Staff Human Resources Action Plan
The 2007 annual Staff Human Resources (SHR) survey results were organized into a one-page listing of common themes. SHR staff have responded to those concerns, listed below.
Reclassifications are taking far too long. The Reclassification function was transitioned from the Service Teams to SHR Compensation in April of 2008. The Reclassification backlog has been eliminated and although we are committing to a 45 day or less turnaround, the average turnaround time for requested actions has been reduced to considerably less than that. The Compensation and Classification web pages have also been revised to reflect this change in process and responsibility.
Service teams are difficult to contact and slow to respond. The Service Teams have made a concerted effort to improve response time by returning phone calls and email promptly. You will be able to identify the HR Partner assigned to assist your unit as well as several backup contacts from our on-line Staff HR Directory.
Information provided is often not reliable and/or consistent among team members. We understand the issues and are focused on improving standardization in processes and consistency in delivery of services and information. To that end, the Service Team organization is fully engaged in identifying and implementing best practices for processes and procedures, and is developing and delivering comprehensive staff training programs.
Pay for some employees (especially academics, students and police) are often processed incorrectly. Our campus enterprise time and attendance web-based system, CruzPay, is configured to include a myriad of policies and collective bargaining articles relating to time and attendance rules for students and staff employees. Accuracy of pay and accruals has increased with the built-in application of business rules within CruzPay.
The goal is that CruzPay-driven pay will be implemented over the next two years utilizing a phased roll out. In the mean time, inconsistencies in unique and specialized pay policies for police have been addressed. Identifying the appropriate office to process academic pay is being looked into via a joint effort by the Academic Personnel Office and Staff Human Resources.
The consolidation took our resources and/or staff, and left and/or gave back work. Unfortunately, not all the dollars given to the consolidation for human resources was put into SHR. And, as it has with our clients, the budget reductions have challenged us to do more with less. We are committed to meeting this challenge by streamlining procedures, and standardizing processes and service levels.
Communication between service teams and customers needs to be better/quicker and Communication between SHR and the campus could be better. We recognize the need for timely communication and have made and will continue to make improvements in this area. In partnership with the IT office, SHR is strongly advocating for funding to develop a Human Resources Information Database which will help on the communication front as well as in other important business process areas. In the interim, we intend to move toward improved communication overall.
Service Teams are overworked; they need additional staffing. We are seeking solutions via technology improvements, process tool development and consistency, training and the development of a realistic service delivery level.
Consider doing annual recruitments for "pools" of common positions. We are currently using "pooled" recruitments in the form of "continuous" recruitments on a limited basis on our campus. We are committed to providing effective and efficient services that support the university's goal to recruit and retain a diverse and talented work-force. We will continue to address further possibilities keeping our EEO/AA and Fair Hiring guidelines integral to our commitment to develop recruitment and hiring best practices.
Develop employee handbook or checklist of all major systems/connections employees need. We recognized the value in gathering frequently used information for quick access by staff and offer the following electronically:
Consider standardizing probationary tracking and noticing systems. This process refinement was recently put in place. There are several points at which managers and supervisors will be contacted in order to insure that the probationary period is used to its full advantage.
Revamp casual staff timesheet system/make it more like career staff. Requirements for "casual" and "career" non-exempt employees are the same. With the implementation of CruzPay, employees enter time via a web browser. Paper timesheets are no longer required for time reporting for over 5,000 staff and student employees.
For those employees who do report time via a paper timesheet, there are three types of timesheets available. Forms have been revised for consistency among different groups of employees:
Student employee timesheet forms
Staff employee timesheet forms
Revamp forms (e.g., EARs, ERs). SHR Compensation is currently in the process of revising the Employee Action Request (EAR) form for a more cohesive flow of information and improved usability. It should soon be available on the Compensation/Classification web site.
Completion of the second phase of the Recruitment Management System (RMS) has eliminated the need to use the Employee Request (ER) form. Other forms utilized by Service Teams and SHR overall are also being evaluated and modified as processes are streamlined and best practices are implemented.
Consider establishing governing body to review/appeal classification decisions. The classification request process includes a mechanism for appealing decisions, and is available on our web site.