AACII Meeting Notes

Thursday, October 20, 2016

 

2:00 - 3:00 Talent Retention and Management

 

Alyce Johnson, Manager of Staffing Diversity and Inclusion (substituting for Ronnie Hass, Manager, Learning and Development, HR)

Julienne Dean, Manager, Staffing Services, HR

Cori Champagne, Rewards & Recognition Specialist, HR

 

Strategic Talent Management (STM) is a new way to describe much of what you already know. The difference is that the services are executed in a more intentional coordinated way, and aim to enable diverse staff to reach their potential.

 

Reorganized the 3 silos of Learning and Development, Staffing Services, and Rewards & Recognition into a team to leverage each other's expertise and work collaboratively in support of  the strategic priorities of HR.

            Manage our talent

            Align HR services with customer needs

            Strengthen compliance and technology

 

Four principals of STM:  

Recruit - Include - Develop - Recognize

 

RECRUIT

 

1. Provide support for hiring managers:

• Staffing specialists are organized by school/area. But for jobs that go across MIT such as admin assistants we now try to leverage 2nd and 3rd place candidates for jobs in other areas.
• Sourcing - going out and finding candidates that haven’t come to MIT, particularly for specialized skills for whom it's hard to find candidates.
• Increase awareness and understanding of MIT's affirmative action plan and execute it through searches.
• Establish additional vendor partnerships beyond Hollister and Professional Staffing Group for jobs other than office and administrative (e.g., financial).

 

2. Optimize applicant tracking system.

• Maximize use of the tool.
• Make it easier to use.
• Improve candidate experience (e.g., mobile responsive) by using google analytics.
• Increase and improve use of data and analytics to review services (e.g., online application) that need improvement.

 

3. Initiated a branding campaign to better market MIT jobs and stay in contact with potential applicants.

 

4. Desire to establish a group interested in recruiting and hiring processes as a forum to discuss common interests and issues.

 

Sucharita - what to do about the gap between someone leaving and the new hire. Is there someplace we can go to find experienced retirees, for instance, who don't need extensive training.

 

Julianne - Called Traci Swartz who manages MIT Retirees Association. Possibly to establish a temp pool, which has been talked about a number of times. The issue is ownership and administration, but they're thinking about it again.

 

They have also organized Staffing Services into levels of service customized to what you need, whether basic screening, custom screening or full service including type of candidates, interview management, assessment, etc.

 

INCLUDE

 

Looking at all our programs and policies and be sure a diversity perspective is present, that it's part of the fabric of what we do.

 

Using metrics (demographic data that we already collect for affirmative action reporting) to determine what MIT looks like and the strategies we need to employ to diversify.

 

Looking at all the variety of D&I efforts happening across the Institute to help and bring resources.

 

Pia - the Year-Up Program - Diana Hughes uses it and says it's a good pipeline for IS&T interns.

 

Sucharita - On the staff side we do a pretty good job of D&I but not sure what is being done on the faculty side. Alyce - we do diversity largely locally. There are a number of committed people at the School level; Ed Bertschinger is making inroads; there's an academic working committee. But maybe we need a report.

 

DEVELOP

 

Organizational effectiveness and Learning and Development. Programs include:

 

• Role based learning programs.
• Role based resource groups.
• Individual workshops.
• Self-directed learning solutions such as Lynda and SkillSmart.

 

Richard - These programs tend to be general but people want to have an opportunity within their career, such as an opportunity to give a paper or publish or be more visible at MIT or in their field. People become more engaged if they feel their interests are being attended to. Question is how to systematize. Fits under performance reviews to an extent.

 

A Career Development Specialist is on staff part time to assist with comprehensive career development. One-on-one coaching and workshops for career planning, resume writing, etc. Those courses are being reviewed and revised for the spring. Works with Staffing Specialists to move people who are interested in particular jobs into the candidate pipeline.

 

MIT offers learning and development consulting services. Email odconsult@mit.edu to find out more.

 

RECOGNIZE

 

Increasingly mindful that she's involved heavily with the recipients before the awards but what happens after the awards. Do they get promoted, leave MIT, etc.? Are we using this huge asset? We have a database of candidates' strengths that we don’t use.

 

Attention to diversity includes not only diversity of recipients but inclusiveness in the nomination process. This year they translated their communications into 2 languages.

 

Given the size of the MIT population, we have a way to go in the amount that we recognize people.  We want to expand our thinking about Recognition. Not just cash awards, but there are other ways that people might find meaning in being recognized - time off, a stretch assignment, etc.

 

Those who have received awards are now a resource - use these good talents to leverage other services with coaching and ideas. For example, begin using the narratives of the R&R nominations in our branding and recruiting.

 

Paula - Another big effort is data and mining the HR data to help us with retention. A position is now posted for a Manager of Analytics to gather, analyze and test the data. You still need to have the conversations but the data can give us ideas and serve as  breadcrumbs to identify the issues.

 

 

3:00 - 3:30   Future Council Topics

 

400 attendees at EVPT poster session. General consensus that it was an exciting event.

 

Discussion of new TLO staffer Siri Nilsson and changes we should make to the IPIA process.

 

Uniform Guidance - how is this going to affect operations, not just research. For example, bringing down the volume of Sole Source justifications; inclusion of exactly what admin assistants will do when pay is charged to research projects.

 

Buy-to-Pay rollout and communications session - scheduled for November.

 

FLSA regulation changes and how that will affect technical assistants and postdocs. Nationwide issue in the universities. Rumors flying. Will need good communication from central. Marianna Pierce has expressed interest in coming to talk to us. Possibly include any insights or early news on student unionization efforts.

 

Sustainability - multiple posters at EVPT poster session on this theme. Sustainability Office is trying to figure out how to get the data on carbon footprints of various parts of campus. There's an advocacy role as well. What is the message about MIT's sustainability emphasis that would attract people to work here. Julie Newman, Director of Sustainability Office, has deep connection with Campus Planning Office.

 

Security - Active Shooter Training. New video being made specifically about MIT. Decentralized policies about door locking - depends on which deparmenbtt manages the space.

 

 

3:30 – 4:00 A /O Networking Event Theme

 

General Counsel - Partnerships, I/P, Contracts and final aspects of an award. OSP - can this be run in parallel with legal work. How do Office of Risk Management and Office of Major Agreements fit in. International aspects. Service agreements - e.g., Dining Services through DSL. Contracts Team in VPF. Consultant tool that Facilities implemented. There are different processes across the Institute and are there standardizations that can make things easier.

 

Talent Retention and Management - they really want to do the breakfast. Would make it easier to plan since they want to do it. Lots of new stuff available that people don't know about, and more will come up at the breakfast tables. So there would need to be a part 1 and part 2.

 

Diversity and Inclusion. IDEO. Community Caring Initiative - Per Paula Sammarco this is a biweekly group of Academic Council. Hiring - very important.

 

Education and Digital Learning. Include digital health. Both sides - need to take care of our students and postdocs, but how do medical leaves affect the PI and the project if someone is out and they have such specialized skills that one can't find a temp replacement.