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Department of Human ResourcesAnnual ReportFY 2007-2008Mission StatementThe Human Resources Department is a comprehensive human resources and payroll operation, providing benefits administration, staff recruitment, classification and compensation and payroll administration services to the University of West Georgia campus community. Our customers include the Faculty, Staff and Students of West Georgia as well as West Georgia’s retirees. With a staff dedicated to maintaining the integrity of West Georgia’s mission, policies and procedures, we provide quality customer service through personal attention to individual needs.
Departmental Statement of Goals and Outcomes
1. Continue to improve the level of customer service to the campus community through increased communications, cross training and making information easily accessible. (Applicable to Bread and Butter Goal 6c) The implementation of the self-service application (E-Apps) in FY 2007 has made information more readily available to our employees. The application allows employees to manage their personal information online. Increasing the awareness through working with the Financial implementation director has increased the use of the application. 2. Provide benefit information to all new faculty and staff. (Applicable to Bread and Butter Goal 6c)
In fiscal year 2008 the staff provided benefits orientation sessions for 70 new faculty members for the 2007-2008 academic year. We also provided orientation sessions for 117 new administrative and support staff personnel during the fiscal year. Orientation sessions cover basic life insurance, supplemental life insurance, health and dental insurance, flexible spending accounts, retirement options, long-term disability, and completion of personal information for payroll purposes. 3. Provide employees with a wide range of benefits in order to meet their needs. (Applicable to Bread and Butter Goal 6c)
Utilization of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) remains consistent, with 24 new clients contacting EAP for assistance with personal issues as of June 30, 2008. Resulting in 103 contacts over the fiscal year.. The utilization rate has decreased from 3.88% to 3.24%. we hope to increase the usage of EAP through increasing educational efforts and increasing the awareness of the benefits of the program. EAP contacts were made for the following reasons:
Assessment: The customer satisfaction assessment for the Office of Human Resources was conducted in the fall of 2006. The results of the assessment show that, overall Human Resources is performing well, and the majority of the customer base is content with the service provided. Of the 137 respondents who completed the survey 111 (84%) rated their overall experience with the office as good or excellent yet 21 (16%) rated their experience as poor. Although the overwhelming majority of comments were positive, the major issues that were identified were:
In response to the requests of the respondents, the following action will be taken:
We have begun the process of cross referencing UWG policy with BOR policy, as well as updating our “Guide to Human Resources”. Once this is complete we intend to update the UWG employee handbook and distribute to all staff employees. The HR staff will be required to become more conversant with policy in order to provide the faculty and staff with timely and accurate answers. The target date for publication is October 2008. We are continuously working to keep all of the staff members informed in order to be able to have consistent answers to our customers. Consistency is very important, we will continue to strive to make the HR staff aware of current situations and issues in order to better serve the campus community. Confidentiality seemed to be an issue that came out of the 2007 customer satisfaction survey. The office structure is an issue in regard to confidentiality. Three of the HR staff that deal with benefits, garnishments, tax levies, FMLA are housed in cubicles. These are very sensitive issues and individuals become very upset when they are required to discuss personal information in a cubical, where other in the surrounding cubicles as well as anyone in the “lobby” can easily hear the conversation. We have addressed to physical structure issues of the office by dismantling the cubicles and building permanent walls for the staff members that handle confidential information mentioned above. We are emphasizing the importance of keeping information confidential to all staff members. Staff Productivity: Various staff members attended conferences of which two were hosted by the USGHRA and CUPA and one by the Payroll Users Group. Various members of the staff serve on various University and System Wide Committees.
Held Annual Benefits Fair during open enrollment period to assist employees with benefits elections for plan year 2008, 340 faculty and staff registered.
In order to increase the utilization of the human resources self service application additional training session were held to assist with registration. Human Resources is currently in the initial stages of a classification and compensation study with Mercer Consulting. The goal of this study is to redesign the UWG compensation and classification system for all non-faculty staff positions. Through this important initiative, UWG will develop a competitive compensation program that will support our efforts to attract and retain high quality employees and serve as a foundation for related Human Resource programs, such as recruitment and selection, performance management and other reward and recognition programs.
In January of 2008 UWG implemented a compensatory time policy and we have also implemented a relocation expense policy.
We have begun the implementation of Kronos, and electronic time and attendance application; this was stated as a goal on the 2007 report.
General Statement of Departmental Condition: The Human Resources department is in adequate condition. The workload continues to increase with the increasing number of faculty and staff. In August 2007 the department processed 70 new faculty members, in addition to the 117 staff that were hired during the fiscal year. The department was involved in recruitment for 129 staff positions during the fiscal year.
Goals for 2009:
Begin implementation process of a Time and Attendance module. This process will require a campus study of current policies and procedures and will necessitate the development of new policies and procedures to accompany an implementation. These processes as well as open communication will the charge for a committee that will be appointed. Progress: Currently in the testing phase, target implementation date is October 2008
Continue to examine core HR processes for continuous improvement. Implement semi-annual human resource/payroll information sessions for campus community. Reorganize the website to make it more user friendly and focused on specific HR information. Work in Progress Complete updates to Employee Handbook and Guide to Human Resources, and publish on-line as well as in hard copy formats. Target date October 2008
Implement PeopleAdmin, an electronic applicant tracking system that will increase our effectiveness and efficiency in the recruiting and performance management process. |
