Human Resources

February 2004

HR Advisory Group - Meeting Minutes

Attended: J. Ford; S. Thorp; B. Rusch; C. Green; J. Etz; C. Park J. Welsh; S. Simpson; E. Sandbrink

Absent:

From: Jim Ables, Office of Human Resources

Date: February 25, 2004

Subj: HR Advisory Group Meeting Minutes - February Meeting

Cc: Seth Patton; Bill Acklin

New Items

1. Review January Minutes - Briefly discussed minutes. One item was raised regarding the item "Bereavement Leave & Domestic Partners". See item 3 below.

2. Professional Development Day - The Office of Human Resources is sponsoring a professional development day on Tuesday, March 2. Dr. Terry Paulson will be presenting on Optimism in a World of Uncertainty and Opportunity. Dr. Paulson presented at Denison in 2000 to rave reviews. Be sure to forward your reservation to Sharon Zink at zink@denison.edu.

3. Bereavement Leave & Domestic Partners - This item was discussed at the last meeting in January. We discussed it again because we did not have enough time to discuss it thoroughly in January. Basically, a staff member's brother's domestic partner passed away. Our current funeral leave policy does not allow a day off for this relation. One day off is allowed for a death of a near relative. A domestic partner does not meet this definition. The group discussed whether it made sense to recommend a change to the policy to include domestic partners. The reason would be that domestic partners are as close as brother-in-law or sister-in-law, relations that are covered under the program. We discussed the fact that staff has the option to take a vacation day, floating holiday, or personal day (from sick time) for any death that is not covered by policy. There could be other relations that one would want to take a day off for that are not covered under the policy (Great Aunt, cousin, best friend, etc.). Regardless, the HRAG committee decided to recommend to the administration that we consider adding domestic partner or add language to the policy that allows for some discretion with regard to these relationships.

4. Employment of Relatives - Question was raised from a HRAG representative regarding the employment of relatives policy. Generally, there is an employee who, through marriage, is now related to someone else in the same department (they report to the same immediate supervisor). The support staff policy prohibits two family members from reporting to the same supervisor. Therefore, the staff member is being given a significant period of time to find other employment at Denison or will be required to leave the position. Basically, after much discussion, the group felt that the person affected was not being treated fairly, mainly because there are other relations at the college that appear to be similar. However, there are currently no other similar situations at Denison. The final decision is to stay firm with the initial decision as described above.

Updates

1. Rehiring Retired Employees - The Office of Human Resources is still researching this question. The question was if a support staff retiree could be considered and possibly hired for a budgeted part-time or full-time position. We should have more information about this at the March meeting.

2. Job Postings and Descriptions - The Office of Human Resources is currently meeting with physical plant staff to revise the following descriptions: Building Services Assistant, Project and Relief Worker, and Project and Relief Leader. The revised descriptions will be posted at the physical plant and/or sent to each person in the position.