During the past month or so, as we struggled through wrapping up on the truncated AMCP process, I find myself looking at what we could have done differently, better and in a method that would better serve our college; that led to some general thoughts about customer service, how can we fulfill our mission of providing “professional, consistent, and valued services,” and help retain our most valuable resource of human capital. I read an article by Gabrielle Toledano, Executive VP of Human Resources for Electronic Arts that provided additional thoughts on the same subject so I thought I would share a blend of our thoughts on being a solid, respected member of an HR Team.
- Know your Departments, Units, College and University
Know your departments; ask about plans for new undergraduate programs, plans for new graduate student programs; be on top of new initiatives; meet with your chair or unit on a regular basis. Keep in mind all the new policies that are coming out at the college level and university level and how that might impact your unit and departments and discuss them.
- Act with Integrity and Courage
Act with integrity. Be honest if you make a mistake; own the mistake and fix it. If you don’t know the answer be ready to admit that you don’t know and will do some research and follow up. Always act with fairness, integrity and honesty. When the answer is something you know will not be welcomed, present it in a thoughtful and honest manner. Remember we’re all on the same team and we should have each other’s back.
- Be a Problem Solver
When you come against a problem, break it down to its root causes. Don’t look to blame others, but learn how the issues have occurred. Then, with a look to the future, determine how we can prevent it from occurring again.
- Provide Objective Solutions
When explaining a process to your department or unit, remember to try not to use HR speak. Make sure that you are providing you explanation in an objective manner even though it may be very clear to you that this process should have been understood; that this is the way it’s always been; or that you have provided this explanation many times. We have to remember that we work with these issues on a day in and day out basis and our customers do not. One of the difficult things that I came across when I came to Ohio State University was the use of all the acronyms, i.e. OHR, HRA, GRA, GTA, HRA, JEDs, now known as DBTs, PETs now known as DRDs, FAHRP, OARDC, AEDE, PD just to name a few.
- Remember the “Human” in Human Resources
Be human; remember we are human beings we are managing one of the most important resources our college has, it’s humans. We need to remember to be human first; to remember to empathize with other people; to try to understand their pressures and what they need to succeed. Everyone we deal with including ourselves has a backstory; has a life outside of the university. Sometimes it’s important to stop and remember that before we proceed to move forward with “work.”
Last month’s question: Can an employer terminate an employee who is not meeting performance standards while exercising her right to intermittent family medical leave? Answer: The termination can occur only if the employer had and could prove a non-discriminatory reason for the termination. The employer must never bring up the family medical leave in the discussion around the performance or the termination and have undisputed evidence of performance or mistakes that are harmful to the employer. So in a short answer, yes
This month’s question: is rudeness contagious?
Reminders:
The Interim new sexual misconduct policy took affect September 1, 2015. http://hr.osu.edu/public/documents/policy/policy115.pdf OHR should have its new training finalized and available in October. When it is available, we will be bringing it to both our college campuses. Read more at: http://humanresources.osu.edu/news/revised-sexual-misconduct-policy-serves-unified-campus-policy
The annual registration for programs that work with minors is now open. http://hr.osu.edu/public/documents/policy/policy150.pdf Each program that we registered last year will need to be registered on an annual basis and my office will take care of the registration. However, we will be reaching out to each department to see if there are new programs that need to be registered and or new individuals involved in the ongoing program. Remember, the background check only needs to be completed every four years. For an update on how the past year has gone, please visit: http://humanresources.osu.edu/news/expanded-minors-policy-results-increased-registration-and-training-across-ohio-state