Human Resources

January 2004

HR Advisory Group - Meeting Minutes

Attended: J. Ford; S. Thorp; B. Rusch; C. Green; J. Etz; C. Park

Absent: J. Welsh; S. Simpson

FROM: Jim Ables, Office of Human Resources

DATE: February 2, 2004

SUBJ: HR Advisory Group Meeting Minutes - January Meeting

CC: Seth Patton; Bill Acklin

New Items

1. Job Postings and Descriptions - Question was asked if the Building Services Assistant and Project Relief Worker job descriptions could be posted in the physical plant for all to read. There has been some confusion about the similarities and differences between these two jobs and posting them might dismiss the questions. Human Resources and physical plant management are reviewing the job descriptions to ensure they are accurate. Employees have been asked to volunteer to assist in reviewing the descriptions as well. Once the descriptions are finalized, they will be posted at the physical plant. The current descriptions have been posted recently. Each time there is an opening, jobs are posted at the college, in various buildings and on the Office of Human Resources' website. The postings are, essentially, the entire job description.

2. Grievance Policy - A question was asked about the last step of the grievance policy or procedure, which is actually the Formal Complaint Procedure. The last step in the process is an appeal to the Vice President for Finance and Management. The appeal is heard by a panel of three members of the supportive operating staff. The panel reviews the appeal and advises the vice president regarding what action they think should happen. The vice president takes the recommendation under advisement and makes a final decision.

3. Change in Tuition Benefit at Denison Policy - Question was whether or not it is possible for current employees to be grandfathered under the old policy, prior to it changing a few months ago (i.e. dependent could be admitted as a special student if s/he did not meet the normal admissions criteria). Supposedly, there is a staff member that had three children attend Denison under the old program and has one more that may or may not be accepted. The administration did not make any provisions for grandfathering current employees and does not have any plans to do so. Another question was asked how the old policy was any different from the posse program whereby students needing help are accepted to Denison. The posse program is a competitive program where students who may have been socio-economically disadvantaged have the opportunity to attend a college like Denison. Accepted students go through a one year college preparation class in their senior year of high school. These students are prepared to succeed at a college like Denison.

4. Affirmative Action Grievance Committee - Question was asked regarding the status of this committee, per the Affirmative Action program. Under this program, there should be a committee of 12 volunteers that could be called upon to hear a discrimination case under this program. Only a few from the group is selected to hear a case when needed. Human Resources is working closely with the new Director of Affirmative Action & Diversity, Lisa Scott, to determine how to proceed with assembling this committee. Additionally, there could be changes to this program. Everyone will be informed when there is progress made in this area.

5. Pay for Call Back on Holidays - Question about how call back pay is handled on holidays. Essentially, a staff person would receive holiday pay plus time and one-half for the hours worked on the holiday.

6. Bereavement Leave & Domestic Partners - Question was whether or not a domestic partner of a brother could be added to the policy so that paid bereavement leave could be taken for the death of a brother or sister's domestic partner (same or opposite sex). Our policy covers a same sex domestic partner of a staff member if the relationship is recognized by the college. It seems to be outside the intent of our policy to cover domestic partners of an employee's family members. Staff have floating holidays, a personal day, and vacation days that can be taken at their discretion (with approval from their supervisor) to cover situations not covered by the policy. It did not seem that the group was interested in pursuing discussion of this any further. However, we can discuss this issue further at the next meeting if the group wants to.

7. Rehiring Retired Employees - Can a staff member who retired from Denison be rehired to fill a part-time position? Representative indicates that this has happened with a few faculty members. Is this possible? Why or why not?Human Resources will review the question.

Updates

1. Vail Series Events - Jim communicated with Lorraine Wales regarding support staff and administrative staff retirees being notified of Vail Series Events. Lorraine is willing to send notifications to local SOS and administrative retirees of Vail events. Human Resources has retires in Banner, so we can provide labels to Lorraine for the mailings. While this is possible, the primary purpose of the Vail Series events is for the benefit of the students. We discussed a few alternatives to simply doing mailings to retirees for all Vail events. The first alternative is to send mailings when it is known that the demand for tickets will not be satisfied from the student body. The other idea was to send one mailing in the beginning of the year notifying retirees of the events for the year. It would then be their responsibility to contact Denison for tickets if they were interested. This would cut down on cost and time spent on the mailings. These ideas will be passed on to Lorraine. She will determine what would work best for her.

2. Physical Plant Dress Code - Steve Thorpe reported that he had a good conversation with Art Chonko regarding this policy. The policy they have is going to stay as is.

3. Overtime Policy - Steve Thorpe will discuss with Barb Burgess again. A small group of employees were going to get together to review the method of asking for overtime.

4. Mandatory Overtime - We discussed this at the last meeting. The bottom line is that mandatory overtime is at management's discretion.