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USAC leaders bring influence to university alterations

Posted on | July 15, 2009 | 865 views |

By Adam King

The big changes afoot at Ohio State made it a good year to be the leader of the University Staff Advisory Committee, which advocates on behalf of staff with President Gordon Gee and his leadership team.

Katie Hall, who ended her one-year tenure as chair and three-year appointment to USAC on June 30, said the committee’s recommendations held great sway with the administration. Many of the things USAC has been seeking for years, such as creating more defined career paths for staff as well as bolstering support for career progression, were included in Gee’s Staff Talent Plan, which was presented June 4 to the Board of Trustees for review.

“It just demonstrates how the university wants to be a top employer and will support its staff,” Hall said. “USAC also was asked to provide information to the president’s senior leadership group about challenges and issues that prohibit staff from getting their work done effectively.

“We made recommendations about what should happen, and they charged individuals or work groups to look into what we recommended. That has the potential to be significant as well.”

Amy Ehrlich, who replaced Hall as chair July 1, said the chance to work for the greater good for staff and the university is what drew her to run for the leadership role in her second year on USAC.

Like Gee, she hopes to remove the bureaucracy that inundates so many processes at OSU.

“We work through a lot of red tape, and that seems to be the way it is because it’s easier to deal with the processes as they are than evaluate and change them,” Ehrlich said. “But that makes it difficult for different departments to collaborate across campus.”

Hall said Ehrlich will find a willing ear from Gee, who in conversations with USAC as well as his public statements has made it clear that talented staff are important to Ohio State. Hall said Gee wants staff to have the resources and flexibility to grow in their careers and he wants those tools to be available as soon as possible.

Ehrlich said the Staff Talent Plan will remain one of USAC’s three key focal points during her year at the helm. She also wants USAC to continue to increase its own visibility among staff and help foster OSU’s ongoing transformation in workplace culture.

Managers from across campus have gone through the first sessions of the culture-shaping workshops with the idea that what they learn will trickle down to those under them.

“We’re talking about using USAC activities in communicating with staff that culture shaping, while you might not see it right away, is happening,” Ehrlich said. “Some of the stuff is so basic, such as how you treat other people you work with, and it’s amazing many of us don’t do it.”

Hall said Ehrlich will likely undergo her own transformation while leading USAC’s 30 members. Hall was able to create a personal set of goals within the construct of the group’s agenda to challenge her own career development.

“I was so excited and amazed what the group contributed but also what I was able to walk away with,” Hall said. “I got so much out of being in USAC and being the chair.”

Currently the Staff Talent Plan has only been presented to a Board of Trustees committee. Implementation of the various parts of the plan, pending Board of Trustees approval, would take place between Fiscal Year 2010 and FY 2015.

Key components of the proposed Staff Talent Plan

• Culture transformation: Transform Ohio State to a high-performance culture with an emphasis on “one university” and the institutional principles.
  Strategic workforce and talent planning: A robust talent-planning process to enable leaders to draw a clear connection between the academic/business strategy and the talent required to execute that strategy as well as realize the maximum return from talent investments.
• Career development support and targeted education benefits: Assist individuals to develop their career potential by providing information including career self-assessment and career planning information and resources. Also will explore expansion of tuition benefits to upgrade the skills of the workforce and increase engagement of the adult learners.
• Career paths and mobility: Create a more fluid classification structure to respond to the need for flexibility and movement in career progression.
• Flexible work culture: The work-life initiative is to help employees better integrate their professional and personal lives leading to a more productive, engaged and satisfied workforce.
• Foundational manager development: Provide institutional support and training that will develop front-line supervisors and middle managers to create a high-performance culture.
• Classified Civil Service modernization: Modify Ohio State’s CCS rules to streamline the application and selection process, align the definition of which employees are CCS with a more manageable standard, consider alternatives for appeals in addition to the State Personnel Board of Review and redesign leave and benefit programs.
• Dependent care and childcare: Explore partnerships through outreach efforts to expand options and availability.

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