Case Study: CUPA-HR

The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) is the foremost member association for human resources professionals in higher education. CUPA-HR offers leadership development, opportunities to connect with fellow HR professionals, and analysis of industry topics.

They also provide access to benchmarking insights based on six annual surveys of higher ed institutions that cover everything from salaries and benefits to department turnover, staff demographics, and much more. Overall, they maintain one of the largest workforce databases in existence.

CUPA-HR & Peerfocus

With approximately 1,300 participating institutions contributing data for upwards of 800,000 faculty and staff each year, CUPA-HR is now a leading authority on workforce surveys for higher education in the United States.

That wasn’t the case 20 years ago. In 2004, CUPA-HR was working in overdrive to manually deliver three annual surveys and mail out custom reports – with no ability to offer benchmarking insights using the sensitive data they collected.

CUPA-HR needed a way to scale their surveys, add value for their members, protect data privacy, and elevate their status in the HR field. They found all that and more in a partnership with Peerfocus.

With Peerfocus, surveys were easy to develop and even easier to respond to, which resulted in higher engagement, richer data sets, and more surveys. And, because Peerfocus allowed the safe aggregation of sensitive data, CUPA-HR was able to dramatically increase subscription-based benchmarking.

Institutions around the country now depend on CUPA-HR for the insight they need to make data-informed decisions and advance their departments. And Peerfocus is the platform CUPA-HR trusts, not just to maintain but to enhance the quality of their surveys and insights.

Before Peerfocus

Prior to using Peerfocus, in the early 2000s, CUPA-HR staff mailed paper questionnaires and entered the returned data into spreadsheets manually. This wasn’t just inconvenient; it also left their data vulnerable to human error. Reporting the results and insights was a long and tedious process that took time away from analysis and the provision of other resources.

These days, analog data collection and physically mailing out custom reports may be a thing of the past – but clunky, time-consuming processes are not. Many of the pain points CUPA-HR experienced in the early 2000s still exist, just in different forms.

For example, switching between digital platforms can compromise data. Cleaning or validating survey results manually takes time and effort that could be better utilized elsewhere. And rich data sets are impossible to collect without a robust survey platform.

Peerfocus is the only platform that offers an end-to-end solution for the entire survey lifecycle, from complex survey design to custom benchmarking.

With Peerfocus

Over the years, Peerfocus not only helped CUPA-HR streamline their process; the platform also helped CUPA-HR grow and create new revenue streams by offering their members access to benchmarking capabilities and on-demand reports.

One of the biggest benefits of working with Peerfocus was CUPA-HR’s ability to double their number of annual surveys from three to six. CUPA-HR’s revenue has grown 10x since launching SurveysOnline, their Peerfocus-powered site.

Peerfocus also helped CUPA-HR switch to a more detailed way of collecting data, from an aggregated, per-position basis to an incumbent basis. This allowed CUPA-HR to create richer data sets and give their members access to even more benchmarking insights. Last year alone, CUPA-HR collected data on over 837,000 incumbents.

CUPA-HR collects data on sensitive information, including salary and benefits, but a sophisticated system of data aggregation and strong protections against data mining ensure that even sensitive information can be safely used for benchmarking purposes.

CUPA-HR’s Peerfocus database includes over 85 million rows of data, but large datasets can still be processed in real time to produce on-demand reports in seconds. CUPA-HR users have run almost 1.6 million reports since CUPA-HR started keeping track in 2010.

Hear From CUPA-HR about Peerfocus

When I started at CUPA-HR in 2003, survey data was entered manually into spreadsheets, and the reporting of summary statistics took a long time. By moving to the Peerfocus platform, we cut down on the time it took to collect data, the amount of time our staff spent entering data, greatly reduced the chance for errors, and are able to get data into our members’ hands much faster. What makes the platform unique is its flexibility and the fact that our users can choose their own comparison groups when running reports, providing a significant level of customization that they can control. I’m not aware of another company that offers what Peerfocus does in terms of platform flexibility and support. As our partner for more than two decades, Peerfocus allows us to deliver critical data our members use to drive their compensation decisions. The entire Peerfocus team is incredibly easy to work with, smart, and accommodating. They have so much institutional knowledge about our work, we know we’re not just getting someone at a support desk who doesn’t know us beyond what’s on their screen. No one else in higher education does what we do, and Peerfocus makes that possible.

Rob Shomaker, Senior Vice President, CUPA-HR

We are Peerfocus super users. I’ve worked with, and checked out, many other survey platforms, but Peerfocus is definitely number one. They tailor report outputs to our specifications, and we couldn’t replicate the amount of customization we want with that level of efficiency. We now have a tool that’s easy for our members to use, and it gets better every year. Peerfocus will do what it takes to customize your surveys and reporting to meet your specific needs. Their customer service is exceptional; it’s rare not to get a personal response that fully addresses our concerns within 24 hours. They’re also willing to meet our needs at a remarkable level of detail, and they’re willing to try new things that benefit the entire customer base. We love and appreciate the Peerfocus team.

Jacqueline Bichsel, PhD, Associate Vice President of Research