Human Resources

March 2005

HR Advisory Group - Meeting Minutes

Attended: S. Thorp; J. Welsh; L. Payne; J. Nichols; L. McIlyar

Absent: B. Rusch; L. Mackenzie-Crane; B. Carr

Scribe: Jim Ables, Office of Human Resources

Date: March 16, 2005

Subj: HR Advisory Group Meeting Minutes - March, 2005

Cc: Seth Patton; Bill Acklin

New Items

1.HR Communication Meetings - Jim reported that Human Resources will be scheduling the HR Communication meetings for April and May. All HRAG reps should plan on attending the meeting for their group. Clare encouraged all support staff to attend the communication meetings as they are an important tool to communicate with Human Resources and the college. There is a lot of formal and informal information shared at these meetings which is often important and helpful. We discussed reporting the meeting discussions to all support staff. Instead of writing a detailed report of the discussions at each meeting and disseminating it via the web to support staff, we decided to share any substantive discussions via the HR Connection newsletter. This will be easier for Human Resources to produce and will focus on important items that were discussed.

2.Employment of Relatives - A modified "Employment of Relatives" policy was forwarded to University Council via the Personnel Committee for their review. The University Council wanted feedback from the supervisors' group and HRAG prior to acting on it. This policy was discussed in detail during the 2003-04 academic year at HRAG. The proposed and current policy was reviewed again at the meeting. Essentially, the proposed policy would allow relatives to be employed by the same department (reporting to the same supervisor), however, it would not allow the employment if one relative would be in a direct supervisory role over his/her relative.The policy does not encourage or discourage the employment of relatives (e.g. a manager is not required to hire relatives). HRAG thought this proposed policy was fair and reasonable.

Updates

1.HR Newsletter - Clare thanks Human Resources for getting the HR Connection newsletter up and running again. The plan at this point is to publish it four times per year. Three representatives indicated they did not receive the newsletter. All newsletters were sent via a general mail stuffing. Somewhere between the mail room and the offices, the newsletters were either lost or not forwarded on to everyone in the department. This is the risk of a general stuffing. The group discussed that next time Human Resources consider doing a general stuffing along with an email notice to support staff (all physical plant employees have a Denison email - call the Help Desk to learn how to access your email) that it has been sent and creating an archive of the newsletters on the HR web site. This will be pursued.

2.Performance Reviews - As discussed in the February's meeting, changes to the review forms and to the process have been made. A memo to all support staff explaining these changes will be sent shortly.

3.Retirees Taking Courses at Denison - Question arose at the February meeting if retirees could take courses at Denison. Denison retirees can take courses under the community scholar program; however, the fee will be waived for retirees. The courses are on an audit and space available basis. Question was asked about taking courses for credit if the retiree was willing to pay. Since this is not part of the tuition benefit for retirees, this is not an option.

4.Emeriti Health Solutions - Jim announced that the Board of Trustees approved the adoption of the Emeriti Health Solutions program. A detailed memo regarding the program will be sent from Seth Patton shortly. Full-time faculty and staff hired after June 30, 1993 are now eligible for a defined contribution account that will assist in paying the cost of health insurance in retirement. This is a new benefit for these employees. All full-time faculty and staff hired prior to July 1, 1993 still maintain the retiree health care benefit that they've been eligible for, however, the insurance will now be made available through the Emeriti Health Solutions program (Aetna is currently the insurance company). The define contribution accounts for eligible full-time faculty and staff will start July 1, 2005. Current retirees will begin health coverage through the Emeriti program beginning January 1, 2006. There will be plenty of communication to faculty and staff as the implementation date approaches.