"A lot of our processes need to be made more customer-friendly."

Judith Hain surrounds herself with images of elephants. She admires the mammoth creatures because they're social, carry wisdom and are loyal to family, and it seems that she borrows from these pachyderm traits in her role as vice president for the Division of Human Resources (HR).

"It is my strong belief that HR is here to serve the University community," she said. To provide service, Hain felt it necessary to find out how HR was perceived by the campus community, and a comprehensive survey was distributed last March. "It was important to survey our customers to see how we were doing. We made some changes and anticipated making more, but I wanted those changes focused toward customer needs."

Based on the 180 responses, HR developed a broad action plan, which Hain recently discussed.

Q. What did you learn from the employee survey?
A. According to summary of the survey, there were three areas that needed attention. First, there's customer education. We found that it was important for customers to better understand our roles in HR--what we do, how we do it--and the policies and procedures we follow. Second, there were significant areas of process redesign or improvement that our customers cited. We want to make it easier for our customers to work with us. Third, we examined the general area of HR staff development. How do we make ourselves better at what we do? And how do we develop ourselves into a highly qualified, integrated team? We met as a group and formulated projects that we are going to undertake on a formal basis.

Q. What are some steps you've already taken in response to the survey?
A. We constituted teams that brought together people from HR and customers who are directly affected by our processes. We asked them to help us examine those processes and recommend how to improve them.

[Database manager] Marc Semler spearheaded the reorganization process. The issue there was a gap between the time offices and divisions reorganized and when the information provided to HR was fed into the system. Marc met with people in offices that contribute to that process, they talked through the gaps and remedied them.

We also had a large group that tackled the leaves of absence. They reviewed the family medical leave act, the family leave act, extended sick days and personal leave, then developed a template outlining critical elements of each of those procedures, along with a written statement of what the procedures are. We're on the verge of releasing those documents to the campus community. The new format will clarify the leave structure and process. We also looked at the adjunct process. We want to expedite adjuncts' paperwork to get them onboard and get them e-mail accounts.

Q. How can HR better utilize the technology on campus?
A. Technology Coordinator Carol Lange has worked to get all our forms on our Web site in a matrix constructed with downloadable forms. A lot of our processes need to be made more customer-friendly. Several of the employees who responded want an employee handbook, so we've developed a comprehensive online handbook. [Web manager] Cindy Meneghin is putting finishing touches on it, and it should be up and running early this semester.

We also looked at the search process. The University's search process is excellent, so we want to preserve the process but make it less labor intensive for the people who serve on search committees. One thing we're exploring is a process for receiving and distributing resumes electronically to search committees. We hope to roll that out in the spring.

Q. What are some other concerns you found in the survey?
A. A major issue is in the area of civil service rules and regulations. This is something that touches on both educating our customers and making our own processes more user-friendly. People are confused about those rules. It takes a long time for the professionals to learn and understand it, so it's difficult to communicate it effectively. Shenita Brokenburr [director of Classified Staffing] has done an outstanding job of organizing the civil service procedures. We also designed a series of workshops on civil service rules, which will begin this semester.

Q. Will there be any new initiatives in the area of employee training?
A. Charlie Matteis [director of Organizational Development and Training] is designing a training matrix that will include conflict resolution, communication and supervisory skills, customer service and PAR [Performance Assessment Review], which are just some of a list of between 15-20 classes we will offer. He's already offering some of the modules in different areas throughout the University, and we will be piloting new ones as he brings them online.

In addition to that, [training specialist] Keesha Chavez is developing a new employee orientation program that will take place during a new employee's first month.

Q. What are some other new initiatives we can we look forward to?
A. We're working on Web for Employees, which will allow employees to change their PIN, review personal information and current health benefits, maintain emergency contact information, check direct deposit information, and review current federal withholding allowances and the entire pay stub. We're also working on converting from paper to electronic, the system that deals with leave balances so employees can keep track of their time on the Web. Completing forms online with authenticated signatures is an issue for the University as a whole that will make everyone's lives easier. I'm looking forward to a time when people won't even have to download forms.

Go back to the Insight index