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Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research
PACE Climate Survey for Community Colleges

Preparing to Launch your PACE Climate Survey

Thank you for choosing to administer the PACE Climate Survey for Community Colleges. We are excited to work with you as you gather valuable employee perspectives that will help you identify institutional strengths as well as areas for growth. Once the PACE team receives your signed service agreement, we can begin work on the survey process.

Throughout the survey administration process, the PACE team are available to address your questions or concerns. For additional resources on effective survey administration, please visit our Resources tab for information on best practices, sharing the value of the survey, encouraging participation, and using the results.

Following are the steps you can anticipate over the next several weeks:

*During the 2021-2022 Academic Year:

As part of the Belk Center’s Commitment to Equity, we want to help campuses in promoting and developing racial equity efforts. Here are two steps we are taking to assist in these efforts:

  • There will be two open ended questions on the topic of racial equity added to all surveys. All responses will be delivered in a raw qualitative report, with comments edited to ensure respondent confidentiality.
  • We are offering the option to include the Racial Diversity subscale as a second subscale for no additional cost. Please let us know at pace_survey@ncsu.edu if you would like to add the Racial Diversity subscale to your survey.

Second, we have developed a series of questions surrounding the novel coronavirus and remote work that aim to provide insights on how employees of your campus have adjusted to and continue to work through the pandemic. These questions can be utilized as part of your 20 custom questions.

Getting Started

Please contact us at pace_survey@ncsu.edu to learn more about the PACE Climate Survey for Community Colleges survey instrument. We are happy to answer any questions about question sets, custom questions, and how we can meet your institution’s needs. We will send you an entrance questionnaire to complete that captures initial information that we need to create your service agreement.

Discounts on your administration

  • Early Bird Discount–Launch your survey by September 15th to receive a 15% discount off of the total fees associated with the PACE Climate Survey.  To be eligible, the survey must also close no later than three weeks after the survey launch date.  
  • Referral Program—Refer a new institution to NILIE and receive 15% off a future PACE administration.  
  • See the Fees page for more information on cost to administer and other available discounts. Discounts must be approved by the PACE team.

Survey Development

Based on the feedback you provided in your entrance questionnaire, we will build your survey and email you a draft for your approval. You need to approve the survey draft should be approved at least one week prior to your institution’s launch date. We are happy to work with you to make any changes you see necessary.

Keep in mind that in addition to the standard 46 PACE questions, your survey can include the following

Survey Distribution

To distribute the survey, the PACE team sends personal invitations to your institution’s participants, using a template email approved by you. Research (as well as our first-hand experience) have shown that surveys produce higher response rates when participants are invited by a third party.

At least one week before survey launch, follow these steps to start the survey distribution process:

  1. Participant List: Please send an Excel spreadsheet of participant names and email addresses to pace_survey@ncsu.edu. Please put the participants’ first name under column A, last name under column B, and email address under column C.
  2. Share Information with Campus Partners and Offices: Inform your IT staff that PACE survey email invitations will be coming so as to avoid issues with spam filters.
    • The survey comes from pace_survey@ncsu.edu.
    • The IP ranges that our survey platform sends email on are 162.247.216.0/22 and  162.247.219.57
  3. Share Information about the PACE Climate Survey with employees: Inform employees that our email will be coming so they do not mistake it for spam.
  4. Approve survey draft and communications drafts: Review the test email invitation that the PACE team sends you prior to the official launch.

Survey Launch and Data Collection

  • Your survey launches on the date that you confirmed with the PACE team. We recommend launching the survey any time from August through November and January through early May. A summer launch does not result in high response rate; therefore, it is not recommended. Additionally, we highly recommend launching your survey on a Tuesday or Wednesday as these days typically lead to higher response rates.
  • Please submit first payment by the survey launch date.
  • The PACE team sends weekly reminders to employees who have not taken the survey.
  • You will be provided a response rate tracker, which provides an estimated number of responses to the survey. Our average response rate is approximately 48%.
  • Survey closes typically 2-3 weeks after launch. The partner representative receives an email confirming the close of the survey.

Survey Close, Data Analysis, and Reporting

  • The PACE team analyze survey results and send client representative a full report within 8 business weeks of the survey closing.
  • Partner pays the remaining statement balance if payment has not already been made in full.
  • Partner reviews report and requests any final changes.