University Business - October 2011 - (Page 29)

HUMAN RESOURCES University of Alabama-Birmingham: Creating Faculty Celebrities As manager of professional development training programs, Alyce Hartley discovered that employees at the school’s teaching hospital were having trouble resolving patient or visitor complaints. She and her two-member staff reviewed every complaint tracked by guest services, grouping them into multiple categories. Then she scripted four short videos as part of a service recovery training program. The videos include tips on resolving issues such as patients who are angry because a meal tray was delivered late or visitors complaining about the lack of close parking spaces. Hospital employees star in the videos and have since become local celebrities, she says. The media relations department shot, produced, and edited the videos onsite. Since July 2010, approximately 7,000 hospital employees have viewed them. While it’s too soon to tell their effectiveness, Hartley says “they’ve been a big hit,” as has the school’s task-based software training, introduced last spring. Instead of teaching an all-day session about every bell and whistle of a software program, two-hour sessions focus on accomplishing one task, such as mail merge. Bryant University (R.I.): Improving Student Outcomes Many universities collect assessment data. However, “most of it doesn’t factor back into decisions about institutional practices, conditions, and pedagogy,” says Bob Shea, director of faculty development at Bryant, which supports an estimated 150 faculty. Shea, who joined the university in February, is exploring ways to integrate student learning outcomes and assessment into faculty development. In a previous position at another college, he says his department gathered data from multiple sources, such as the results from critical thinking tests taken by students, or student reports of engagement and rigor, then asked a series of questions: What does it tell us about student engagement or performance? How can we utilize universitybusiness.com the data to make changes at the classroom level? How can we measure the impact? At Bryant, Shea is following a similar path. He recently began focusing on information literacy across the curriculum. Faculty from varous disciplines will review samples of student work, make judgments about student and teacher performance, and identify needed changes, he says. Meanwhile, the school’s library staff conducts monthly seminars that demon- At Texas A&M, monthly Coffee Conversations for employees cover hot topics in education. strate new technology, encouraging faculty to use it for either personal efforts or in their classroom. Shea says using internal resources that help faculty better understand student learning can be an effective stepping-stone to better teaching. “We’re starting to understand that we can utilize this evidence in different ways,” he says. “It can unearth some interesting questions for us and lead to opportunities for classroom-based innovations and professional development for faculty.” Texas A&M University: Supporting the Business Side HR administrators created a new curriculum for employees in payroll, purchasing, and other business support functions, says Anne Mayer, director of HR employee and organizational development. “There was a need to develop training specifically to help people move up the career ladder on the business side of the house,” she says, adding that all training is now housed under one roof, creating a one-stop shop for its 17,000 employees. So far, there are more than 12 online business courses and workshops covering topics ranging from understanding file management to accessing the payroll system. Certificate programs have moved beyond online courses and include online discussion boards, job shadowing, and classroom discussions. Participants enrolled in a new supervisory program must identify a mentor, any employee who demonstrates competencies that are essential for their career success. The university has also launched Coffee Conversations—monthly 90-minute seminars on hot topics in education, such as the relationship between the university and state legislature. Between 50 and 90 employees typically attend, Mayer says. University of Puget Sound (Wash.): Breaking Down Silos Several years ago, President Ronald R. Thomas launched an initiative to help middle managers overcome the “silo effect,” that all-too-common condition affecting managers who rarely glimpse over their department’s walls, says Nancy Nieraeth, director of employment and people development at the school, which supports approximately 725 employees. The program’s goal is to empower middle managers to advance the university’s strategic plan. As part of the 60member group, Nieraeth and other managers recently toured the school’s dining hall for a behind-the-scenes view of its operations and challenges, identified scenarios in which the challenges could impact their own department, then shared information with their departments. “People really needed to understand what was happening in the various operational units at the university,” says Nieraeth. “It often alerts us to something that’s going to impact our strategic function.” October 2011 | 29 Resources Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship, http://cndls.georgetown.edu HR Solutions, www.hrsolutionsinc.com Korn/Ferry Leadership Talent & Consulting, www.kornferry.com /LeadershipConsulting Texas A&M Coffee Conversations, http://eodinfo.tamu.edu/HotTopics http://cndls.georgetown.edu http://www.hrsolutionsinc.com http://www.kornferry.com/LeadershipConsulting http://www.kornferry.com/LeadershipConsulting http://eodinfo.tamu.edu/HotTopics http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - October 2011

University Business - October 2011
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Human Resources
Cloud Email
Tuition Setting
Campus CFO
Independent Outlook
End Note

University Business - October 2011