Climate Survey: Why it Matters

Another survey?! I can almost hear some of you sighing, wondering where you’re going to find the time to do it and let’s just state it: you’re also wondering what MUSC leadership is going to do with the information gleaned from this first ever, enterprise wide Office of Equity’s climate survey. As a heads up, it will run from Sept. 23 through Oct. 7 through links to the survey that will be sent to MUSC email addresses.

First, what is a climate survey? (No, it is not about climate change). How does it differ from what we do each year with the employee engagement survey? What will it tell us and what are we measuring? Why is it worth your time?

These questions, and more, are answered within the MUSC Horseshoe, and I encourage MUSC family members to go there for a comprehensive look at what we hope to accomplish through this 10 minute tool. In a nutshell, it’s designed to help us assess and strengthen our organizational culture to improve the experiences of all our students, faculty, care providers and employees. It’s about better understanding how, as members of the MUSC family, we value and treat each other, and those we serve.

Briefly, some of the big questions that we want to better answer are: How are we different now, since we began our strategic DEI efforts more than 5 years ago? What do we look and feel like when we are successful at building an MUSC community that reflects who we serve? Where do we still have opportunities to improve? What strengths have emerged in the last 5 years? What are the barriers in our culture that prevent us from recruiting, retaining and promoting more diverse groups within the enterprise? All of the information we receive, from your honest and best thoughts, will get us closer to truly becoming OneMUSC.

It’s not easy or comfortable for many individuals to offer their honest feedback in surveys like these, but please, consider this: the more feedback we receive, and the more solutions offered from the creative, diverse and dedicated team that we have at MUSC, the more likely we can achieve real, sustained and positive impact for all those in our MUSC family.