Supervisor/Department Chairs

One of the categories evaluated in the Employee Engagement Survey is called "Supervisors/Department Chairs." The questions that address this issue include:

* My supervisor makes his/her expectations clear (62%)
* I receive feedback from my supervisor that helps me (59%)
* I believe what I am told by my supervisor (61%)
* My supervisor regularly models this institute's values (60%)
* My supervisor is consistent and fair (57%)
* My supervisor actively solicits my suggestions and ideas (55%)
* I have a good relationship with my supervisor (75%)

The number in parentheses indicates the percent of respondents who either agreed or strongly agreed with this statement. The overall score in this category was 61% positive and 8% negative.

Employees who were most satisfied in this area are either those who (1) are 60-64 years of age, (2) have been here less than two years, or (3) expect to stay 3-5 years.

The Employee Relations Committee and the HR Strategy Team will be analyzing the data further to determine specific things we can do to improve supervisors.

What suggestions do you have?

Job Satisfaction/Support

Every Wednesday and Friday for the next several weeks I will highlight one of the 16 categories evaluated in the Employee Engagement Survey. There is a tremendous amount of data provided by the consultants, and we are trying to determine the best way to share it.

You might be interested to know that in addition to displaying the results by agency, we also have it by the following categories:
*Gender
*Age
*Ethnicity
*Race
*Salary
*Title
*Job Classification (exempt, non-exempt)
*Years at UT
*Years in current job
*Supervisor status
*How long an employee expects to stay at UT

It will take quite a while to make meaning of it all, but we are committed to doing so. Following is the first of several posts you can expect to see on Wednesdays.

One of the categories evaluated in the Employee Engagement Survey is called "Job Satisfaction/Support." The questions that address this issue include:

* My job makes good use of my skills and abilities. (67.4%)
* I am given the responsibility and freedom to do my job. (76.8%)
* I am provided the resources I need to be effective in my job. (66.9%)

The number in parentheses indicates the percent of respondents who either agreed or strongly agreed with this statement. The overall score in this category was 69% positive and 6% negative.

Employees who were most satisfied in this area are either those who (1) have worked at IPS 16-20 years, (2) expect to stay another 10 -15 years, or (3) are 35-39 years of age.

The Employee Relations Committee and the HR Strategy Team will be analyzing the data further to determine specific things we can do to improve job satisfaction/support.

What suggestions do you have?

IPS Leadership Team

This week the agency directors, Chuck Shoopman and I are meeting in Cookeville for two days to begin updating the IPS Strategic Plan. As you know, the UT system has been working on an updated system plan for the last six months. All staff have received updates on this process and still have an opportunity to provide input on the system web site. Simultaneously, each of the agencies has updated its strategic plan. Each used a process that worked best for its envirnoment, but basically employees, a variety of customers and the advisory committee had an opportunity for input. Then, each employee's annual work plan was developed and should be tied to the strategic plan.


The IPS strategic plan joins these two ends of the spectrum. The institute doesn't have a plan separate from the agency plans. The institute plan seeks to find common opportunities across the institute and provide resources and opportunities for our agencies to provide improved services to our customers. The goals in the institute plan link the agencies to the system. Once we have a draft IPS Strategic Plan developed, all employees will have an opportunity to provide input.


When the entire process falls into the place, there should be a clear link from each employee's work plan to his/her agency plan, to the IPS plan and to the System Plan. So, each employee knows if he/she is accomplishing the work plan they are also accomplishing the University of Tennessee mission. That's how great organizations operate and that's how we want to operate.

Make sense?

Guest Blog from Macel Ely

Each member of the IPS Leadership Academy is writing a blog about one of their experiences. Macel is the first to write...

This past month, CTAS e-learning specialist Mary Ann Moon and I were asked to speak at the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) Symposium held in Atlanta, GA. This conference highlighted some of the “best practices” of continuing education across the country. We were honored to be invited to speak as panelists and shared the stage with groups such as the Georgia Department of Labor, ESi University, and Emory Healthcare.

As many of you know, this past year IPS was granted an additional five years as an Authorized Provider for IACET accreditation. IACET is a top-quality entity that strives to “promote and enhance quality in continuing education and training (CE/T) through research, education and the development and continuous improvement of criteria, principles and standards.”

IACET is proud of its rich, professional history and for good reason. The organization was the first to develop the original Continuing Education Unit (CEU) along with the creation of the ANSI/IACET Standard for Continuing Education and Training.

During our particular session, Mary Ann and I shared our personal insight on the task of going through the accreditation process for IPS. We concluded by showing the audience the recently developed IPS CEU Approver’s Sharepoint Site that IT administrator Scott Gordy helped create for us. This site has streamlined the process by which all IPS agencies submit courses for CEU approval; and as a result, the new method of approving courses has enhanced the level of effectiveness and efficiency for our training departments. In order to better familiarize IPS employees with the new CEU online approval system for courses, Mary Ann created a demo of the site which we showed in our presentation.

For those unaware, each IPS agency has individuals on the overall IPS CEU Approval Committee. Once a course has been submitted for CEU, it must then be approved by 3 committee members and then receives a fourth approval by the overall IPS CEU Administrator. Below are the individuals that work diligently to ensure that our courses meet the IACET standard and provide us with a competitive edge over others in the area of adult learning.

Macel Ely, CEU Administrator
Martha Kelley, CIS
Bryan Lane, CIS
Kimberly Clark-Carney, CTAS
Mary Ann Moon, CTAS
Chris Payne, CTAS
Emily Miller, LEIC
Lori Ungurait, LEIC
Kurt Frederick, MTAS
Gary Petree, MTAS
PJ Snodgrass, MTAS

Our session was well received by those in the audience, and the feedback has been very flattering. As employees that strive for excellence in the field of public service, I am confident that our training is positively impacting society. Thanks to everyone at IPS for the hard work done day after day in order to make this possible!

Annual Performance Reviews

I'm happy to report that 98% of our annual performance reviews were completed, reviewed and submitted to UT HR by the March 31 deadline. Although it is a long and time consuming process, it is important that every employee understand the expectations placed upon him/her by the leadership of the organization in order to best serve our customers.

Now we have a chance to take a breather and later this summer we will re-visit our process. Although the time frame is dictated by the university, as is the performance review summary form, the internal forms and processes are entirely up to us. I encourage you to engage in discussion with your agency management team on ways to improve the forms, the reporting and the overall process.

Given that we will continue to conduct annual reviews (and more frequent follow-ups with those not performing at or above expectations), we need to make the process work for us. Every employee deserves to know how his/her individual work contributes to the agency, institute and university strategies for success.

Guest Blog from Steve Thompson - SCUPSO

On April 2-4 I had the opportunity to attend the annual SCUPSO (Southern Consortium of University Public Service Organizations) conference, held this year in Biloxi, Mississippi, and hosted by the Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State. Dr. Jinks has been active in SCUPSO in the past, as has Chuck Shoopman, and this year I attended with Dr. Jinks and Keith Groves of CIS. Keith lead an interesting and well-attended discussion on LEAN government and principles, and provided a major piece of the conference.

I’ll take just a moment both to talk about Biloxi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and the experience of working with and discussing issues common among university-based public service organizations, such as ours.

Over the past few years most of us have witnessed severe storm damage in Tennessee and across the southeast, and during the conference we heard and saw a number of videos and presentations on the 2005 storm and the on-going recovery of the area. Clearly the communities and businesses in the Biloxi area were not prepared for the storm event or for the aftermath, and for those of us in MTAS this demonstrates the need for effective emergency management systems and proper emergency planning. I personally witnessed the impact and recovery of Hurricane Hugo on the Charleston, SC area, and while there are a number of differences between the areas, after 7 years, and unlike Charleston, the Mississippi gulf area continues to struggle with economic recovery and reconstruction. Biloxi appears to have lost almost 1/3 of the city population, and many homes and businesses have not been rebuilt. In addition to emergency preparation there are a number of factors in this discussion that are of interest to all of us working with cities and towns, but despite federal grants and private insurance claims neither the population nor the economy have fully returned. Economic recovery measures are certainly important to communities in Mississippi and in our state, and are often overlooked in emergency planning.

We also discussed the need for public service organizations, and the growing role of these organizations with data analysis, convening of public forum discussions and facilitation, and public policy research and support. A number of these organizations also provide “boots on the ground” technical support for local governments in their states, somewhat similar to the work of MTAS, CTAS, and CIS, but while there were similarities I am not aware of another organization that provided the depth and detail of IPS services. The other organizations are, however, very effective in the areas of public policy, research and training, and there clearly are opportunities for greater sharing of information and resources.
As we constantly look for other organizations that can assist us in our service, the colleges and universities of SCUPSO offer contrasts and models that will continue to serve us in the future.

And I’m quite sure that the others will agree - Dr. Jinks, Keith and I enjoyed the seafood of the gulf coast.

Guest Blog from Chuck Shoopman

Recent legislative proposals by members of the Tennessee General Assembly regarding gun rights, property rights, and the role of governments in regulating the exercise of our rights offers a reminder of the importance of open communication and dialogue to the experiment of self-governance. There are many ways to express frustrations, as demonstrated by the Arab Spring, the Tea Party Movement, and the Occupy Movement.

Clearly, opening a window and shouting, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore", calls attention to one's exasperation. However, in a community that chooses to govern itself primarily by the rule of law rather than the use of force, effective communication between people of differing opinions is needed to resolve our conflicts in a way that preserves goodwill while managing the conflict. A community's ability to preserve goodwill while resolving its conflicts will ultimately influence the desire of its members to continue living by rule of law rather than rule of force.

In our state and nation, we hold a number of conflicting values, e.g. individual freedom vs. majority rule. We struggle to find the proper balance between what is best for the individual and what is best for the community at large. Recent proposals from the Tennessee General Assembly regarding where gun owners can legally carry their weapons and whether local governments, or any government, can regulate the use of private property, serve as reminders that our conflicting values remain with us and require our constant attention. We should also be reminded that we still get to choose how we resolve these conflicts. We can beat one another with our language and use the power of positions to impose a temporary resolution. Or, we can energetically and respectfully discuss our differences of opinion and decide how to best resolve them for the moment.

The challenge isn't whether we will permanently resolve all our disputes, for many questions must be re-visited periodically to best meet the realities of the day. The question is whether our model for resolving our disputes will strengthen or erode the confidence of future Tennesseans to perpetuate this experiment in self-governance, or simply allow the strongest of the moment to have the final word.

Thoughts?

More on the Employee Engagement Survey

Modern Think identifies three key "barometer" statements that demonstrate the overall engagement in an organization. Great places to work have at least 75% positive and no more than 10% negative. The chart below also indicates the "honor roll" organizations. These are scores from 4-year universities with at least 10,000 students. That's certainly not an exact comparison to IPS, but it is aspirational.



These data tell us that we have a sizable group of staff "in the middle" who neither agree nor disagree with the statements, so that is the group we need to improve. What suggestions do you have to improve these three key areas?