I am attaching a brief summary of the results of the Best Christian Workplaces (BCW) survey we conducted on campus last year. Many thanks to Dr. Randy Bergen for his help on this. The survey was designed to help Christian organizations of all kinds get a feel for how well we are doing at making our institutions good places to work. By providing employees with an opportunity to comment anonymously on your feelings about where you work, it allows us all to focus our efforts better in making it an even better place.

This new tool builds on the “Q-12” questions created by the Gallup Organization who also devised the Strengths Finder. Those questions were identified as key indicators of organizational health, and we used them two years ago in employee evaluations. But now it is even more convenient since they are largely included in the BCW survey.

We expect to offer this survey again in the fall of 2005 and perhaps regularly. This will let us see if we are making progress. We had a good response rate last fall, and I hope when you have opportunity to participate that you will please make every effort to do so as a way to substantially improve Greenville College as a place for us all to work. The more who complete it, the more reliable the results.

As you will see in the attached summary, our results are mixed. But as you will also see, there is much about which to be pleased and this information is already being used in our planning process (NMC - New Millennium Commission) to shape our priorities for the coming years.

Reaffirming our core values (#1) and affirming our people (#3) are already among the top six initiatives in the new strategic plan and this survey data will help us do that more effectively. You will hear more about these initiatives and the attendant strategies and action plans that have been developed at an employee “In-service” scheduled for September.

Thank you for all you do to make GC a wonderful Christian place to work!