UNM seeks staff input on workplace experience and engagement

The University of New Mexico is encouraging staff to participate in the 2026 UNM Employee Engagement Survey, available Oct. 5-18. The short survey lets employees provide confidential feedback to university leadership about their workplace experience.

This is UNM's third engagement survey in recent years, continuing the goal of listening to UNM employees and to help focus efforts toward achieving UNM 2040 goals, specifically the objective of sustaining a high-quality workforce.

"To achieve our goal of a sustainable workforce, staff engagement is key," Vice President for Human Resources Kevin Stevenson said. "We need to hear directly and honestly from staff about their experience at UNM so we can reinforce what is working and address what isn't."

Building on Previous Surveys
Beginning in 2023, UNM Human Resources has partnered with Gallup, the leading global analytics and data gathering company, to help better understand where UNM is meeting employee needs and where there were opportunities to improve.

In addition to providing actionable information to support departmental planning and goal setting, survey results inform key UNM-wide initiatives. From the launch of the Lobo Leadership Academy manager development program to influencing policy revisions to enable employee growth and development, UNM has a track record of turning survey results into meaningful action.

After conducting surveys in 2023 and 2024, UNM paused in 2025 to collect feedback and assess the effectiveness of the survey process. Feedback highlighted the strong support for the survey and confirmed that leaders found the survey results had practical application and led to better conversations within their units. Feedback also demonstrated a need for simpler access to data and improved support for action planning. In response, UNM has adjusted some aspects of its approach to the survey, including offering the survey in the fall semester and beginning the process with stronger engagement with HR partners across campus.

"I am excited for the improvements to our survey process this year," Stevenson said. "Surveying this fall provides continued momentum into action planning processes this spring, and stronger partnership with our colleagues in the units enables easier access to and more effective use of survey results."

Transparency, Reporting and Next Steps
At the completion of the survey, results will be shared campus-wide and dashboards with departmental results will be available for review and analysis, enabling managers to understand and address needs at the local level. Results from the previous surveys are available via the Engagement Survey Website.

"Sharing the results with the campus community and supporting action planning within departments is essential to the survey," Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Teresa Costantinidis said. "UNM is a great place to work, and we want to continue to improve on engagement through open dialogue and transparency of survey results."

Confidentiality
UNM Human Resources has contracted with Gallup to conduct the survey to ensure opinions are kept confidential. The University will only receive the aggregated results and will not have access to individual responses.

For small departments, responses will roll up within a parent department or division to maintain confidentiality.

How to Take the Survey
The survey is taken electronically with a special invite to your UNM email. The survey should take about 10 minutes or less and is available in both English and Spanish.

Staff should be on the look out for a direct email invitation from the Gallup survey company, along with periodic reminders. Messages will have the official Gallup logo and will come from [email protected] with an invitation to complete the survey.

If you do not see the survey invitation on the morning of Oct. 5, check your junk or clutter folders in your Outlook email.

For more information, visit the Engagement Survey Website or email [email protected].