9/5/13 - 2013 Retreat
Last Year's Goals
· Better Communication
· Mission Statements for both councils
· Invite guests to meetings
· Some had more progress than others, but all were accomplished in some form. Reminder than big goals have to be eaten one bite at a time
Also Accomplished
· We've had more joint cooperation between councils
· Lots of new social events that were really well organized
· Staff governance brochure was finally finished
· Successful coat drive at Christmas
Faculty and Staff Insight Survey - Rich Boyer (of ModernThink) and Megan Carlson
· Survey was administered last November, results were first presented last May
· Focus today of three data sets: all respondents, exempt staff and non exempt staff.
· Over 900 colleges and universities around the country have taken this survey
· 64% response rates for exempt staff, 51% for non-exempt- both are higher than average responses. This tells us that people care and are engaged, and the responses are a good representative of the whole.
· General findings-
o UAA is a great place to work for the majority of people.
o There is a strong sense of community among the departments and colleges, but it doesn't translate well into cross-departmental collaboration.
o Faculty and staff report having good relationships with their supervisors, but there is room for improvement (especially in the area of performance management)
o Need better communication and enhanced transparency and dialogue.
o There are varying degrees of confidence in the senior leadership.
· We do well at
o Connection to mission and job satisfaction
o Job fit - skills are appropriate to the job
o Supervisor to employee relationships
o Diversity and inclusion
o Sustainability
o Community engagement
o Support work/life balance
· We can do better at
o Compensation and benefits - the sense that I am paid fairly and the benefits fit my needs
o Communication and collaboration
o Respect, appreciation and fairness- meaningful recognition programs and building a culture of accountability
o Department resources are not adequate to achieve goals
o We are not all on the same team
o Shared governance and senior leadership
o Meaningful involvement in institutional planning (check out the Pace University YES program for an example of a good one)
o Better orientation program is needed
o Transparency about upcoming changes
o Issues of low performance are addressed
· Top rated benefits
o Tuition reimbursement (both employees and families) - highest rated
o Sick leave
o Retirement plans
o Annual leave
o Wellness program (IHPs and Health screenings)
· Lowest rated benefits
o Medical insurance - lowest rated
o Post-retirement medical
o Vision plan
o Dental plan
o Professional and career development
o Overall satisfaction
o Prescription drug coverage
· What are the next steps? Info has gone to the individual departments - this data can inform many processes
· Will tentatively do it again in 3-5 years to see how changes that came from this survey improve the landscape.
Student Satisfaction Survey - Dr. Susan Kalina
· Implementing a common student satisfaction survey across the UA system - UAA reps are Dr. Kalina and Dr. Robert Boeckmann
· Invitation to attend focus groups to plan the survey - what are 2-3 questions that are useful for this survey? Also trying to determine if this is even useful. Want to pick a tool based on what people want to know. Looking for a diverse group of campus interests to respond to this request and attend.
· Hoping for implementation next fall
· Hanover Group will assist with the tool selection process (the same group that helped setup the Employee survey).
Panel Discussion with Chancellor's Cabinet
· Chancellor Tom Case
· Vice Chancellor Bill Spindle - Administration
· Vice Chancellor Bruce Schultz - Student Affairs
· Vice Chancellor Megan Olson - Advancement
· Provost Bear Baker
· Ron Kamahele - Director of Human Resources
· How much did the state spend on bush resident fly-in for the Shootout last year?
o Spindle- will check into, don't know offhand
· Health benefits- what's up with the changes, especially with deductibles?
o Kamahele - All new plan items are now in affect. Upward trajectory for costs 10-13% has compounded annually for the last 7 years. The plan cost (based on usage) directly affects the deductible. Goal for an 80/20 plan cost share with employees. Prices are going up everywhere. The current plan was built around the Affordable Care Act and some of the changes required. Temporary employees (seasonal and adjuncts) will have to start being covered, at least to some extent. Don't forget that we are self-insured, so it's not "their" plan, it's "our" plan
o Case- Commonwealth North is working on how to help business accommodate the changes and help people find coverage who fall through existing insurance plan cracks.
· Cash in sick leave? The compensation committee has discussed it with Staff Alliance but it's not been discussed with anyone in the Cabinet yet.
· WIN- Where are we with the wellness contract?
o Kamahele- it was a statewide thing, UAA had noting to do with it. Followed the standard RFP bid process. Bidding and award criteria are unknown outside of Statewide. HealthyRoads (from California) now has the contract- they are supposedly among the best in the country for this, and will start October 1. The protest for WIN is being processed The new vendor has to provide face to face access to counseling.
o Spindle - Talk to Statewide Benefits if you have questions, the cabinet definitely wants to know what the issues are though, and can help hunt down answers if Statewide won't give them. We'll talk to Erika Van Flein about communication. Keep in mind, these are healthcare problems that are occurring at every company in the country.
· CAS reorganization - can we have an explanation?
o Kamahele- Reorganized the administrative support functions under a new model. Shifting the imbalance between large and small department workloads- consolidated all admins into shared department groups called "support hubs" to create efficiencies. Did a complete re-hire since the new jobs would be so different in nature. Most people affected were re-placed into new positions. Only one person was bona-fide laid off, all others successfully re-placed. Several active recruitments were stopped to accommodate this.
o Spindle- By evening out the admin support it allowed them to hire 5 new professional advisors for the students.
o Baker- was not communicated because it was an HR issue due to it being a layoff situation so federal privacy laws came into place. They are now organized the same way that all the other colleges are (and all others have made this transition in the past). Creates specialized recourses and depth in knowledge rather than one person needing to know everything about how the department runs.
· So how can we gap the communication on this? Will it happen elsewhere? Many see this as a prelude to actions by the prioritization projects.
o Baker - prioritization is being done so this sort of thing DOESN'T happen unexpectedly. We are significantly understaffed compared to our peer institutions and can't afford to loose anyone if budgets get cut (since staff are always the first to go). We have to learn to be more effective with the people that we have since we don't have enough and no new money will be coming from the state. Any actual cuts will be dealt with by PBAC.
o Spindle - Chancellor's website will try to communicate information on prioritization as it happens and answer questions as they come up. Academic units have "programs", Support has "functions" to keep from things getting confused as they are analyzed. Website is still in the process of being populated. The Cabinet is not allowed to be at the meetings. Community campuses are not participating, but may do their own prioritization analysis at a later date. It's a re-allocation project so we have a strategic plan if cuts need to be made so across-the-board cuts don't have to be made. What needs to be looked at more closely and re-worked or made more efficient? It's about being aware of exactly what we have. Hope to have final results by April, then will decide what to do with them.
o Baker - final results will be online and visible to anyone who is interested. All the MAUs are doing a variation of this project. Over 600 (380)programs/(240) functions will be individually looked at. Is everything created years ago still needed or still relevant? Will be in full-swing by Oct 1. It will be as visible as they can possibly make it.
o Case - the regents are particularly impressed with our efforts so far, as compared with how the other MAUs are doing it.
· Student Affairs re-organization and Fall numbers.
o Schultz - our numbers are great- we're up 180 students, compared to down 600 last year. It's taken lots of outreach and work to do it. Credit hour production are only down 1%, which is also an improvement. This is especially important as high school gradation is at the bottom of its trend. All other MAUs are further down. The new division is helping with this by creating a better environment for new students and creating a better environment for them to succeed from the beginning. No new resources were used in creating this division, it was all done using reallocation of that which was existing.
· What are we doing with the Survey results? What changes will happen? How are we going forward?
o Case - it's being handled with upmost importance. It such a huge amount of data so it doesn't lend itself to quick answers. As we communicate the results we're trying to improve the things that can be easily improved right away.
o Spindle - each VC has taken their piece and is already looking at better ways to communicate. Effective appraisal models are also being heavily looked at.
o Olson - we're always open to creative and effective ways to communicate. If people have ideas on how to have better two-way communication, please share. Forums like this are always a great way to do this. Had the "idea bank" to help with feedback in the past where comments could be forwarded. Allows employees to have ownership. Perhaps its time to resurrect this idea.
Brainstorming -Steve Hinds