Human Resources

March 2007

HR Advisory Group - Meeting Minutes

Attended: Barbara Lay, Edwin Best, Belinda Carr, Lynn McIlyar, Laurie McKenzie-Crane, John McOsker, Sharon O'Reilly, Linda Payne, Sheryl Pustay, Sally Scheiderer and Jim Ables

Scribe: Barbara Lay

Cc: Seth Patton, Jim Ables

Old Business

Jim Ables was present to address some concerns that were raised at the February meeting. Barbara stated that in lieu of these concerns she met with both Seth Patton & Jim for discussion. Barbara told the group that Seth will share these concerns with President Knobel in their meeting today. Jim addressed the following topics:

Benefits

Wage and Salary(Midpoint) - Jim addressed the concern about the length of time it may take for an employee to reach the midpoint. This is only an issue for staff in range related positions, such as office & clerical jobs and supervisory and technical jobs. Jim distributed a comp-ratio hand-out to show the length of time that it might potentially take to reach the mid-point of the grade based on when they started with Denison. The example used was office/clerical grade 09. Using grade 09 as an example, the data showed that it would take approximately 7 years to be paid about the midpoint of the grade. Denison has made great strides in the last five years or so by providing greater wage increases for staff lower in the range and for staff with greater years of service. This matrix has helped staff move more quickly toward the midpoint compared to how we administered wage increases prior to five years ago.

The service and trades jobs are classified and administered differently. All staff hired at the same rate, Step 1, move through eight steps in four years, taking a step once every six months. Jim explained the history with the former two-tier system in service and trades. He furthered explained that it is the goal to keep the Step 5 rate at about the market average rate. Extensive wage surveys and comparison are done each year to measure our wage rates against market rates. The goal is to keep our employees in a competitive pay range, and also stay within budgetary constraints.

Differential pay - Jim also addressed the idea of Denison compensating employees for working different shifts (differential pay). Jim explained that Denison wasn't interested in that type of compensation program at this time, and while many reasons were provided, the bottom line is that Denison already pays competitively to the market. Overall; our employees are being paid well. The goal is to continue to pay our employees competitively and to keep the process as administratively simple as we can.

Issue of Unused Sick Leave - This issue has been of concern in recent months. Barbara informed the committee that this concern was taken to Seth and Jim. The outcome: the sick leave that Denison allows each employee to accrue is a benefit. Presently, 50% up to 75 days are already being cashed in at an employee's retirement. The benefit is essentially a self funded short-term disability plan and is primarily intended to cover catastrophic events should they occur. It was never intended to be used as a vehicle to gain additional compensation or to be donated. However, there is an incentive in the policy to save these sick days as 50% up to 75 days are compensable at retirement.

Funeral Leave Policy - Barbara indicated Seth agreed with the changes that HRAG proposed. The changes will reflect adding "grandchild" and "legal guardian" to the list of near relatives.

Staffing - The question was regarding how management makes decisions about adding staff when we have new buildings, and why Denison uses so many contractors to do work that we previously had employees performing (i.e., painter). Jim responded to this and indicated that management does consider the staffing needs for each new building, when necessary. The question was then asked who makes such decisions. Jim indicated that Seth Patton and Art Chonko would be primarily responsible for making these additional staffing recommendations Barbara indicated that it is important to understand that many companies contract work out, and we have job security here because if Denison decided to outsource janitorial work, then at least 20-30 employees could be without jobs. Jim also stated that a number of jobs have been added to the campus commons, brownstones and other student housing areas, increasing the employee count from 85.4 employees in physical plant in 2002-03 to 92.3 today.

New Business

Serving on search committees - Has the HRAG ever discussed the fact that being on a search committee is a volunteer position? Jim addressed the question/concern by stating that any employee serving on a committee is not volunteering but is conducting work for Denison. Jim stated that SOS who serve and work beyond their normal hours should submit the hours worked on their timesheet.

Evaluations - Some SOS staff expressed concerns regarding feedback from supervisors during their performance reviews. The overall idea is that staff would like to consider critiquing their departmental supervisors. Another area of concern was that managers were not creating a constructive review process of staff performance; generally if an employee has performance issues the manager waits to unveil these issues at evaluation time. Jim indicated that HR doesn't condone this type of performance review with management and that HR will need to take a better approach at training managers and supervisors with how to conduct effective performance reviews.

Bookstore discount for employees - A concern was raised that there is only a 3% discount off
instead of a 10% discount after taxes. The question is can the discount be raised to 17-20% so that you actually save some money off an item? Many members of the group indicated that the bookstore already provides additional discounts throughout the year. Additionally, Jim explained that the 10% discount is a 10% discount. It does not make sense to conclude that the discount is lower because taxes have to be paid on the net amount. Jim did state that he would share the issue with Joe Warmke and Ronni Hintz for their review.

Next Meeting

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 4, 2007, at 9 a.m. in Burton Morgan 317.