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Inefficiency, inconsistency found in HR processes
By CHRISTINE VIDAL
Contributing Editor
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Inefficiency and inconsistency are just two of the problems the Human Resources Strategic Transformation Committee has found in a comprehensive review of campus HR processes and procedures undertaken as part of the UB 2020 strategic planning process.
Under the leadership of Paula Zagora, assistant vice president for human resources, an HR team representing all employers at UB began meeting in late March to look at how UB provides human resources, to see what other peer universities are doing and to make recommendations on what steps need to be taken to improve services.
This fall, they presented a report to the UB 2020 executive committee, which was unanimously approved, outlining their findings and recommendations.
In gathering information about the state of HR at UB, "We heard a lot of frustration about inequality in pay and job title, and inconsistently applied policies and processes," Zagora said.
The review, however, is about more than time sheets and benefit plans. Of all the UB 2020 initiatives, the Human Resources Strategic Transformation Initiative is the only one that impacts every member of the campus community, she added. In terms of manpower, employees at UB handling HR transactions represent 191.25 FTE.
Among the findings outlined in the team's final report are:
Human resources processes are inefficient and do not take advantage of current technology.
Strategic human resources services are not being provided across the university.
Human resources policies and processes are applied inconsistently.
Take, for instance, Personnel Transaction Forms (PTFs)—initial appointment forms, forms for going on and off leave, termination forms and the like, the backbone of HR transactions.
The Office of Human Resources processes 23,000 of them a year. The problem is, hundreds of people on campus initiate those forms. "There are a thousand different ways to fill out a PTF," Zagora said. "We're asking 350 people to be HR experts."
The result is a 70 percent error rate and as a further consequence, a 20 percent payroll error rate.
"The process is cumbersome," said Ruth Bryant, a member of the HR team and an assistant dean in the School of Architecture and Planning, who handles human resource responsibilities for the school.
"It's just so much duplication," she said. "Some of the larger schools have people who just do HR. But in smaller schools like us, HR is just part of what I do. So to streamline the process is going to save so much time."
Under the current system, paperwork in the School of Architecture and Planning is compiled by computer, then printed out and sent by campus mail from the South Campus to Human Resources on the North Campus, where it is input again, Bryant said.
"It's already in the system. Why can't we just do it electronically?" she asked. "It would save so much time and energy if it could be automated rather than put on a piece of paper."
Likewise, time and attendance involves 160,000 pieces of paper each year with valuable staff time of some 200 people being spent on manual processes. Non-academic recruiting also is conducted manually, resulting in long hiring timelines and inconsistent recruiting practices, possibly making it difficult to hire the best candidates, Zagora said.
A central clearinghouse for job listings would benefit not only job applicants, but also the people who work in smaller units "who wear many hats," said Bryant.
Most other campuses already use time and attendance and recruitment software, Zagora noted.
In addition, strategic services are lacking at UB, according to the final report. UB has no university-wide institutional training and development, no institutional compensation-and-benefits strategy, no way of anticipating future staffing demands and no way to provide guidance on career paths or formal succession planning.
The HR team also found that in terms of HR policies and processes, across the university there are inequities in compensation, classification and performance management.
"There is no consistency in salaries and duties and responsibilities," said Bryant. "The salaries are all over the board and we need to get a handle on this."
UB is a huge university with thousands of employees, she added.
"HR does wonderful things and they're so responsive. But I can't imagine dealing with all these pieces of paper," Bryant said. "If it could be vetted through a system and all these errors fixed, think of how much time could be saved.
"We're a 21st-century university. We can't keep doing things the old way."
Members of the HR Strategic Transformation Initiative team consulted with peers from 11 institutions throughout the nation in an effort to benchmark and find best practices. They found that while there is no emerging model for how best to provide HR services, many universities are changing their HR models to include strategic services, particularly training and development, and self-service HR technologies.
Based on their finding, the team has made three recommendations:
Use technology to redesign key HR business processes and provide services more efficiently.
Add services such as personnel training and development, strategic compensation and benefits, and strategic recruiting.
Reorganize the way managers and employees now receive human resource services.
Implementation of the recommendations is expected to occur over the next six months, Zagora said, with three interdependent teams, each focusing on one of the three areas of recommendation, testing the effectiveness of the new strategies.
The transformation of UB's human resource services is going to take time, she acknowledged, but "we're excited. It's good to be going forward."
While faculty members may not think revamping UB's human resource services will have much of an impact on them, it offers an opportunity to improve their quality of life, said Lucinda Finley, vice provost for academic affairs and a member of the Human Resources Strategic Transformation Initiative team.
"Most faculty members think of HR as paperwork not germane to them or a place where you ask questions about eligibility and benefits," she said.
"But HR is, or could be, much more than that. The big aim of this initiative is to streamline 'administrivia' and free up human resources to provide strategy and consistent services."
For example, she said, human resources could help with finding placement in the community for faculty spouses or help with relocation services, "things human resources people now don't have time for because they're busy with paperwork."
With less time spent on paperwork and more on strategic services, HR also could provide more services germane to faculty members, such as workshops on how to remain engaged in a field post-tenure and how to work into academic leadership positions, Finley said.
HR also could have a role in taking a systematic look at compensation to keep salaries competitive with those offered by other institutions and thereby reducing instances of what she called the "counter-offer retention game."
"A university shouldn't have to wait until there is a problem or a widespread perception of an inequality to pursue a solution," Finley said. "I'm optimistic this initiative will be helpful to faculty members by providing trained HR professionals who specialize in the needs of academic employment."
In addition to Zagora, Finley and Bryant, members of the Human Resources Strategic Transformation Initiative team are Sandra Drabek, associate dean, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences; Michael Dupre, associate vice president for university facilities; James Jarvis, director, State Human Resources Services; and Nancy Kielar, assistant vice president in the Office of the Chief Information Officer.
Also, Carol Kobrin, assistant vice president for financial plan management and personnel; Beth Rogan, director of resource planning, processing and development; Chris Salem, director of human resources information resources; Susan Steck, director of Research Foundation Human Resource Services; Charles Stinger, senior associate dean, College of Arts and Sciences; and Myron "Mick" Thompson, associate provost and executive director of the Graduate School.