Annual Performance Review Progress

The first half of the calendar year has passed quickly. If you aren't regularly reviewing your APR goals, now is a good time to do so. How are you doing? Need to make any adjustments in your goals? Have any questions about how you might score if the ratings were given this month? You don't have to wait on your supervisor to ask you these questions!  Go ahead and schedule time with your supervisor so that you are confident in your progress.

I was asked in one of the recent compensation meetings if IPS is trying to score a certain percent of  employees in each category or if we try to score on a Bell curve. No! I want all IPS employees to be high performing! Take a few minutes and confirm your progress and make a course adjustment if necessary. And, keep up the great work!

Planned Savings - Reminder

Salary increases will begin showing up in checks at the end of this month.  UT has an easy way to adjust the direct deposit of your pay and travel reimbursements. Just complete the e-form at this link and send it to the payroll office.

You will note on the form that you can have your entire pay deposited in up to two different accounts (one a fixed amount and one the balance of your check). So, every time salary increases roll around (yay for two years in a row!) I realize I have somehow managed on my current pay, so I put at least a portion of the increase into "forced" savings through payroll direct deposit.

The other nice feature about direct deposit is you can have an entirely separate account for travel reimbursement, if you are tracking those expenses separately.

Personal finances can be simple or complex depending on how you approach them, but at least we have one tool available to help in our planning.

Guest Blog from Wendy Eddy

Aging Population

I recently attended a conference where one of the speakers discussed the challenges of our aging population.  With the advances in health care and nutrition we are living longer than ever before.

One of the main points was that, as members of our communities, we need to be aware of the special needs of our aging population.  Some needs may be handicap accessible buildings, transportation services, larger and better marked traffic signs, affordable housing available in close proximity to businesses such as doctor’s offices and grocery stores.

Another point was that as our population ages, we as employers, need to be conscience of the impact this may have on our employees.  A lot of families now find themselves in the position of caring for an elderly family member.  Although this can be a rewarding life experience it could also be time consuming and stressful.

Aging should be a graceful process so we all need to be supportive of the members of our communities as we all navigate our way through this life.       

Types of Compensation

The UT Compensation Advisory Board (CAB) met recently to begin standardizing the way we talk about compensation across the university.  We agreed on common definitions for additional pay (often referred to as merit pay), incentive pay, bonus pay and retention pay.

A.      Merit Pay

Definition:  Merit Pay increases total compensation based on documented performance and contributions to achieve established performance goals and expectations within a defined period with a pre-approved method to assess an employee’s performance. Merit Pay may be in the form of increase to base pay or non-recurring lump sum payment.

B.      Incentive Pay

Definition:  An after-the-fact, pre-determined lump-sum payment to an individual or to a defined group to reward the accomplishment of specific results determined and documented at the onset of a defined period.

C.      Bonus Pay

Definition:  An after-the-fact, discretionary lump-sum payment to recognize exceptional service at a point in time.

D. Retention Payments

Retention Payment:  An infrequent situation in which an increase in total compensation is granted to a high-performing employee in a mission-critical position to retain his/her services. Such retention payments may or may not be associated with an offer of employment from another organization. Normally such payments would specify continued employment with the organization for a specific span of time.

CAB's recommendation will go to the president's staff for final approval and then will be adopted by all campuses and institutes. This is a great step in beginning to form an overall compensation strategy for the university.

Guest Blog from Susan Robertson

Job Shadowing

As part of my participation in the IPS Leadership Academy, I, and all members of the academy, was expected to job shadow a fellow IPS employee from a different agency. In my position, I’m fortunate enough to get to work with all agencies and know a little bit about what they do, but shadowing gave me the opportunity to see first-hand how our employees help the people of Tennessee every day.

I chose to shadow UT Municipal Technical Advisory Service’s (MTAS) Municipal Management Consultant Margaret Norris, who covers a 40-city territory in East Tennessee. We set out on this particular day to meet with five of the cities she serves – Bean Station, Blaine, Rutledge, Luttrell and Plainview. Honestly, I never knew a city of Plainview existed in Tennessee! During these visits, Margaret had a questionnaire, which was a part of MTAS’s Building Better Cities program. She asked the city recorders, in most cases, about the city’s audit, whether the city employs an attorney, what the ISO rating is and 25 other questions related to the city’s operations. 

I was surprised at how small these cities are; many of them only have a volunteer fire department and a very, very small police force. Because we have some rural areas in Tennessee, it is so important that cities and counties have MTAS and CTAS at their disposal. However, it was no surprise to see how much they like Margaret and have a tremendous amount of respect for her and her knowledge of municipal government. The cities we visited treated Margaret like family and were just as welcoming to me!

Throughout IPS, I often hear that employees of one agency don’t know what some of the other agencies do. If you really want to know, I would suggest that you choose an employee from another agency and job shadow for the day. This is a great opportunity to learn about our agencies and to see first-hand the impact that our employees have on Tennessee.

New IPS Strategic Plan

Significant effort has been expended during the last year writing a new UT System Strategic Plan, updating the IPS Strategic Plan, and reviewing the IPS agency plans.

Every IPS staff  member has had the opportunity to participate in each of the three planning processes. A final review of the IPS Strategic Plan was just completed by our major stakeholders, so we are ready to launch the new plan.  It is posted on our web site at IPS Strategic Plan. Under the Quick Links tab on the right, click on '12-'17 Strategic Plan.

Each agency plan is posted on its agency web site, and you can also find them together here
on our Intranet site.

Chuck Shoopman will join each agency staff meeting briefly during annual conference to discuss how all three of these plans are aligned. I am excited for the future of IPS and UT. Please take an opportunity to familiarize yourself with all three plans.

Federal Healthcare Overview

Some of you may be wondering what last week's ruling by the Supreme Court really means. The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry newsletter this week provides an excellent overview that was prepared by the law firm of Baker Donelson.

It includes a summary of the major provisions, a timeline for implementation and an executive summary.

Read it.here.

Guest Blog from Gary Petree

Setting an Example in Higher Education
 

I often like to reflect on the various ways in which our form of government enriches our lives, especially during the season when we commemorate and celebrate our national independence. Did you know that our system of shared governance in higher education is uniquely American? In fact, the system of checks and balances found in our concept of shared governance in higher education predates our constitution!

Witnessing the most recent meeting of the UT Board of Trustees gives me good reason to celebrate this year. One item on the agenda had a particular appeal to my love and compassion for democracy. Our board members invested time and energy in evaluating the quality of their service, individually and collectively, as a governing body. Jim Murphy, Chair of the Trusteeship Committee, reviewed the results of the performance evaluation process line by line in the open forum, highlighting the not-so-good as well as the good ratings. Although I have heard of the concept of boards committing themselves to self-evaluation, this is the first time I have actually witnessed the results of such a process. The event seemed to supply a refreshing air of humility and responsibility to the aura of power and prestige that must certainly come with service as a member of the board of trustees. It reinforced the fact that neither credit for success nor blame for failure can be ascribed to one person or one group of people at our institution. The University of Tennessee, including those who have committed themselves to responsible public service as members of our board of trustees, is a standard bearer for shared governance in American society.      

Gary Petree

Training Program Manager

gary.petree@tennessee.edu

office 865.974.9830  cell 865.643-3117

The University of Tennessee

Municipal Technical Advisory Service

120 Conference Center Building

Knoxville, Tennessee  37996-4105

www.mtas.tennessee.edu

Travel Reimbursements

Understanding the university's travel reimbursement process has always been a high priority for IPS staff because we travel so much - big dollars can be involved! Our chief business officer, Gail White, is working to make the reimbursement process even faster.

IRIS, our financial and HR system, allows for direct entry by employees. Once you learn the system, you can easily scan receipts, enter the data, and off goes your reimbursement request through the electronic approval system. Original receipts still have to be mailed to your home office, but not before your reimbursement is processed.

Staff in the Jackson office and a few others around the institute have piloted this process for several months. Gail is rolling out additional training for our heavy travelers. Three sessions are scheduled in Nashville during the next few weeks. Then she will bring the training to East Tennessee.

I look foward to hearing about the training and the impact this new process is having on turn-around time for reimbursements.

Below is the schedule for upcoming training. If you are not registered and would like to attend, please contact Gail at gail.white@tennessee.edu.

Tuesday, July 10 from 1:00 – 4:00 CDT (7 people enrolled)

Friday, July 13 from 9:00 – 12:00 CDT (5 people enrolled)

Monday, July 16 from 1:00 – 4:00 CDT (5 people enrolled)