September 14, 2015
V.P. for human capital writes about division's accomplishments
The Division of Human Capital Services, or HCS, is improving processes and systems to enrich the work experience at Kansas State University and in March, President Schulz and I shared the overarching goals of HCS. In this letter, I've included a few of our accomplishments achieved in the past year.
We've streamlined the hiring process to make it quicker.
Many K-Staters participated in a Kaizen last spring and identified improvements for the hiring process. These improvements were implemented universitywide and are resulting in reduced cycle time to hire, reduced paperwork, decreased human error, measurements and metrics, and a more favorable candidate experience for prospective employees. Most importantly, the improved system allows more time to invest in sourcing and attracting diverse top talent rather than chasing paper and investing time in the transactional aspects of paperwork.
Additionally, Alma Deutsch, director of operations and the Resource Center, and her team are engaged in exploring ways to create operational efficiencies so that the work of HCS liaisons is more streamlined and time efficient while also upholding our commitment to quality.
Their journey began in January when several team members participated in an intensive LEAN Six Sigma program. The team took what they learned back to the larger team and they immediately began analyzing ways to make work systems better. For example, K-State employs approximately 7,000 undergraduate students. The hiring process, however, is somewhat cumbersome and clunky. The team mapped the process and in collaboration with the Office of Information Systems designed a new feature resulting in a more expedited hiring process.
The net result is that the operations team and the Resource Center shaved off 2 minutes per transaction. The spared 14,000 minutes now gives the K-State community an extra 233 hours and 20 minutes to engage in more value-adding activities.
We are creating a positive work culture and climate across the university.
In February, with the input from more than 1,000 employees, we developed a compensation philosophy to serve as a compass for designing future total rewards programs. Shortly, thereafter, employees completed a job analysis questionnaire. The participation rate is 85 percent, which is statistically significant and ensures a sufficient database of job positions at K-State. Thank you to everyone who completed the job analysis survey.
We are using that data to analyze how our total rewards program compares to other organizations. We plan to provide a comprehensive report to the President’s Cabinet in February with proposed next steps.
We facilitated the 2015 New Employee Orientation for our new faculty and unclassified staff and received favorable feedback about the program. We are looking forward to using that feedback to make next year's program even more beneficial for new hires.
We are placing value on continued education.
We've established a wide variety of professional development trainings and life skills workshops to help our campus community continue to refine their skills and expand their interests. Refer to the newly designed HCS website for more information about learning and development opportunities.
We implemented financial wellness workshops based on life stages and affinity groups. We are excited about our upcoming series of wellness workshops this year, which will focus on physical wellness. We encourage you to participate in the movement challenge.
We are pleased to sponsor the Dorothy L. Thompson Lecture series at 1 p.m. Monday, Sept. 28. The Office of Institutional Equity will present Dr. Mildred Edwards as a keynote speaker in the Alumni Center's Tadtman Board Room. A reception will follow the program, which is open to students, faculty, staff and the community.
We are constantly looking for ways to improve.
We have expanded our communications about services and are continually learning how we can make our services better for the K-State community such as improving our website to make it more user friendly.
After each training program, participants receive surveys and we in return review the information and use feedback to improve our offerings. We also deploy social media to ensure we reach the diverse needs of how people enjoy receiving information.
We continue to welcome your feedback and are excited for the next year and all the improvements we will bring. Thank you for helping us make K-State a place to enjoy one’s career by growing, learning and contributing.
Cheryl Johnson
Vice president for human capital
Follow @KStateVPHC, #PurpleIsProgress or @KStateJobs