University officials discussed the new human resources personnel structure with the campus community at a forum Tuesday as part of an ongoing effort to elicit feedback from employees about the redesign before its official implementation in July 2013.
The human resources strategic design plan focuses on developing new employee compensation and benefits programs as well as eliminating overlaps in job titles.
The current discrepancies are due to state-designed personnel systems, according to the Human Resources Design Project website, and are a reason why UW-Madison has been vying for more flexibility in the application of its human resources policies for years.
Office of Human Resources administrators have been working with representatives from various governance groups on campus since a provision in the 2011-’13 biennial state budget allowed the university to independently redesign its personnel structures to meet the unique human resource needs of a public research institution.
HR Design project team leader Bob Lavigna said university workers will no longer be governed under Wisconsin’s Office of State Employment Relations, but will remain “state employees,” and will therefore be covered under the state systems for retirement, health insurance and life insurance.
Employees questioned their level of input in the design of the benefits and compensation packages, to which Lavigna said the process will rely heavily on feedback from employees and governance bodies.
“[The] initial step will be communication to make sure everybody understands what this process is going to be and what their roles are,” Lavigna said. “I can’t say that every employee will be directly involved ... but fundamental to a project like this is [collecting] data from the people who are doing the work.”
Employees also inquired about how the new plan will alleviate the current “perceived” hierarchy between “classified” staff, who occupy positions created for statewide agencies, and “unclassified” staff, who are in positions with similar job descriptions but are governed under different rules because they occupy positions the state tailored to fit UW-Madison’s needs.
“It makes more sense to put people who do similar kinds of work in the same departments, and by implementing this change we’re going to do away with the perceived hierarchy,” Lavigna said.
