Organizational Culture Climate Survey Private & Confidential

Watch: Message from the President

Elevating Our Workplace Through Your Voice

We are pleased to announce that in September 2025, the Board of Trustees approved the administration of an Organizational Culture Climate Survey. This survey is designed to gather valuable feedback and better understand employee perspectives across the College.

The insights gained will guide meaningful actions to strengthen management effectiveness, enhance communication and to ensure stronger alignment with the College’s Core Values, especially integrity, respect, professionalism, honesty, accountability and transparency.

People Element Private & Confidential Surveys

To maintain privacy, the College selected People Element, an independent third-party company, to conduct this survey. People Element is a workforce-intelligence partner that provides validated employee surveys, expert consulting and real time metrics to help organizations understand employee perceptions and drive meaningful change.

Your personal responses will be maintained strictly confidential, separate from the college database and survey results will be reported solely in aggregate form so that no one person who participates in the survey can be identified.

Survey Timeline

• March 23 - April 10, 2026: Survey opens to all employees.
• April 2026: People Element aggregates the results and delivers the finalized report for presentation.
• May 2026: Presentation to Executive Leadership and the Board of Trustees.
• June - August 2026: Develop action plan.

FAQs

• Why is the College conducting this survey?

  South Texas College is conducting this survey to gather valuable feedback and understand employee perspectives on management and alignment with the College’s core values.

• How will the survey results be used?

  The results will be used to identify priorities and develop action plans to improve management effectiveness, communication, trust and alignment with the College’s core values.

• Who is People Element?

  People Element is a third-party platform used to distribute surveys. Surveys are created in, sent from and data housed in the People Element Platform.

• How long does it take to complete a survey online?

  The survey may take approximately 10 minutes to complete.

• What is a confidential survey?

  Confidential surveys report data in aggregate, meaning responses are connected to demographics at the group level and not at an individual level. Your name is not associated with your responses in reporting.

• How are responses kept confidential?

  Responses are kept confidential by reporting on aggregated data. Any responses to the open-ended comments are shared verbatim.

• If it’s confidential, how are survey reminders sent?

  The People Element Platform tracks each individual's survey status to know if they should be reminded about unanswered questions. Survey notifications sent from the People Element Platform are not visible to anyone outside of People Element.

• Will Management see the responses?

  The feedback provided is confidential. Management will only see aggregated data so that the participants cannot be identified.

• What is the Survey Process?

  Survey invitations are sent from the People Element Platform to each employee. Included in the invitations are survey links unique to each participant. Responses collected from each survey are sent back to the People Element Platform and combined to display in reporting.

  

• What is Aggregated Data?

  Aggregated data is viewable in a grouped form, with no names or identifiable information shown in reporting.

  

• Is there a session timeout for inactivity?

  If you are inactive while completing a survey for five minutes, your survey session will be timed out and you will need to log in again.

• Does a survey participant need to complete the entire survey for the data to save?

  Data is saved in real time. A survey participant does not need to complete the entire survey or hit submit for data to save.

• Is there a character limit for responses to comment questions?

  There is no character limit for responses to an open-ended survey question.

• Can survey responses be updated or removed?

  Participants may use their survey link to reenter the survey and edit or remove survey responses if the survey is in open status and the settings allow for survey reentry. Once a survey is closed or participants are unassigned from the survey, the responses may not be removed or edited.

• What do these survey error messages mean?
  • “This survey is closed:” If a survey participant tries to enter into a survey that is past the end date or closed, they will receive this error message and be unable to complete the survey.
  • “This question requires an answer:” If a survey participant tries to move on to the next category in the survey without answering a question that is marked as required, they will be shown this error message. They will need to answer the required question before moving on to the next category in the survey. All required questions are marked with an asterisk.
• Who can I contact for technical support?

  For technical support regarding the survey, please email support@peopleelement.com.

• Who can I contact for questions about the survey?

  For questions regarding the survey, please email climatesurveyinquiry@southtexascollege.edu.