The spring 2022 SMPH All Staff Forum took place on Thursday, April 28, 2022. Topics discussed included the remote work policy, compensation within TTC, as well as turnover, retention and resources. This event was co-hosted by the SMPH University Staff Issues Committee (USIC), SMPH Committee on Academic Staff Issues (CASI), and Hope Broadus, JD, Associate Dean and Chief Human Resources Officer.
If you missed the live forum, you can view the slides and watch the full recording. Some notes are provided below. You can jump to that section in the video by advancing to the indicated timestamp.
Remote Work Policy
(00:01:09)
Hope Broadus presented.
- Re-familiarize yourself with the policy because agreements on file will need to be reviewed within the next few months.
- UW-Madison Policy number UW-5087
- Link: https://policy.wisc.edu/library/UW-5087
- Issue date May 19, 2021, effective August 1, 2021
- How it works, campus philosophy
- SMPH Remote Work Guide
- Link: https://intranet.med.wisc.edu/human-resources/smph-remote-work-guide/
- Resources for supervisors and employees
- Flexible work options vs. remote work agreement
- Evaluation and Approval Process
- Five steps in the process to making an agreement (see slide)
- Communication is key component in decision (steps 1-3)
- Factors to consider for remote work arrangements (see slide)
- SMPH Remote Work by the Numbers
- 37% of SMPH employees with remote work agreements on file
- Review and Evaluation
- Remote Work Agreements (RWA) may be denied, modified, or revoked
- All RWA must be reviewed after 12 months, at a minimum
- A new agreement must be completed: opportunity for review, optimize for the future
- SMPH HR plans to analyze data with an equity lens after policy has been in place for one year
- Reach out to HR representative with any questions
- More communication to come soon from HR
Compensation
(00:18:23)
David Young, Compensation Manager, presented.
- Title and Total Compensation (TTC) Project Implementation
- Brief history of the project: Effective Nov. 7, market-informed SJDs and salary structure, opportunity to develop long-term strategies
- TTC did not come with expectation or mandate for pay increases; although some received raises to get to minimum for their new job title
- https://policy.wisc.edu/library/UW-5025
- Post TTC implementation
- Campus leaders have been reviewing impact and collaborating on solutions
- Appeal window was Nov. 22, 2021-Feb. 4, 2022
- 47 total appeals filed by SMPH employees and some still in process
- Campus Office of Human Resources continues SJD review and employees can appeal to be placed in new ones that are created
- Changes to the Information Technology Job Group have been made
- Some salary grade assignments have been reviewed and updated to align with market
- What employees can do:
- Stay informed using the TTC website: https://hr.wisc.edu/title-and-total-compensation-study/
- Updates related to SMPH specifically will appear in In the Know
- Next steps in TTC
- SMPH HR continues to partner with campus OHR
- OHR is partnering with subject matter experts across campus to refine SJDs with “common knowledge, skills, and abilities”
- Decisions require long-term budget planning
- Salary structure changes with TTC
- Market-informed
- Responsive to market
- Salary Administration Guidelines ensure consistency of decisions and process across campus
Turnover, Retention, and Resources
(00:44:06)
Kristen Seguin, MBA, Director of Talent Management
- Retention Efforts
- 2021 external turnover for higher education: 12%, consistent from 2017-2020 (15-16%)
- 2021 Internal turnover for SMPH: 8%, consistent from 2017-2020 (9-10%)
- SMPH is focusing on retention efforts for our employees and exploring ways to engage our employee population, one way is the Stay Interview Toolkit which is anticipated to be released in Summer 2022.
- Stay Interview Toolkit is created for managers, supervisors to focus conversations with employees – what makes you want to stay here and what would drive you to leave.
- “Stay Interviews” – informal conversations between employees and supervisors
- Conversations should be structured
- Employees are encouraged to be open and honest
- Explore ways that SMPH can better engage employees in their work
- Stay Interview Toolkit will include resources for:
- Planning for the Stay Interview
- How to conduct the interview
- How to follow-up on the interview
- Anticipated Launch for the Stay Interview Toolkit is Summer 2022
Q&A
(00:51:22)
Below are two lists of questions: Those that were asked and answered directly in the Q&A feature and those answered verbally during the Q&A portion of the forum.
Questions asked and answered in the Q&A feature:
Q: How would we know if we have a remote work arrangement on file? Is there a place to double check?
A: from Kristin Seguin: Employees can find the Remote Work Agreement in MyUW at https://my.wisc.edu, under Personal Information > Update My Personal Information.
Q: How do we know when new job titles are created?
A: from Allyson Hedding: Here is the campus website that outlines new titles that are created: https://hr.wisc.edu/standard-job-descriptions/updates/
Q: Is there a minimum requirement to be at the office?
A: from Hope Broadus: SMPH work units may determine what positions and employees are well-suited for regular or occasional remote work depending on the factors outlined in the campus policy.
Questions asked in the chat and answered verbally (verbal answered are summarizes; see the recording for full response):
Q: How is campus reacting to cost of living increases?
A: David Young responds verbally around 52:50: Campus is not able to respond directly to cost of living due to how salaries are funded through state funding. But these are the kinds of dynamics that will be at play as we evaluate salaries in our new structure. While there may not be changes immediately, this is something that is reviewed annually. Cost of living and inflation may play a role in market comparison and salary structure post-TTC.
Q: Are stay interview questions asked by the supervisor? What happens if the employee isn’t comfortable having this conversation with their supervisor?
A: Kristen Seguin responds verbally around 56:20: The best practice is to have them conducted with the supervisor. But if necessary, reach out to your Human Resources Business Partner who could work with you to see if there is another individual who can engage in this interview.
Q: For stay interviews, would success be retained at UW-Madison and not necessarily in their current school or department?
A: Kristen Seguin responds verbally around 57:40: Yes, part of the stay interview is to see what the employee’s career growth is looking like. Sometimes that may be in the same role, another role in the unit, another role on campus, or honestly a role outside the university. That is why it is critical to have these conversations about how an employee is thinking about their future. So that the supervisor and HR can help support employee growth.
Q: Are stay interviews mandatory?
A: Kristen Seguin responds verbally around 59:00: At this time, no. Highly encouraged and beneficial but at this time they are not mandatory. Will have a toolkit coming soon to help facilitate.
Q: If employees are interested in further review of their compensation?
A: David Young responds verbally around 1:00:05: Really start those conversations with your supervisor and we hope employees are comfortable talking about this with their supervisor. Supervisor should be able to provide context and information about compensation, such as internal and external factors like budget availability. SMPH HR is available for assistance and any analysis that may be needed as part of those conversations.
Q: Will stay interviews be tied to PMDP conversations?
A: Kirsten Seguin responds verbally around 1:01:24: Stay interviews are most successful when they are not tied to compensation and performance. They should be separate conversations but may end up happening around the same time. We want to encourage these conversations to happen and ideally they will be a separate conversation from performance.
Q: How might an employee see what salary range they are in and how they compare to others in the same job title?
A: Dave Young responds verbally around 1:06:00: Start by engaging with your supervisor, and SMPH HR is there to support those conversations. There are salary ranges for the standard job titles. It is normal and expected for individuals to fall at different places within a range. This is determined by multiple compensable factors, such as experience, performance, specifics of role, and leadership. If employees have questions about where they fall in that range, that is where the supervisor and SMPH HR teams can assist and look into possible further review if needed.
Q: Is there a grievance process for RWAs that are denied or revoked?
A: Hope Broadus responds verbally around 1:09:10: Yes, there is. Provision 10 in campus policy and SMPH guide discusses SMPH process for denial, revocation, and modification. https://intranet.med.wisc.edu/human-resources/smph-remote-work-guide/#denials-modifications-revocations
Q: What will be done to shift the culture of the SMPH towards career growth?
A: Kristen Seguin answers verbally around 1:10:37: No easy task to shift culture. It is something on the minds of the HR team and will keep moving towards that. Something we plan to work on with our retention efforts.
Q: Especially for Academic Staff we had title modifiers and levels where individuals could “progress” through a series. What is the process now?
A: Dave Young responds verbally around 1:11:20: We don’t currently have the ability to progress through title modifications (associate, no-prefix, senior), but the ability to move up in the salary range is the same as it was and based on the same parameters. Progression through a salary range is still possible as it was before.
Q: Is progression attached to one salary range now?
A: Dave Young responds verbally around 1:15:30: Rather than multiple salary ranges within the old “associate, no-prefix, senior” framework, the salary ranges are now broader than they were. It still allows for ample progression through a salary range as before.
Q: How are we comparing different units and their utilization of remote work?
A: Hope Broadus responds verbally around 1:16:02: This will be part of what we are looking at during our review of this data after the 12-month period. However, there won’t necessarily be action that would come as a result of differences we find. If there are differences in utilization between departments that does not mean that it is being unfairly used. We have a very decentralized philosophy around the utilization of remote work. That doesn’t mean that there couldn’t be other info that we gather from the data that we want to explore. It is something we are looking at. But it’s really too soon to tell. We want to get a year under our belt before we take a closer look.
Thank you!
Thank you all for your participation and great questions. We look forward to seeing you at the fall event later this year. If you have any feedback we can use in planning the next forum, please share in the CASI Suggestion Box.