THE HR REVIEW
Spring Semester 2015
Office of Human Resources Newsletter
Our Communication Strategy
As is often the case in large, complex organizations such as the University of St.
Thomas, we often question whether our message is getting out to our customers
and to the campus community. Is our web page effective? Are employees
reading our Lyris emails? How can we improve communication to our constituent
groups with vastly different communication needs and interests? Indeed, the
results of our recent Employee Satisfaction Survey (see page 4) indicate that as
an institution, we value communication, but can work to improve it, particularly
between departments.
In This Issue
In an effort to address the issue of communication for our department, the Office
of Human Resources formed a project team last fall to develop a communication
strategy. This internal cross-functional project team has been working to develop
a multi-faceted approach to HR communication, specifically. The project team has
focused its efforts on developing our internal SharePoint site, social media (like us
on Facebook!) and a newsletter.

Our Communication
Strategy, p. 1

Managing Our
Present and Future
Talent, p. 2

Aligning Our Work
with Our Strategic
Plan, p. 3

What’s Coming Up?,
p. 4
New Year, New Newsletter
For the new year, we are introducing our new newsletter — The HR Review. Our
hope is to publish this newsletter once each semester. Our audience is our
employees and our goal is to provide timely, helpful and problem-solving
information related to benefits, compensation, training, hiring and many other HR
-related topics. We hope you find this newsletter useful. For a link to a survey to
provide us with your feedback and suggestions for future newsletter topics, see
page 4.
And welcome to spring semester!
HR Metrics

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1,155 employees participated in our annual enrollment process
last November

We posted 36 faculty, 87 staff and 180 student worker positions
from July 1 through December 31.

We trained 1,151 employees on our revised Sexual Misconduct
Policy in partnership with General Counsel and Student Affairs.

80 new employees attended New Employee Orientation from July
1 through December 31.

650 employees now participate in the Vitality wellness program.
Our Mission…
All of us in the Office of Human
Resources seek to be
approachable and trusted
partners who offer thoughtful,
strategic guidance and solutions
that enable the University to fulfill
its mission and vision and act
consistently with its
convictions. You can expect us
to be resourceful, professional
and adaptable.
Office of Human Resources 651.962.6510
Providing
Access to
Life-Long
Learning
Ongoing professional
development of employees is
the key to the success of any
organization. At St. Thomas,
we strive to provide training
that meets the needs of our
employees and the
organization.
Managing Our Present and
Future Talent
HR’s Employment Services group has responsibility for managing recruitment and
hiring activities for all faculty, staff and student employees. A significant portion of
their work involves administering UST’s Student Employment Program (SEP). During
any given academic year, we employ approximately 3,000-4,000 students in a variety
of positions across campus. The growth and popularity of SEP has prompted the
Employment Services group to take a look at our entire student employment system
and consider an overhaul that will vastly improve the program for both student
supervisors and our student workers.
Revamping the Student Employment
Program
In assessing our current system, we discovered the following:

Too many paper-based processes and manual transactions.

Limited automation that doesn’t support our current needs for student workers
across campus.

Program components that are not well understood or utilized consistently by
student workers or their supervisors.
The Leadership Academy is
designed for and offered
exclusively to all employees at
St. Thomas to support the
development needs of
individuals and departments,
both from a personal and a
professional perspective. Our
training programs are designed
to serve the particular needs
and interests of our employees
and provide you with the
resources and tools to help you
develop both professionally
and personally. We offer both
classroom and online training
through the Leadership
Academy. Sessions are free of
charge to University employees
who are encouraged to take
advantage of any offering.
Click on Leadership Academy
for more information about
upcoming courses.
Adding Value to the Student Employment
Experience
During the coming year — and in keeping with the spirit of our new strategic plan —
we hope to undertake several fixes to the Student Employment Program that will
enhance the experience for our student workers and better prepare them for their
future role in our workforce. Contemplated fixes include:

Remove manual processes and paper forms to increase efficiency of the
program.

Develop a student worker onboarding process that includes training in customer
service.

Revise pay rate structure to align hourly wages with the duties, knowledge, skills
and abilities of the position.

Create a training program and communication plan and deliver to existing and
student supervisors on a consistent and regular basis.

Design an up-to-date, comprehensive and user friendly system and processes.
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Office of Human Resources 651.962.6510
The CHRO Corner
Aligning Our
Work With Our
Strategic Plan
Operational units such as HR are
often challenged to be viewed as
strategic and to find ways in
which our work aligns with an
institutional strategic plan. We
are closely examining the five
themes from our strategic plan
and determining how we align our
work accordingly. Here is an
example of what we have come
up with:
Excellence in Learning and
Student Engagement – We will
improve our Student Employment
Program to enhance the student
experience and prepare them for
their future role in our work force.
Education Informed by Catholic
Mission – We will emphasize the
critical importance of our mission
in our efforts to orient, train and
engage our employees.
Diversity and Inclusive Culture –
We will partner effectively with
our new Chief Diversity Officer.
We will create a targeted
recruitment plan, including
outreach to community partners,
to increase the diversity of our
employees.
Globalization – We will support
efforts to create a globally
engaged student body and
workforce here at St. Thomas
through efforts such as
expanding offerings in our
Leadership Academy.
One University – We will
intentionally look for ways to help
our employees connect with one
another and role-model effective
partnering with departments
across our campus.
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by Michelle Thom, AVP-HR
Defining Who We Are, What We Do
One of the first things I did when I started last summer was to work with HR staff to
define who we are and what we do. We spent time in groups and in individual
conversations talking about the work that we do and how that compares to the work of
other similarly situated HR offices. As an office, we agreed that we can define our
core functions in seven key areas: Business Management, Employment Services/
Talent Management; Human Resources Development; Compensation; Benefits
Administration; Employee and Labor Relations; and Human Resources Information
Systems. We engage in numerous activities under each of these headings,
everything from recruitment to training to handling complex employment issues.
Through this process of defining who we are and what we do, we realized there are
many activities that we are not doing that a full-service HR office should be providing
to our employees. We are now undertaking an assessment of our structure to
determine what activities we can add to our seven core functions. Moving forward, we
seek ways to be more proactive on employee relations issues; we want to actively
assist departments with their organizational development needs; we want to tailor a
framework for managing change to fit the environment here at St. Thomas; and we
want to enhance our training and development offerings via the Leadership Academy.
Stay tuned as we move forward with these changes.
Retirement Plan Enhancements
Last spring, the Retirement Investment Committee, in consultation with the Fringe Benefits
Advisory Committee, recommended some enhancements to our retirement program. The
following changes will take place effective April 1:


One plan with a new recordkeeper and new set of investment options — The
University of St. Thomas Retirement Plan and Voluntary Retirement Arrangement will
be consolidated into one retirement plan called the University of St. Thomas
Retirement Plan. Transamerica, an independent recordkeeper, will replace Fidelity
and TIAA-CREF as the sole recordkeeper for all new contributions to the retirement
plan, with a new set of investment options designed to be best-in-class. Employees
will have the option to transfer their existing retirement balances to Transamerica or
retain them with Fidelity or TIAA-CREF. Moving to a single plan and recordkeeper will
make it easier for employees to review all of their retirement contributions. With the
strengthened bargaining power of the consolidation, Transamerica will provide greater
services and reduced fees to participants.
Increased flexibility — Employees will have the ability to take retirement plan
distributions at age 59 ½ while still working for the University, allowing for more
flexibility, particularly for anyone wishing to phase into retirement.
In the coming weeks the University and Transamerica will share more information with
employees, including details about the new investment fund line-up, what to do if you want
to transfer your existing retirement contributions from Fidelity or TIAA-CREF to
Transamerica, and how to access the new retirement account. Information will be
provided through written communications and a new retirement plan website, as well as
group and one-on-one meetings with Transamerica representatives.
Office of Human Resources 651.962.6510
Satisfaction Survey Results
Let Us Know
What You
Think!
Last fall, in partnership with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, we
administered the Noel-Levitz Employee Satisfaction survey. We invited 1,922
employees to participate in the survey. More than 1,100 employees responded for
a response rate of almost 58%. Via the survey, faculty and staff were asked to
provide feedback regarding the importance of and their satisfaction with campus
culture and policies, institutional goals, the work environment and involvement in
planning and decision-making.
The envelope, please...
This is the first edition of
our newsletter, The HR
Review ! We are hoping
to publish the Review
once per semester.
The results of the survey are in. Regarding campus culture and policies, the
greatest gaps between importance and satisfaction were in response to “There
are effective lines of communication between departments” and “There is a spirit
of teamwork and cooperation at this institution.” With respect to work
environment, the greatest gap was in response to “My department has the staff
needed to do its job well.” The overall satisfaction rate was 3.93 on a 5-point
scale.
Please follow the survey
link below to give us
feedback and let us know
about other topics of
importance to you!
Next steps...
Link Here
Institutional Effectiveness is in the process of analyzing and summarizing the data
by employee type and themes. We are developing a communication plan and will
present the results in various venues over the spring semester and determine
ways in which we consider the results in planning for FY 16. If your department is
interested in learning more about the results, please contact Michelle Thom at
651.962.6538 or [email protected].
What’s Coming Up?

Annual Employee Benefits and Services Fair — We will host our annual
Employee Benefits and Services Fair on Monday, March 2 in St. Paul and
Tuesday, March 3 in Minneapolis.

Paperless HR — We continue to move toward automated systems
within HR. To that end, we will implement automated benefits enrollment
during the spring semester. This will impact all new hires. We are also
implementing Phase II of our talent management system. The goal is to
automate more of our onboarding process, including new hire paperwork.

Change to Tuition Remission Policy — Last fall, President Sullivan
approved changes to our tuition remission policy, which includes 100%
remission for dependents after three years of employment and participation in the Tuition Exchange. The changes will take
effect this fall. Expect a formal announcement with an updated tuition remission policy soon.

Manager Development Meetings — On February 25, we will launch bi-monthly Manager Development Meetings in an
effort to provide our manager’s with ongoing training and development, as well as the opportunity to network and share
information.

Free Biometrics Screenings — Free wellness biometric screenings will take place on both the St. Paul and
Minneapolis campuses as follows:
 Tuesday March 10: Minneapolis Campus – Terrence Murphy Hall, room 301 (TMH 301)
 Wednesday March 11: St. Paul Campus – Anderson Student Center, Woulfe Hall
 Thursday March 12: St. Paul Campus – Anderson Student Center, Woulfe Hall
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Office of Human Resources 651.962.6510