This CLARK_readme20250721.txt file was generated on 20250721 by Madison Golden. ------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------- 1. Title of Dataset The impact of COVID-19 on non-faculty staff in academia 2. Author Information Principal Investigator Contact Information Name: L. Scott Benson Institution: University of Utah Address: The Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, 310 Wakara Way Suite 1100, Salt Lake City, UT, 84108. Email: scott.benson@hsc.utah.edu ORCID: 0000-0002-4252-9434 Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information Name: Rebekah Clark Institution: University of Utah Address: The Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, 310 Wakara Way Suite 1100, Salt Lake City, UT, 84108. Email: Rebekah.Clark@utah.edu ORCID: 0009-0005-0671-5378 Department: Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information Name: Kari Pedersen Institution: University of Utah Address: The Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, 310 Wakara Way Suite 1100, Salt Lake City, UT, 84108 Email: Kari.Pedersen@utah.edu ORCID: 0000-0002-1046-0778 Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information Name: Lisa H. Gren Institution: University of Utah Address: The Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, 310 Wakara Way Suite 1100, Salt Lake City, UT, 84108 Email: lisa.gren@hsc.utah.edu ORCID: 0000-0002-5868-3292 Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information Name: Jeremy J. Biggs Institution: University of Utah Address: Division of Occupational and Environmental Health 250 E. 200 S., Suite 100 Salt Lake City, UT 84111 Email: Jeremy.Biggs@hsc.utah.edu ORCID: 0009-0008-9398​​-6900 Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information Name: Caren J. Frost Institution: University of Utah Address: College of Social Work 395 S 1500 E Salt Lake City, UT 84112 Email: Caren.Frost@socwk.utah.edu ORCID: 0000-0003-3934-3724 3. Date of data collection (single date, range, approximate date) 202204 - 202308 4. Geographic location of data collection (where was data collected?): Utah 5. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: This research was supported by the Utah Center for Promotion of Work Equity Research (Grant Number U19 OH012304), a cooperative agreement funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). -------------------------- SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION -------------------------- 1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: CC BY NC 2. Links to publications that cite or use the data: NA 3. Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data: NA 4. Links/relationships to ancillary data sets: NA 5. Was data derived from another source? No 6. Recommended citation for the data: Benson, L.S., et al. (2025) The impact of COVID-19 on non-faculty staff in academia. The Hive: University of Utah Research Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.7278/S5d-njn9-ge3a --------------------- DATA & FILE OVERVIEW --------------------- 1. File List A. Filename: COVID_Staff_Survey_Results Short description: Quantitative results of a 33-question survey assessing the impact of the pandemic on respondents’ work environment and location, hours worked, perceived productivity, level of supervisor interaction, responsibilities outside the workplace, physical and mental health, and perceived challenges. Note: Removed participants are highlighted. B. Filename: Staff_Survey_Codebook Short description: Codebook for our analysis of the above survey (COVID_Staff_Survey_Results). C. Filename: U[1-3]_HR_Transcript Short description: Transcripts of interviews with HR leadership at 3 Utah universities, asking questions about what policies they changed at their universities during the pandemic, the effects of these policy changes on staff, and which policies were beneficial enough that they planned to keep them long-term. Full file list: U1_HR_Transcript U2_HR_Transcript U3_HR_Transcript D. Filename: U[1-3]_NonHR_[1-4]_Transcript Short description: Transcripts of interviews with leaders of various departments at 3 Utah universities. One leader (U3, NONHR 1) opted for a written interview instead. Questions asked about how they implemented policy changes with their staff, the benefits and challenges they and their staff experienced, and if they noticed any differences in effects for female vs. male staff. Full file list: U1_NonHR_1_Transcript U1_NonHR_2_Transcript U1_NonHR_3_Transcript U1_NonHR_4_Transcript U2_NonHR_1_Transcript U2_NonHR_2_Transcript U2_NonHR_3_Transcript U2_NonHR_4_Transcript U3_NonHR_1_Written_Interview U3_NonHR_2_Transcript U3_NonHR_3_Transcript U3_NonHR_4_Transcript E. Filename: U[1-3]_Women_Staff_[Remote/In-Person]_Transcript Short description: Transcripts of focus groups with women staff at 3 Utah universities. Focus groups were divided by staff who worked mostly remotely during the pandemic and staff who worked mostly in person. Questions asked about how the pandemic and the normalization of remote work changed their experiences both at work and at home, what changes they experienced in work flexibility and communication, and any differences they noticed between their experience and that of their colleagues who were men. Full file list: U1_Women_Staff_Remote_Transcript U1_Women_Staff_In-Person_Transcipt U2_Women_Staff_Remote_Transcript U2_Women_Staff_In-Person_Transcipt U3_Women_Staff_Remote_Transcript U3_Women_Staff_In-Person_Transcipt F. Filename: Zoom_Chat_Log_Comments Short description: Zoom chat log comments from the women staff focus groups. 2. Relationship between files: COVID_Staff_Survey_Results contains our quantitative data and Staff_Survey_Codebook is the codebook to interpret that data. The other files contain our qualitative data. Relationship between qualitative data files are described above. 3. Additional related data collected that was not included in the current data package: NA 4. Are there multiple versions of the dataset? No -------------------------- METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION -------------------------- 1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: This mixed-methods study assessed the experience of non-faculty university staff during and immediately after the pandemic. Qualitative interviews and focus groups explored the experience at various university levels - HR leadership, non-HR managers, and women staff, and questions were crafted from what we learned from the quantitative survey results. This study used explanatory sequential mixed methods, a process in which the quantitative thread of data collection is managed first, followed by the qualitative component. The mixed methods process ensures that the qualitative data provide insight into and explain the earlier quantitative data (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018). For the quantitative aspect of this study, we developed and administered a survey at an urban research university as a pilot, and the study was later expanded to include focus groups at three universities to gain a deeper understanding of survey findings through discussions with women NFU staff (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018). Reference: Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2018). Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research. SAGE. The qualitative portion of this study used a phenomenological approach. Phenomenology aims to describe “the common meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or phenomenon,” i.e., the impacts of post-pandemic remote work (Creswell & Poth, 2023, p. 87). Following the collection of qualitative data, thematic analysis was utilized to determine the common and overarching themes in the focus groups (Terry & Hayfield, 2021). References: Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2023). Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches (5th Edition). SAGE. Terry, G., & Hayfield, N. (2021). Essentials of Thematic Analysis. American Psychological Association. 2. Methods for processing the data: Quantitative data: The survey was developed and conducted in Qualtrics, and the raw data was imported to Excel. Initial results included 322 responses, and after data cleaning 282 responses were included in the final analysis. Observations were removed if respondents only answered demographic questions or only a few substantive questions (n=24). Additionally, respondents who did not state staff as their primary role (n=16) were removed, as one mailing list included both faculty and staff (including student staff). Cleaned data was later imported to Stata for analysis. Qualitative data: Interviews and focus groups were conducted via Zoom and audio-recorded. Recordings were professionally transcribed. Identifiable information was redacted from transcripts before uploading here. 3. Instrument- or software-specific information needed to interpret the data: NA 4. Standards and calibration information, if appropriate: NA 5. Environmental/experimental conditions: NA 6. Describe any quality-assurance procedures performed on the data: Data were stored in a password-protected storage account. 7. People involved with sample collection, processing, analysis and/or submission: Ariana Callahan --------------------------------------------------------- DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: COVID_Staff_Survey_Results --------------------------------------------------------- 1. Number of variables: 59 2. Number of cases/rows: 322 3. Please see the Staff_Survey_codebook file associated with this dataset for complete variable definitions. ---------------------------------------------------- DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: U[1-3]_HR_Transcript ---------------------------------------------------- 1. Number of variables: 9 [number of questions asked in focus group] 2. Number of cases/rows: 6 3. Variable List A. Tell me briefly about the experience for HR during the COVID-19 pandemic. B. What changes were made for staff about work arrangements when lockdown happened? C. What changes had to be implemented by HR for staff across the institution? D. When changes were implemented, were they appropriately timed for the issues that needed to be addressed? E. What problems did you encounter with staff at your institution? F. Was there an evaluation of what staff thought about the changes? G. Was there an evaluation of whether the changes were successful? H. Who was successful in managing these changes? I. Is there anything else you would like to share with us about your experience with COVID-19? ------------------------------------------------------------ DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: U[1-3]_NonHR_[1-4]_Transcript ------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Number of variables: 6 [number of questions asked in focus group] 2. Number of cases/rows: 13 3. Variable List A. Tell me briefly about the experience at your institution trying to rapidly implement policies from HR during the COVID-19 pandemic. B. When changes were implemented, were they appropriately timed for the issues that needed to be addressed? C. What challenges did you encounter with staff at your institution in trying to implement these changes? D. Was there an evaluation of what staff thought about the changes? [if no evaluation, ask about people’s perceptions] E. What are the characteristics of an employee who did well with these changes? F. Is there anything else you would like to share with us about your experience with COVID-19? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: U[1-3]_Women_Staff_[Remote/In-Person]_Transcript ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Number of variables: 7 [number of questions asked in focus group] 2. Number of cases/rows: 49 3. Variable List A. Tell us about the work you do at the university. B. Share with us how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your work activities. C. Was there a change in flexibility in your job now when compared to pre-COVID work? D. Was there a change in communication levels when compared to pre-COVID work? E. Based on your experiences during the pandemic, what differences did you see between men and women in their experiences at work? F. Based on pandemic decisions for work activities, what types of changes for your work are still in effect? G. Is there anything else you would like to share with us? ------------------------------------------------------ DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Zoom_Chat_Log_Comments ------------------------------------------------------ 1. Number of variables: 7 [number of questions asked in focus group - correspond to U[1-3]_Women_Staff_[Remote/In-Person]_Transcript] 2. Number of cases/rows: 35 [number of chat log comments total] NOTE: There were only 2 focus groups in which people wrote comments in the chat log and the comments are organized by which focus group they are from (1, 2, or 3 in the file set U[1-3]_Women_Staff_[Remote/In-Person]_Transcript). 3. Variable List A. Tell us about the work you do at the university. B. Share with us how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your work activities. C. Was there a change in flexibility in your job now when compared to pre-COVID work? D. Was there a change in communication levels when compared to pre-COVID work? E. Based on your experiences during the pandemic, what differences did you see between men and women in their experiences at work? F. Based on pandemic decisions for work activities, what types of changes for your work are still in effect? G. Is there anything else you would like to share with us?