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All-Staff Forum Recap – Fall 2023

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The Fall 2023 SMPH All Staff Forum took place on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. Topics discussed included updates on the efforts of Informatics and Information Technology (IIT) Collaborative, the Administrative Transformation Project, the compensation plan, workplace and culture, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) topics. This event was co-hosted by the SMPH University Staff Issues Committee (USIC), SMPH Committee on Academic Staff Issues (CASI), and Kristen Seguin, Director for Talent Management, SMPH Human Resources. 

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. 

Informatics and Information Technology (ITT)

(00:02:56) 

Jeff Korab, Senior Director of Information Technology, presented

  • The Informatics and Information Technology Collaborative (IITC) is an ongoing effort to organize and unify SMPH’s IT people, processes and technology into innovative service lines to optimize the delivery of essential IT services, minimize risk, and enable greater service excellence across all departments, institutes, and centers:
  1. User Support Services
  2. Infrastructure
  3. IT Project Management
  4. Enterprise Application Support
  5. Software Development
  6. Data Management and Analytics
  7. Educational Technology and Training
  8. Cybersecurity
  9. UW Real World Data Hub / Data Warehousing
  10. Business Relationship Managers (Align w/ User Services group
    • Workstream 1 (June 2022-July 2023) 
      • In-depth pre-planning, discovery and validation   
      • Pulled all in-scope IT staff from across the SMPH under one funding umbrell
    • Workstream 2 (July 2023-July 2024) 
      • Focus on career pathways and growth opportunities for internal staff 
      • Hiring service stream managers from among internal staff  
      • Recruiting business relationship managers to serve as liaisons between departments, institutes and centers and the IT service line
  • Workstream 3 (September 2022-December 2024+) 
    • Implement core essential projects 
      • Common help desk ticketing system 
      • Asset inventory 
      • Migrating all machines to campus authentication mechanism 
      • Consolidating common tools such as RedCAP
  • Intentionally developing governance (oversight) structure 
    • Provide avenues for faculty and staff feedback 

Administrative Transformation Program (ATP)

(00:07:30) 

Darlene Wood, Director of Finance, presented.  

  • UW System-wide project (all campuses) 
    • Rebuilding Finance, HR, Research Administration Systems 
      • Converting to Workday and Huron Research Suite 
      • Terminology will be changing 
    • Impacts anyone who: 
      • Uses HRS, SFS, WISER, WISPER, CAYUSE 
      • Is involved with HR, finance, research transactions including ordering supplies 
    • Was originally going live in July 2024, but now will be July 2025 to address unanticipated conversion/interface issues 

ATP Finance

(00:12:10) 

Darlene Wood, Director of Finance, presented. 

  • Her team is discussing Workday finance and business processes with departments and units 
    • Conversations will inform role-based security (what tasks can be done, i.e., approve, view
  • Assessing foundational data model 
    • Funding stream (UDDS) information needs to be translated to Workday terminology 
      • Current financial language we use versus what the future system looks like has many new terms  

ATP Human Resources

(00:16:30) 

Kristen Seguin, Director of Talent Management, presented. 

  • Workday Walkthroughs videos pertaining to HR functions are available on ATP website 
  • SMPH has HR staff serving as functional experts on campus Workday teams and strive to ensure SMPH viewpoints are included in the conversation
  • HR security/role-mapping is happening and being guided by campus effort

ATP Research

(00:19:00) 

Christy Schulz, Director of Research Administration, presented

  • Research Administration Management Portal (RAMP) 
    • Go-live date was June 26, 2023, but was not fully functional  
      • Not everything transferred over to RAMP 
    • WISPER is now read-only (can be used for historical searches and is source of some award notifications to PIs) 
    • CAYUSE license extended through September 2024 
    • Adjustment phase 
      • A lot of delays but causes likely complex (i.e., many places to attach documents within RAMP records, additional time for RSP to go through materials) 
      • Some processes now found in two RAMP modules that need to be connected 
      • Terminology is different 
    • RAMP resources updated frequently by RSP 
      • Emails are sent to a RAMP Listserv and include FAQ and Tip of the Week (search functionality, content developed is responsive to email queries sent to RSP) 
      • SMPH working on developing school-specific RAMP guidance that will be posted on the SMPH Research intranet pag

ATP Information Technology

(00:26:00) 

Jeff Korab, Senior Director of Information Technology presented

  • Ancillary Systems outside of the planned Workday implementation 
    • 1,900 identified across UW system; 900 at UW-Madison; 26 specific to SMPH 
    • After review, these ancillary systems were designated as “keep,” “replace,” or “retire” 
      • The SMPH “keeps” include one of the main warehouses that merges SMPH and UW Health data, the Academic and Administrative Data Warehouse as well as HRMed, etc. 
  • Other updates 
    • Campus to use Betty Blocks as a new, low/no code platform on some proof-of-concept projects 
    • Working with campus to develop application program interfaces (API) for Workday that should allow for real-time data generation for person and finance Workday systems and Data, Academic Planning and Institutional Research for creating the enterprise data lake 

Compensation Update

(00:30:00) 

David Young, Compensation Manager, presente

  • State of Wisconsin Pay Plan written into 2023-2025 State Budget 
    • 4% to go into effect July 1, 2023; 2% to go into effect July 1, 2024, was approved  
    • Standard process expected that budget goes to the Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JCOER) and moves it to implementation 
    • But only state employees pay increases were visited by JCOER and approved (UW System was not) 
    • Advocacy on behalf of UW System employees is ongoing to push through the pay increases
       

Workplace and Culture, Part 1

(00:36:00) 

Kristen Seguin, Director of Talent Management, presented. 

  • Yearly Compliance activities 
    • To aid in helping employees fulfill compliance mandates, SMPH created an intranet page which links to details about all compliance requirements 
    • The webpage details what the deadlines for each training are and affords an ability for staff to see if training is completed 
    • Four compliance requirements yearly for all staff: 
      • Flu vaccination 
      • HIPAA privacy and security training 
      • Professional conduct training 
      • Cybersecurity awareness training 
    • Some staff are also required to complete Title IX training as well as ones focused on prevention of sexual harassment and sexual violence 
    • Staff with dual UW Health and SMPH appointments may have additional compliance expectations to fulfill 
    • A new page at go.wisc.edu/smphcompliance serves as a hub for compliance at the School of Medicine and Public Health and UW Health. This webpage is for both SMPH employees and faculty physicians dually employed by the school and UW Health. It includes both SMPH and UW Health compliance measures for these groups.
  • Parking update 
    • Most parking lots across campus have wait lists 
    • West end of campus has 2400 users on a wait list in part because: 
      • There are always more applications than parking spots 
      • UW Health recently changed visitor policy, so more spots are allocated for visitors 
      • Construction and repairs in lots decreased spot availability 
      • More employees returning to in-person work versus remote 
    • Most faculty and staff hired after parking assignments are made in August will be put on wait lists 
    • Strategies to address the parking shortfall are being explored by a Dean’s office work group and others, but there is no immediate magic bullet 
    • Long-term plans are being developed through collaboration with the City of Madison and a working group being assembled by the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration’s office 
  • Remote Work Agreements 
    • If an employee is working remotely, a remote work agreement must be on file  
    • Active remote work agreement rates for SMPH staff dropped from 40% of employees to 26% of employees  
    • Remote work agreements are in effect for a year, so employees should check to ensure theirs is active 
    • If an employee moves and home is a remote work site, then the remote work agreement must be updated to reflect the new address 

Workplace and Culture, part 2

(00:45:00) 

Anne Mekschun, Director of Employee Relations, presented. 

  • Retention efforts 
    • Percentages of externally departing staff and internally transferring staff are down as compared to Fiscal Year 2021 
    • Strategies to identify themes that are predictive of the stay/depart trends are being sought through: 
      • Stay interviews (access the toolkit here) 
        • Recommended for conversations with supervisors in Spring and Fall 
        • Creating the stay interview plan [in the toolkit] helps shape the conversation and track results 
        • Seeking feedback on the process 
      • Exit interviews 
        • Implemented in May 2023 
        • Goes to the Dean’s office 
  • Employee wellness 
    • With the role clearly defined, finding the leader as being representative of the School of Medicine and Public Health mission is a priority for the Dean’s Leadership Team 
    • Identifying the right strategies and ensuring that structures are in place which will provide meaningful outcomes is critical 
    • Expect activity to be begin being realized in early 2024 
  • Hostile and Intimidating Behavior Reporting 
    • When dealing with any students, there’s a student mistreatment portal 
    • SMPH resources for employees who experience or witness hostile and intimidating behavior are available here 
      • SMPH Employee Relations team is always ready to provide guidance to anyone in SMPH 
      • HR team in your department is also a good resource 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

(00:58:00) 

Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, Associate Dean for Diversity and Equity Transformation, presented. 

  • Learning and professional development 
    • Ongoing trainings being offered help promote staff personal growth around the areas of equity and inclusion
  • Employing an equity lens  
    • Olivia Rico-McKeen is charged with overseeing efforts to apply an equity lens to SMPH policies and processes 
    • She’s a member of the SMPH Policy Development and Review Committee and has been able to facilitate the consideration of equity impact on new policies being developed and policies being reviewed 
  • Affinity Groups 
    • Afra Smith coordinates the Employee Resource Groups effort for SMPH/UW Health 
    • Based on feedback, a new affinity group for neurodiverse persons has been formed 
  • New resources since last All-staff Forum 
    • DEI modules in Canvas 
      • Why Lead with Race? 
      • Bias in Recruitment and Hiring Modules 
      • Multicultural Interactive Video 
      • Race, Racism and Antiracism Modules 
      • Bias in Healthcare Modules 
      • Embedding Equity Tools Modules 
      • Microlearning Facilitation Resources 
    • Incident Response Toolkit 
      • Developed to help staff know how to supportively respond to incidents that can cause harm to individuals with different identities 
  • Support for DEI efforts 
    • DEI staff and issues continue to receive support at all levels (SMPH, Central Campus, UW System) despite the conversations that are happening from a governmental affairs perspective 

Q&A

(01:05:00) 

Questions asked and answered in the Q&A feature: 

Q: Is there an easy way to see if staff have an active Remote Work Agreement or do we have to look them up 1 by 1? 

A: from Kristen Seguin: That is the case: you looked them up 1 by 1. However, I would encourage you to reach out to your HR business partner. They can pull reports for you. 

Q: Will the VA offer parking in their new ramp to UW staff? Can lot 2023 be reopened since UW Health has not started building on it yet? 

A: from Kristen Seguin: I don’t have the answer to either of those, but we’ll certainly bring them back to our parking work group. 

Q: How will the recent lawsuit [about the pay plan] affect the pay plan?  

A: from Kristen Seguin: We, we don’t have any information around the recent lawsuit that came out this week, or how that’s going to have any impacts on it. So, unfortunately, I’m not able to speak to that in this forum. 

Q: If the pay plan gets approved, will we receive back pay?  

A: from Kristen Seguin: The way that the budget was proposed, the effective date was July 2, 2023. 

Thank you!

Thank you all for your participation and great questions. We look forward to seeing you at the Spring event next year. If you have any feedback we can use in planning the next forum, please share in the CASI Suggestion Box.