AF Manpower Agency takes lead on Academy climate survey

News > AF Manpower Agency takes lead on Academy climate survey

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AF Manpower Agency takes lead on Academy climate survey

Posted 12/2/2011 Updated 12/2/2011

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by Don Branum
Air Force Academy Public Affairs

12/2/2011 - U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- The Air Force Manpower Agency has taken the lead role in administering the Air Force Academy's 2011 climate survey, which continues through Dec. 31.

The survey is designed to solicit input from cadets, faculty and staff members about their job satisfaction, whether they feel respected in their work or academic environments and whether the leadership has promoted a climate of respect among the Academy's diverse population.

The office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs decided in January to charge AFMA with conducting the Academy's 2011 survey, said Col. Bill Hampton, executive secretary for the Academy's Board of Visitors.

Brenda Gainey, AFMA's project lead for the survey, said the agency was a logical choice to administer the survey.

"We're the survey office for the Air Force: We control all attitude and opinion surveys, and we administer the Air Force Climate Survey," Gainey said.

Gainey and her team based the Academy's climate survey after the Air Force survey, she said. From there, they developed and applied questions from the Air Force survey that were appropriate for the Academy's unique environment. They looked at surveys conducted by the other service academies, Office of Personnel Management and other government surveys as well as surveys conducted by private universities to see what questions other agencies asked.

"So we started out with the basic climate areas: satisfaction, trust, resources," Gainey said. "Do you have enough room to study? Do you have the equipment that you need? For faculty, do you have the supplies to conduct your classes? Are you satisfied with the opportunities you get to conduct research?"

Other survey questions are designed to get a feel for the climate of inclusivity at the Academy, such as whether respondents have felt pressure to be involved in religious activities, whether leaders respond to complaints about religious tolerance and whether respondents have endured harassment as a result of their religion, race, gender, political views or sexuality.

"We give opportunities for people to write in comments," Gainey said. "They can then write in their option if it isn't listed."

Eligible respondents include cadets, faculty and staff within the superintendent's, commandant's or dean's mission elements and the 10th Air Base Wing. Respondents must confirm their identities with their Common Access Card credentials to login to the survey. However, their CAC credentials and any other identifying information is stripped from the results before they're given to the survey analysts or agencies outside AFMA, said Nicole Gamez, a behavioral scientist on the survey team.

"Our survey team has signed non-disclosure agreements," said Gamez, who has 10 years of experience conducting behavioral science surveys. "We work with survey data on a day-to-day basis, and we handle surveys like this across the total force, so we're accustomed to handling this data."

AFPA will provide the report with aggregate data in terms of organizations and demographics, detailed to squadron or academic department levels where doing so would not identify individuals within the organization, Gamez said.

Moreover, only one or two individuals on the team have access to identifying information for any given survey, and they strip that information before providing responses to the analysts, Gainey said.

"For instance, when I get data to analyze ... I don't get the names or the identities," she said. "The fact that we use CAC credentials is an assurance that our system is secure. We require that to ensure no unauthorized access. Even if I tried to access the survey with my CAC, it wouldn't let me in."

Analysts can gather accurate results even with a relatively low response rate, Gainey said. For that reason, Air Force Instruction 38-501, "Air Force Survey Program," stipulates that "personnel should be encouraged, but not directed, to complete surveys."

"That could encourage someone to randomly choose responses just to get (the survey) done," she said. "That could actually skew our analysis."

Instead, AFMA encourages people to make their voices heard, said Bernadette Oncale, AFMA's Performance Planning Branch chief.

"Every participant who fills out the survey provides another facet of the whole picture," Oncale said. "We want people to have a voice, to speak up. If things are going well, say so. If things need improvement, say so."