UCF Compliance and Ethics Culture Survey

On March 16, we distributed an email asking employees to participate in the UCF Compliance and Ethics Culture Survey. All university employees, including hourly and student employees with email addresses, received the invitation to participate in the anonymous survey. The survey contained questions about the employee’s familiarity with our office, the UCF IntegrityLine, UCF policies and regulations. It also asked whether employees had experienced or witnessed misconduct, bullying, or retaliation, and if so, whether they reported it. The survey also offered a comments section for employees to provide feedback or concerns about compliance and ethics. Of the 7,276 university employees emailed, 2,137 employees (29.4%) responded. The following summary highlights the key responses.

Strengths
The survey revealed a high familiarity with the UCF Creed (80%), and the majority of respondents felt that employees (85%) and employees in leadership positions (78%) at UCF demonstrate integrity and ethical behavior. The majority of employees reported knowing where to find information on UCF policies and procedures (78%) and UCF regulations (75%).

As part of this survey, we wanted to assess whether employees felt comfortable raising concerns through various channels at the university. The majority of employees (70%) felt comfortable reporting incidents or concerns to their supervisor. When asked if they felt protected from retaliation when reporting to their supervisor, the majority agreed, but with a slight reduction (64%).

Employees were asked if they had experienced or observed bullying in the workplace within the last 12 months. The majority (84%) reported no. Additionally, employees were asked whether they experienced or observed a violation of laws, regulations, or university policies or regulations within the last 12 months. The majority (85%) reported no, and even a greater majority (95%) reported not having been asked to bend, break, or circumvent laws, regulations, or university policies or regulations.

Opportunities
The survey results showed a lower familiarity with University Compliance, Ethics, and Risk (52%) and the UCF IntegrityLine (55%). Of the employees who experienced bullying; observed a violation of laws, regulations, or university policies or regulations; or were asked to bend, break, or circumvent laws, regulations, or university policies or regulations, the majority (71%) did not report the concern. Of those who commented on why they did not report their concerns, the vast majority cited a lack of faith that anything would be done. Some employees expressed optimism that this will change, now that they know about our office and the UCF IntegrityLine.

Response to Survey
Prior to releasing this survey, our office had already begun drafting a communication plan to increase awareness on compliance and ethics requirements, University Compliance, Ethics, and Risk, and the UCF IntegrityLine. These survey results further support the need for more employee training and communication on these topics and increased interactions with our department. While this IntegrityStar newsletter was already in the works, it had not gone out by the time we sent the survey. We expect that this newsletter will play a key role in increasing awareness and interaction with our office. As mentioned in our first edition, you will receive the IntegrityStar once a semester and it will include short training videos, articles on compliance and ethics topics, announcements on new or revised policies and regulations, and more.

After a long development period, our office also launched our first online Web course titled, Gifts and Honoraria 2016. This is the first of several Web courses that we will develop and launch. The next course will be on the requirements of state employees under the state ethics laws.

We also have annual awareness events in our communication plan, including hosting tables at the New Faculty Orientation in August and the employee benefits fair in October. All new employees now receive an informative pamphlet about our office with contact details and UCF IntegrityLine wallet cards. We plan to continue the annual Compliance and Ethics week activities that occur the first week of November.

Additional projects in the pipeline include implementing a UCF Code of Conduct with an interactive online training tool. The code will include a brief introduction to the most critical UCF policies and regulations, the comprehensive compliance and ethics program at UCF, and more. Training on the Code of Conduct will be mandatory for all new hires.