment, despite all the things around you can’t control,” she said.

That attitude at the top levels at UNCG has inspired loyalty from professors such as Rebecca G. Adams. Adams is chairwoman of the faculty senate and has been a professor of sociology at the school for nearly 30 years. She’s had numerous offers to apply at other universities but said the type of relationship that faculty at UNCG share with the administration isn’t common.

“In many instances, decisions are made top down without consulting faculty,” she said. “At UNCG, we have a collaborative government that isn’t present at many institutions.”

Harold Martin, senior vice president of academic affairs at the UNC system, said UNCG is used as a role model for the rest of the state universities in several areas as the system undergoes a massive planning campaign, UNC Tomorrow.

“Final decisions (at UNCG) are reflective of having heard feedback from faculty, staff and students,” he said.

At Greensboro College, professor George Cheatham said that despite the survey’s small sampling, the college’s ranking is something to be proud of.

“What it does suggest is that the faculty and staff surveyed believe the school rewards quality teaching, and I agree with that,” said Cheatham, assistant dean of faculty.

More than 15,000 employees from 89 schools took part in the survey.

Schools were separated into three categories — small, medium and large — by the number of employees. Greensboro College was in the small category — 499 or fewer employees — and UNCG was in the medium category — 500 to 2,499 employees.

The magazine intends to make the survey an annual exercise.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com