HRF Meetings - 2007-12 [Winter]

As noted in the last HR Facilitator meetings, Brenda and OHR's senior leadership team have been looking at the office's organization, and decisions have been made about the future organization of OHR to enhance the way we deliver services to our campus customers.

After looking at pros and cons of the various organizational models, a decision has been made to move to a more specialized model. We are currently determining when this will go live, but it will be by the end of the first quarter of 2008.

Specifically, six units have been named in the new model:

• Effective Nov. 1, EPA Non-Faculty HR came to OHR, headed by Matt Brody. Matt is now Assistant Vice Chancellor for Human Resources and serves as Brenda's deputy in addition to heading the EPA Non-Faculty HR function.
• Employment, Classification and Compensation will oversee position creation and classification, hiring, onboarding, and compensation issues including career banding implementation. Vicki Bradley will serve as the Senior Director for this group.
• Administration and Systems will include all HR information systems management, as well as internal OHR business management. Dave Turner will serve as the Senior Director for this group.
• Employee and Management Relations has been elevated to stand alone due to its importance. This group will manage all types of employment relationship issues, including the grievance process. Gena Carter will serve as the Acting Senior Director for this group.
• Benefits and Employee Programs has also been made a stand-alone group due to its importance. This will include benefit program management, employee services and programs, and work/life programs. Brian Usischon will serve as the Senior Director for this group.
• Policy, Planning and Development will help OHR keep up with the rapidly changing world of HR, particularly in higher education. This group will also include policy development and training, as well as special projects. Claire Miller will serve as the Senior Director for this group.

This reorganization does not include any new resources; current staff members are being redeployed.

Please note that this is still very much in development and should be treated as a work in progress; however, due to the close working relationships between OHR and the HR Facilitators, Brenda thought it appropriate to share this information during these meetings. More information will be shared with HR Facilitators and across campus when we are closer to a go-live date.

A group of HR Facilitators, managers of Facilitators and OHR staff have been pulled together to look at the critically important role of the HR Facilitator. Specifically, the group will look at:

• clarifying the Facilitator role
• determining the necessary skills and knowledge to perform the Facilitator role
• determining what Facilitators need to perform the role
• how much time the Facilitator role involves
• what supervisors need to know to help Facilitators do their jobs

The group will also provide recommendations on how to further clarify the Facilitator role, as well as general recommendations to enhance the model.

The group has held one meeting, with more to come.

• Remember that as of Nov. 1, EPA Non-Faculty HR responsibilities moved from the Provost's Office to OHR. Matt Brody continues to oversee EPA Non-Faculty HR, with the following staff available:
• • Bonnie Smith is currently serving as Acting EPA HR Officer. In the coming months, Noreen Montgomery (current a Senior Generalist in HR Services) will take that position on a permanent basis. Noreen is beginning her orientation with Bonnie and a listserv message will be sent when she moves into that position.
  • Regina Stabile is currently serving as Acting EPA HR Office Coordinator. Regina answers the main EPA Non-Faculty HR phone number (962-2897) and can help you herself or direct your call to Matt or Bonnie.
• Procedural changes:
• • After all school-level approvals, non-faculty EPAWeb actions now go to EPA HR. That is the stop for the EPA Non-Faculty HR office in OHR. There is no more Records stop in EPAWeb.
  • Please make every effort to have your actions arrive at EPA HR (following all other necessary approvals) by no later than the 15th of each month so they can be approved and forwarded to Payroll. (Note that actions may need to arrive earlier if deadlines shift due to holiday periods.) However, we will make every effort to approve actions for Payroll if they arrive after the 15th.
• Electronic document attachment in EPAWeb:
• • Reminder: As of Jan. 1, no hard copy supporting documentation will be accepted for EPA position or personnel actions. This applies to both EPA Non-Faculty HR and Academic Personnel. See reminder email here: http://hr.unc.edu/sys/emaillist/20358/131974.
  • You can create one PDF file with various items included; individual files are not necessary.
  • Only PDF and TIF files can be attached. Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, etc., cannot be accepted. See your departmental IT resource if you need assistance.
• EPA RecruitmentWeb:
• • The EPA version of RecruitmentWeb is now in final development and testing, and is expected to roll out no later than March 2008. Watch for additional information and training details.
    

See attachment.

The final stage of converting the IT job family to the revised career banding model is under way. All managers of IT employees should complete Employee Competency Assessments (ECAs) by Dec. 31, 2007. These competency assessments should be retained on file in the departments. As a reminder, Position Competency Review (PCRs) forms should have been completed and submitted to your HR Generalists in August. If you have not submitted your position competency review forms, please do so as soon as possible. If you have any questions about completing either of these forms, please contact your HR Generalist.

As we mentioned several months ago, the General Assembly passed legislation that removed the moratorium on implementing career banding for the University system. Shortly thereafter, we announced our goal of converting all remaining SPA positions at UNC-Chapel Hill to the career banding system during the spring of 2008, depending on the development work being conducted by the Office of State Personnel (OSP).

Once the moratorium was lifted, OSP began forming cross-agency transition teams to develop career banding materials for all job families in the University. The transition teams develop the mapping of where positions in the classified in the State's traditional compensation program will be classified in the new career banding system (i.e., the "crosswalk") and the competency profiles for the banded jobs. The transition teams also provide some input to OSP as OSP develops the market rates. Typically much of the career banding materials created by OSP's transition teams are validated statewide through focus groups. Once this work is completed, OSP will take the career banding materials to the State Personnel Commission for approval. Once the work is approved and the universities have been trained on the job family, the universities may implement them.

During the past few months, quite a few members of the Office of Human Resources (and some HR folks in departments) have been participating on OSP's transition teams. When compared to other universities/agencies, we've actually had disproportionately high participation on the transition teams in an effort to try to make sure that what is being developed will work for the jobs at our university. Lots of development work has been completed and we've had quite a few focus groups occur with employees and managers here on campus.

At this point, it looks like the following job families will go to the December State Personnel Commission meeting for approval: University Student Services, University Library, Nursing and Occupational Safety. Work is still under way for many of the job families. It is anticipated that the following job families will go to the February State Personnel Commission meeting: Accounting/Business, University Medical, University Human Services, University Operations/Trades, Engineer/Architects, and Law Enforcement Support. At this point, it seems that there may be some small pockets of more specialized University jobs which may go to the commission a bit later or may not be developed in time for our implementation. We are monitoring the transition teams' efforts in an effort to ensure these situations are minimal. We have even engaged in developing materials for the jobs specific to UNC-Chapel Hill. 

Depending on how all of the development work progresses, we are still on target for implementing career banding for most of the remaining job families at the University this spring/summer. For workload planning purposes, we are anticipating that the implementation will be in May; however, this time frame is very tentative, as we are dependent on OSP completing quite a bit of development work and receiving State Personnel Commission approval in the next few months. Once the actual date of the implementation is determined, an official announcement will be made.

In the meantime, there are a few things department HR Facilitators can do to prepare for the implementation. First and foremost, HR Facilitators should be looking at positions which have been vacant for an extended period of time (we typically advise a year or so) and which are not going to be filled in the near future, and abolish those positions. That way, departments will not have to go through the process to career band a lot of vacant positions. It also is a good time to look at position descriptions and ensure that they accurately reflect current job duties. Finally, HR Facilitators and departments should be planning for the workload associated with this implementation. Typically, departments will spend time during the couple of months prior and after the implementation engaging in activities related to the implementation.

You will be hearing much more about the career banding implementation as OSP's transition teams start finalizing their work and the timeline for the project can be solidified. We are anticipating that this will be happen shortly after the start of the new year.

• We are monitoring the effect of using Castlebranch on the criminal background check, and have learned that while most of the checks are coming back within five days, several are taking longer. NOTE: New England states take longer on average because the clerk of courts must do the check.
  • Long-term solution: We have contacted Ann Lemon, Assistant Vice President for Human Resources at GA, to request standards for Castlebranch. They plan to include performance standards in the next contract.
  • Short-term solution: We have changed the rules and will allow conditional offers to be made after 14 days, and will allow individuals to be hired if a check takes more than 30 days. If you are in that situation, then let your Generalist know. 
  • We have also decided to not require a check for a candidate who has received one within 30 days.
    • EXAMPLE: Ann Smith applies for a job as an Office Assistant IV. While she waits to hear about that position, she applies with Tar Heel Temps who complete a criminal conviction check and place her in another department. Two weeks later, she is asked to complete a criminal conviction check for the Office Assistant IV position. Since less than 30 days has elapsed, the criminal conviction check run by Tar Heel Temps is used and documents her background check. Tar Heel Temps sends the background check to the hiring department.
    • EXAMPLE: Bob Brown applies for work with Tar Heel Temps in April. His background is checked, and he is placed in a position as an Administrative Assistant II in the Center on Aging. Bob continues to work as an AAII as the hiring supervisor recruits for a permanent replacement. Because Bob is doing a good job, he is encouraged to apply. He does so and successfully competes for the position in October. Because more than 30 days have elapsed since his THT criminal conviction check was completed, the Center on Aging must run another background check.
• Policy will be published week of December 10. 
• Communication will go out week of December 10.

Signs are up on campus about the No Smoking policy -- it is effective Jan. 1. Information is available on the EHS Web site.

Aimee Krans, work/life manager in OHR, has put together "Quit Kits" for employees who are interested in stopping smoking. Contact Aimee at aimee_krans@unc.edu.

Thank you to those of you who have sent us your list of Public Health Essential Employees as part of our emergency preparedness efforts.

For those of you who have not yet done so, please do so at your earliest convenience. The form is available here. If you need help, contact your Generalist.

Adverse Weather

The Adverse Weather policy is always in effect. Information on the policy and how to find out the University's condition is available here.

Performance Reviews

Interim reviews are due to be completed by December 31. This is an opportunity to provide positive feedback for your high performers as a retention tool, and the opportunity to give some corrective feedback for those whose performance needs to improve.

Remember, interim reviews:

• Do not need an overall rating
• Cannot be appealed
• Signing the form ONLY means that the employee has received it, not that the employee agrees with it.