Summary of the topics covered at the last Academic Staff Assembly meeting (3/12) and the Academic Staff Institute (3/22):

Ombuds Report

Linda Newman from the Ombuds Office presented an overview of what Ombuds do. Ombuds are retired faculty and staff members who offer to serve as advisors on various issues (two are former academic staff, two are former faculty). As they analyze patterns over the years, the most serious trend appears to be one of “imperfect supervision.” This is when staff feel that they do not have an ongoing/productive relationship with their supervisor. Had they been communicating with each other there would not be such a need for ombuds services. Contact them if you need advice. http://www.ombuds.wisc.edu/

Darrell Bazzell, Vice Chancellor for Administration

Darrell Bazzell makes fairly frequent presentations to the assembly on various financial matters concerning the university. You can see the slides he presented from here http://acstaff.wisc.edu/documents/ASA_3_12_2012.pdf. There is a special task force on UW restructuring and operational flexibilities. The goal is to have a new personnel system implemented on July 1, 2013. Besides all of the steps required to develop such a system, it would need to be approved by the legislature before being put in place. It is my sense that the university administration feels that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the employees at the UW to determine how the university should operate.

If we do not act decisively and present a plan that we can convince the legislature will be successful, we will not get this opportunity ever again. If we enact a plan and it fails, we will not get this opportunity ever again. Or so the thinking goes. I believe they feel a great deal of pressure to come up with a workable plan that will be successful. Darrell spoke on the HR Design project as well.

Administrative Excellence

http://adminexcellence.wisc.edu/
http://adminexcellence.wisc.edu/project-areas/

The vision: “The University of Wisconsin-Madison will be a model public university in the 21st century, serving as a resource to the public and working to enhance the quality of life in the state, the nation, and the world.”

There are 11 work teams (benefits, compensation, competencies, diverse workforce, employee categories, recruitment and assessment, titling, employee development, performance management, transition and succession, and workplace flexibility). We have a very decentralized campus, with a wide variety and large number of employees, and so this is very complicated. As part of the ongoing efficiency study the UW is working with Huron Consulting Services and they’ve already identified a few areas where they think the university can save money. These include IT (email and calendar consolidation, data center aggregation), Space Utilization (classrooms), and Strategic Purchasing (computer bundles, office supplies, MRO supplies, scientific supplies).

In order for the university to find efficiencies and save money, it will take a culture change on campus. We’re being presented with it as a choice now… either change culture and be able to adopt a pay plan, or don’t get raises for a long time. It was in working with Huron that UW came up with the current Grants Management and Bio Safety programs in place on campus now. You can learn more about the process here. http://hrdesign.wisc.edu/

HR Design

http://hrdesign.wisc.edu

On March 13 there was a forum for faculty and staff to have a chance to weigh in on the process. The forum was set up such that we could sit with members of the 11 work teams and discuss those particular issues, but there was only time to visit with 3 of the teams. I chose to meet with the employee category, performance management, and diverse workforce teams. The employee category team is trying to sort out what to do with the categories (classified, academic staff, etc) now that none of our employees have collective bargaining through unions. They first envisioned 3 possible models (do nothing, merge all classified staff into academic staff, or merge exempt classified into academic staff and keep non-exempt classified staff separate). I expressed my opinion that the current model isn’t working well and has created an artificial class system that is detrimental to workplace climate (unequal pay, different benefits, etc).

This was not news to them and I wasn’t the only person there to express this opinion. I also learned that some classified staff may not be represented by their union on campus anymore, but they still want to remain in their union for various reasons.

The performance management team is a “Phase II” team and is just getting started. They are wrestling with issues concerning the unevenness of employee reviews on campus, how many supervisors are not really trained to be supervisors, and how there is little to no guidance or resources across the university to help supervisors and managers to do their jobs. If the UW wants to have a pay-plan that includes merit-pay, it will be difficult to establish a system to evaluate employees fairly.

The diverse workforce team is working on issues related to workplace climate, equity, and diversity. Since there are already several offices on campus focused on workplace and student diversity, they are choosing to focus on workplace climate primarily. We spoke about developing “best practices” for the various units on campus.

Phase 1 HR Design work team recommendations are to be turned in by April 2. There will be Campus Engagement on April 17 from 9-11am at Union South and April 19 from 1:30-3:30pm at Memorial Union on the recommendations made.

Academic Staff Branding

The Communications Committee is still working on a project to “brand” the academic staff. Essentially they want to make the academic staff more visible, get us credit for the work we do, and cultivate a sense of community among academic staff. It is actually quite amazing to me all the jobs that AS do beyond research and instruction all across the university in every department and unit.

Year of the Wisconsin Idea, Resolution Passes http://acstaff.wisc.edu/1887.htm

Academic Staff Assembly Meeting Agenda from 12 March 2012
http://acstaff.wisc.edu/1910.htm

Academic Staff Institute (March 22)

This was something of a workshop for academic staff which I attended for the second time this year. Since this update is already long enough, I will spare you the details but give you a sample of the sessions we could choose from: Engaging Your Strengths, Working Together to Achieve Shared goals, HR Design, Negotiating Difficult Conversations and Advocating for Yourself, Job Security, Legislative Update, plus several more.

Questions? Contact Mat Gunshor.

Thank you.