Metropolitan State University of Denver employees continue to take pride in their work and feel deeply connected to the University’s mission, according to results from the 2025 Employee Engagement Survey. More than 90% of respondents said they are proud of the work they do and think their job has a positive impact on the institution.
Survey results also point to key areas for growth, including the need to build more trust with senior leadership, improve cross-departmental collaboration, address gaps in efficiency and deliver more meaningful recognition.
“Creating a positive and productive workplace that ensures the success of employees, and therefore students, requires informed action,” said Charles Kibort, director of Human Resources Operations and Strategy. “And that’s where the Universitywide annual Engagement and Leader Effectiveness Survey comes in.”
Key findings
The overall outlook from this year’s survey was favorable, with a total Engagement Score of 70%. This figure includes all survey categories except for Leader Effectiveness, a subset of questions that measures an employee’s perceptions of their direct manager.
In comparing faculty and staff perspectives separately, there was a difference of 9 percentage points:
- Staff responses were 73% favorable.
- Faculty responses came in at 64% favorable.
“This variance is important to understand,” said Stacy Dvergsdal, associate vice president for Administration and chief human resources officer. “Our goal is to ensure exceptional and consistent experiences across all employee groups.”
A standout result came from the Engagement Index, a set of research-backed questions that assess key drivers of employee engagement — the factors most likely to make an impact. MSU Denver’s score was 82% favorable, which shows positive engagement overall.
“This tells us that employees feel their work is meaningful, that they’re valued and that MSU Denver is a place they’re proud to work,” said Dvergsdal. “We have a solid foundation to continue to build upon in order to meet our strategic goal to be Colorado’s most desired place of employment.”
The individual elements of this index show that further improvement can be achieved by ensuring that employees feel valued, echoing a need for departmental recognition and continued focus on delivering meaningful total rewards and a supportive work environment.
The highest-scoring category on this year’s survey was Leadership Effectiveness, at 86.8% favorable. Separate from engagement, this dimension points to effective leadership and positive working relationships between employees and their direct managers.
“Strong scores in this category are encouraging to see and will be helpful as we look to model our CADRE values, improve efficiencies and unite as one community committed to student success,” Dvergsdal said, referring to the University’s commitment to community, access, diversity, respect and excellence.
Strengths and opportunities
Survey results and employee comments pointed to several consistent themes across the University:
Strengths:
- Employees take pride in their work and feel empowered to make a difference.
- There’s clear alignment between employee contributions and the University’s mission.
- Job responsibilities align well with employees’ skills.
- Employees report that departments are an inclusive place to work.
- Leader Effectiveness scores continue to remain strong.
Areas of opportunity:
- Senior leadership must work to build trust, particularly through clearer, more transparent communication.
- Many employees perceive inefficiencies in University operations.
- Gaps in interdepartmental cooperation remain a challenge.
- Employees seek more consistent and meaningful recognition at the branch and department levels.
- There is a continued need to review compensation practices and benchmarks to ensure pay equity and fairness.
What’s next
Human Resources shared results with branches and will share all department results beginning this week. Leaders will be asked to meet with their teams to share their results and gain deeper insights so they can develop action plans that address employee concerns specific to their areas. Universitywide, an action plan will be developed to set goals across all branches.
HR is asking branch and department leaders to complete and post their action plans to SharePoint by May 23.
The Early Bird will report on key areas of progress throughout the coming year.
Participation and reliability
The survey saw participation from nearly 44% of all employees, including professional staff, full-time and affiliate faculty, and student employees. Among professional staff and full-time faculty specifically, response rates reached 80%, ensuring a robust and reliable data set for leadership decision-making. The results shared and discussed in this article exclude student employees and affiliate faculty.
Survey administration and feedback
This year marked a significant shift in survey methodology. For the first time in four years, the Employee Engagement Survey was administered in-house via Qualtrics, a leading platform for employee-experience management. In previous years, surveys were run through “Best Place to Work” programs, which provided useful benchmarking and marketing potential but limited flexibility and access to full data sets.
“We brought the survey in-house to better align with our goals of enhancing the employee experience,” said Kibort. “This approach allows us to track key metrics over time while tailoring the survey to MSU Denver’s unique culture and needs.”
Some legacy questions were retained to allow for year-over-year comparisons, while new items were added to reflect University priorities.
To ensure confidentiality, the survey is managed by MSU Denver’s Business Intelligence team. One member of the Strategy Data team, Kellie Zolinkov, and one member of the Human Resources team, Kibort, have access to individual responses for aggregation purposes. All other results are reported in aggregate, and comments are shared only when they meet a confidentiality threshold of eight or more responses.
Contact your senior HR Partner to learn more about the survey process or to share your thoughts.
