Q&A
Scott Nostaja
is interim vice president for university human resources and chief of staff for President John B. Simpson.
Tell me about UB’s Great Place to Work initiative?
UB is committed to creating a culture of excellence as an important part of UB 2020. This includes building a workplace for our faculty and staff that promotes trust, fairness, respect, pride and camaraderie. In great workplaces, employees trust the people they work for, have pride in the work they do and enjoy the people they work with. For almost two years, the campus community has been engaged in a movement to build this kind of environment here at UB.
What progress has been made?
Our campus leaders have embraced the concept of creating a great workplace. A steering committee made up of a diverse group of campus constituents has been helping to guide this effort. Our HR team has participated in many meetings across the campuses to talk about improving the work lives of our faculty and staff, and, more importantly, to listen to what our employees have to say. After talking to and hearing from more than 2,500 employees, we’ve created new campus-wide programs and services, among them a wellness program, a comprehensive training and development function, an expanded Employee Assistance Program, a new work/life balance unit and a comprehensive employee volunteer program (UB CORE). We also have plans to develop a more flexible work environment and a new focus on employee recognition aimed at promoting a culture of appreciation. We’re also organizing campus events and activities that bring people together to promote greater communication, such as last April’s Campus Conversation, and encourage faculty and staff to connect and have fun, like the Backyard Bash/UB Idol. Last spring, we participated in the Business First Best Places to Work in Western New York 2008 competition and were recognized as a finalist. We were invited to participate in the first-ever Great Colleges to Work For assessment by The Chronicle of Higher Education, and were recognized as a top-five university nationally in eight categories, alongside universities like Duke, Michigan, Stanford and Maryland. However, we know we have much more work ahead of us.
What’s next?
Although we’re pleased with our efforts so far, we need to focus on the work environment at the departmental/divisional level in the next phase. We’re formulating customized programs to help improve the work culture in individual areas on campus and work one on one with departments to develop strategies to help create great working environments. This targeted effort will help improve the work culture at the departmental level and also identify best practices to share with other parts of the campus. We’ll be piloting this next phase in a few areas on campus this spring. We also are participating again in the Business First Best Places to Work in Western New York 2009 contest; employees who are randomly selected to participate in the survey are being notified. I encourage those selected to complete the survey, as the feedback is invaluable to our continued efforts to make UB a great workplace.
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