In
January the Senior Leadership Team held a retreat to focus on results of the
Employee Engagement Survey and one or two other topics, but by the time we met
we had quite a list. In this note I will
touch on the highlights of this discussion, but please ask any of us if you
would like more information.
The
team includes the Executive Directors of each agency, the Assistant Vice
Presidents and the Vice President, and we generally meet at least quarterly to
discuss trends and issues that do or may impact the Institute for Public
Service. We also hold “retreats” away
from the office about every 18 months or so for greater discussion on 1 or more
topics. During the January retreat we
reached consensus on several issues, and, over the next few months you can
expect to see action and discussion on the following:
1. Telecommuting and FML Policies
–
IPS follows University policy on telecommuting and on an employee’s ability to work
intermittently from home while on Family Medical Leave (FML), but within the
University’s parameters we do have some ability to modify these to fit our
needs. We have received requests to
allow flexibility on these policies, and have discussed this with the IPS
workforce development team. During the
retreat the Senior Leadership Team reviewed this and concluded that while there
should be greater flexibility, the policies do need to be fairly applied across
all IPS agencies.
After an exhaustive discussion
we agreed to consider a one-year pilot program under the following guidelines:
a. System
HR is developing a new telecommuting policy, so we will delay implementation of
an IPS-specific implementation paln until after the system policy is adopted.
b. Pending
a decision on this, individual short-duration requests to work from home will
be considered on a case-by-case basis, with approval by the Executive Director.
c.
The
AVPs will monitor the use of telecommuting to make sure that the application of
the policy is consistent across agencies.
d.
We
also discussed allowing intermittent work while a member of staff is on
approved FML, and agreed that work while on intermittent FML may be acceptable with
an approved outline of the plan and schedule of work. The Executive Directors will recommend plans
to the Central Office for approval.
2.
Weather-Related
Closings
– We also discussed the impact of changes to the telecommuting policy on
inclement weather requests, and we considered the differences in
weather-related office closings in Nashville with the rest of the state. We agreed that we will continue to evaluate
the present policy linking closing of Nashville IPS offices to closings at
state agencies. We also agreed that changes
to the telecommuting policy will not apply to inclement weather.
3.
Horizon – We reviewed the compelling problems
developed through the Horizon process, and agreed that the best role for IPS
with these and other issues could be as a convener of the public or customer
discussion. We considered healthcare
financing and the methamphetamine problems as among the more pressing problems
in Tennessee, and for the first effort we are looking at convening information
and discussion on healthcare and healthcare financing.
We agreed to develop this first effort
over the next year, and noted that a great deal of work will be required to develop
this effort. Initially we are
considering hosting a public forum (and possibly a panel discussion) of
customers on healthcare financing. In
support of this first effort we expect to develop a current assessment on healthcare
and healthcare financing with a prediction for the future to support the panel
discussion that we will convene. Our
goal is to help customers to think beyond today on this major issue, and to
understand their options.
4.
Employee
Engagement – The team
reviewed the summary of survey responses, and noted low scores for IPS Senior
Leadership related to direction, communication and trust by staff. We discussed ways for members of the senior
leadership team to better communicate IPS direction and messages, and noted
that some of the low scores may be at least partially based on inadequate
feedback to staff on the reasons behind decisions and actions. The team discussed the process by which new
initiatives are developed for and by staff and agencies, and the need to
balance the internal and external focus of IPS.
5.
Agency APRs – Team members reviewed the draft Annual
Performance Review (APR) forms developed for each agency, and noted the
similarities and differences.
We discussed the employee engagement
survey results that indicate that many employees of IPS are unclear on how they
can achieve higher scores. We agreed
that all agency APRs should be developed using a collaborative approach. We also agreed that the employee has the
responsibility to demonstrate why the employee has earned a score of 4 or 5 on
any point or category, and that the supervisor has the responsibility to
demonstrate why the employee has earned a rating of 1 or 2 on any point or
category.
We
also discussed and reached agreement on a number of other topics:
-
Development – We agreed that
we need to continue to look at options for raising funds for IPS services and
projects.
-
Agency Handbooks
– We
agreed to finalize all agency handbooks by the end of February, 2014.
-
Leadership
Academy – Our
consensus was to continue with the next leadership academy for IPS. Applications will be accepted in April and
May for the third academy, with the Academy starting with an orientation at the
summer IPS annual conference.
-
IPS Annual
Conference – We
agreed that the proposal by the conference planning committee for the 2014 IPS
conference has merit and should be brought forward for discussion at the
University level.
-
IT Audit – We reviewed the
limited information available on the recent audit of IT security for the
University, and members of the senior leadership team plan to attend the next IPS
IT team meeting on the audit recommendations.
-
Use of Outlook
Mail and Calendars – We
agreed that staff will only use Outlook for both calendar or E-Mail functions. No
other software will be supported by IPS or our IT team.
As
you see by this summary we covered a great deal of material over the course of
the meeting. I welcome your thoughts,
input and engagement on these and other issues, and know that any members of
the Senior Leadership Team will be pleased to expand on these discussions.
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Welcome to the first edition of 
The title to this post comes from a question I was asked after my last post. The quick answer is NO, a leader can’t care too much.