AAC Liaison Activities - 1996-97

July, 1996

At it's July 24, 1996 meeting, the AAC met with members of the Physical Plant Measurements Team. Austin Petzke, Laxmi Rao, Bob Haggerty and Brian MacDonald participated in a follow-up meeting to their visit on march 25. The team is working to establish measurement standards for customer service and satisfaction levels, and has identified five broad measurement criteria: communication, quality, time, cost, and safety. Section heads of individual areas within Plant have worked to define specific, measurable standards for their particular areas as part of their overall effort to improve customer service. In doing this, the team took comments conveyed during the previous meeting with AAC seriously, incorporating them into their plans.

Feedback from customers takes on even greater importance as Plant moves from a centralized organization to decentralized zone teams. It is anticipated that measurement criteria will be evaluated on at least a monthly basis, and more frequently where necessary. The group is making a special effort to measure cross-functional standards in Plant, evaluating how well the Electrical Shop, Pipe Shop and others work as a team.

It was agreed that quality is perhaps the most important measurement standard, as well as the most difficult to measure. It was also discussed that accomplishing these measurements is in itself a time consuming task, and only areas where value can be added should be evaluated. The AAC suggested that communication with the MIT community be a priority, with clear direction provided regarding how feedback can be given to Plant, whether it be positive or negative. It was also suggested that voicemail systems be improved, with particular emphasis on notifying the community of how frequently voice mail messages are retrieved by Plant. A handbook is now being developed to assist the community in working with Physical Plant.

If you are interested in receiving additional information on this project, please contact the Measurement Team, plant-measure@mit.edu.

August, 1996

At its August 12, 1996 meeting the AAC met with members of the Human Resource Practices Design (HRPD) Team. The Team was convened to evaluate human resources (HR) practices at the Institute, and to recommend a design and implementation plan for HR practices in the future that will support MIT's employees in meeting the needs of the Institute within a changing work environment.

Lead by Team Captain, Patricia Brady of the Center for Real Estate, the Team is currently working to gather information from the MIT community as well as organizations outside of the Institute with some similarities to MIT. During the month of July, the Team sponsored a large number of focus groups, Speak Up meetings and interviews across campus. Some of the major themes and concerns voiced by the community in these forums include:

• Individuals find an intrinsic value in working at MIT, want to be challenged, and recognize the need for change;
• There are inconsistencies in performance appraisal and associated rewards across departments, laboratories and centers, and in general, career possibilities are unclear;
• The hiring process is cumbersome and inefficient, without evidence of career paths or succession planning;
• Team based work is not adequately supported, and the compensation system is not reinforcing MIT's goals.

The HRPD Team will now take the information they have gathered, and use it to shape a design for future HR practices in response to concerns raised by the community and will recommend strategies and an implementation plan for the future. Among the issues being discussed, the Team will try to respond to the needs for addressing team structure, creating incentives for working within teams, and evaluating team performance. There will be additional discussions with the community, including faculty, prior to completing the Team's report which is expected in early Fall.

If you are interested in receiving additional information on the Team's activities, or if you have ideas you would like to communicate, please contact the HRPD Team at people@mit.edu and/or visit the team's web page.

May, 1997

On Monday, May 5 three members of the Training and Development Team met with the Administrative Advisory Committee (AAC) to provide an update regarding ongoing activities. Margaret Ann Gray (Personnel), John Squillante (Personnel/Student Services) and Jeff Pankin of Information Systems met with AAC members and described five sub-teams now being formed.

It is anticipated that most of the sub-teams will begin their work during the coming summer and next fall after the HRPD team presents their final recommendations. The sub-teams are expected to meet for a period of six to eighteen months, and the Training and Development Team is now seeking individuals wishing to be involved with this effort. Those wishing to be involved may contact the team by e-mail at learn@mit.edu

The five sub-teams are described below:

1. Training, Development and Performance Consulting Team: The goals of the Training, Development and Performance Consulting Team are to expand best practice training and performance planning services through a core of internal trainers and performance consultants, establish policies which enable equal access to services, develop metrics and evaluation techniques to ensure cost effective and results oriented practices, and provide a unified, consistent approach to training and performance planning which is integrated with the Institute's mission, goals, and human resource practices. This team guides the work of the remaining sub-teams.
2. Core Curriculum: The goal of this Core Curriculum team is the development of a training curriculum which makes clear the set of basic skills MIT believes are required to function as an MIT employee and the skills specific to particular roles. This curriculum will change over time. This team would also develop a plan for the phased implementation of this new training practice. Its work relies upon the work of the HRPD team in defining core competencies.
3. Orientation to MIT: The goal of this project is to create, develop, determine delivery methods for, and pilot additional components of orientation to help new employees learn about MIT. This project will also plan for its long-term operation.
4. Performance Planning and Assessment: It is the goal of this team to help leaders, supervisors and staff improve performance by providing concrete assistance for performance planning and evaluation. This assistance will be in many forms. Examples include course offerings, reading materials (through various media, including the Web), best practice reviews, pilot projects, policy and procedure statements and sample review forms and methods. The Institute has taken major steps recently in this area. This project will build on those efforts.
5. Training Administration and Policies: It is the goal of this team to produce a set of recommendations and an implementation plan to assure equal and efficient access to training and development activities for all Institute employees and to define training administration procedures which are clear and efficient.

This page was updated on October 31, 1997 by Ben Brophy.