What is the value of IPS to UT?

The University of Tennessee holds a land-grant mission that requires it to focus on teaching, research AND service.

Service happens from many venues throughout the university. Nursing students volunteer in clinics. Education students work in schools. Faculty members provide expertise to a variety of organizations. Service is a responsibility of all units of the university.

The Institute for Public Service has special responsibilities for service. Our very purpose for existing focuses us primarily on the service mission of the university.

So, how do we demonstrate that the service mission is worth the investment? We do this in a variety of ways. Some I've discussed earlier when I talked about our MIS systems and why they are important. We produce an annual report that gives examples of how our work is improving the lives of the citizens of the State of Tennessee. If you have not seen the 2009 edition, check it out on our web site.

We share information with a variety of stakeholders including the legislature and the UT Board of Trustees. They continue to support the service mission through financial resources and other means.

As you know, not everything we do can be boiled down to dollars and cents. But, everything we do is valuable to the customer who needs help. Our customers are a primary means of demonstrating the value of our services.

So, when you have an opportunity, always talk about the value of what you do!

IPS Compensation - Part One

On February 8 I blogged about the PDQ process and why it is important to have job family, title and pay grade correctly classified for each position. Our classification system is the basis for our compensation plan.

The second step in the compensation process is comparing an individual's qualifications to the qualifications of their particular position. We evaluate three primary factors including education, experience and other credentials. We've developed a ten point scale (that varies slightly for a few positions) where you can earn one point for education beyond the minimum required on the PDQ, eight points for experience beyond the minimum required, and one point for other credentials. All these factors must be job related. For example, if you have three years experience in retail prior to becoming a city manager and subsequently an MTAS management consultant, the three years in retail would not count as job related experience above the minimum required for the position.

Once each individual is evaluated, the total number of points earned is calculated. An individual could have anywhere from 0 - 10 points above the minimum. This calculation positions us for the next step in the compensation process.

Judie Martin works with agencies every year to keep our point calculations current. It is important that you keep your supervisor informed when you earn an additional degree or a designation such as CPA.

More to come in future posts.

Why do we have an Intranet?

If you have visited the IPS Intranet site lately you will notice that it is password protected again. If you have trouble accessing the site, check with your IT support team.

So, why do we have an IPS Intranet? The main reason is to increase communication with IPS staff. There's a wealth of information posted on this site including:

Strategic planning - the IPS plan, the agency plans, and notes, reports and updates from the various groups working across the institute.

Employee Relations - our representatives meet regularly. All their work including minutes of each meeting is posted here.

Awards - all IPS award information is here including how to nominate someone for an award as well as the names of past winners.

Leadership team - all the notes from past leadership team meetings are posted.

Employee News and Policies and Procedures - if you have a question about how we do things in IPS,check here first. If you don't find an answer, call Judie Martin.

Budget - latest updates on the IPS budget

Downloads -various documents of interest.

Blog - a link back to this blog.

Are there other things you would like to see included on the Intranet? Let us know. It's there for your benefit, so we want to make it helpful.

click here to read more.

More on what we do...

February 3 I listed the duties and responsibilities of the central office administrative team.

So why do we have TWO assistant vice presidents and a vice president plus all those agency directors? What do they do?

The agencies are direct reports to the assistant vice presidents. There are a variety of issues that need to be coordinated across the institute such as policies and procedures, planning, relationship development, etc. The two AVPs work with the agency directors and the administrative team on all these issues. In addition to the agency responsibilities, AVPs lead IPS-wide programmatic strategy planning and implementation teams and internal process teams. In addition to these duties, IPS must be represented on a variety of system-wide teams. These duties are split between the AVPs and include serving as Chief Academic Officer, Institutional Research Officer, Chief Research Officer, and Chief Information Officer. AVPs also have development responsibilities and assignments for key partner and stakeholder development. A detailed list of roles and responsibilities is posted on the Intranet.

The administrative team and the two AVPs report to the VP. In addition to serving on the president's staff and a variety of adhoc committees, the VP serves on the system-wide strategic planning team and is currently serving on the scorecard review team and the Compensation Advisory Board. The VP is involved in development activities and partner/stakeholder development. IPS has an equal seat at the table with the other UT campuses and institutes. To keep that seat, we must be actively involved in many activities.

The agency directors are responsible for the primary operation of their agency. This includes implementing the strategic plan, developing relationships and partnerships, fund raising, and a variety of other issues. Agency directors serve on the IPS Leadership Team.

If the entire IPS leadership team is doing its job well, all the activities of the institute are supported, acknowledged, appreciated and funded. In turn, our customers receive the much needed services they expect from an outstanding staff. There's always room for the leadership team to improve. That's why we often ask for your feedback in a variety of formats.

Strategic Plan Alignment

This chart may be hard to read on the blog (click on it to enlarge it), but it can be found on the IPS Intranet. We put this together to demonstrate how the strategic plan of each agency is aligned both with the IPS plan and the UT plan. Our ultimate goal is for each employee to understand how his/her individual contribution helps achieve the mission of the University of Tennessee.

Click here to read

Where's my PDQ?

What is a PDQ? It's a Position Data Questionnaire. That's the formal document that describes in a fair amount of detail the duties and qualifications of each unique position in IPS.

Why does my PDQ not describe me? The PDQ does not describe you as an individual. You may have more qualifications than appear on your PDQ. You may also have a few additional uniquenesses to your position that are not on the PDQ. The PDQ does not change with the person holding the position. The PDQ describes the general job duties and states the minimum qualifications for the position.

Why is my PDQ important? The PDQ is the basis for determining the job family that you are assigned to, the job title within the job family, and the pay grade within the job title.

So why is this information important? It is the basis for determining your base salary and your target salary.

Where is my PDQ? If you've been with IPS more than five years, you were involved in updating your PDQ in 2005. Anyone hired since the summer of 2005 should have received a copy of their PDQ when they were hired. If you have not seen your PDQ, ask the person in your agency who handles HR issues for a copy.

How do I update my PDQ? We formally review all PDQ's once every five years. We also review the PDQ any time a position becomes vacant. Finally, we review PDQ's when there is a significant reorganization or change in job duties. Judie Martin coordinates this process for IPS.

When will I update my PDQ? The UT HR function is going through a reorganization. We were originally scheduled for a review in the summer of 2010. Judie is working with HR to determine if we will be on schedule. We will provide a training session on PDQ's before we complete an update.

Got more questions on PDQ's? Contact me or Judie Martin.

What do all those people in the central office do?

I often get questions about what all those people in the central do and why do we need so many of them. You might be surprised to learn that we have among the lowest administrative overhead of any unit in the university. Our overhead is 3.9% of our budget. Not many organizations can make that claim. So what do we do?

Communications - We have a communications and marketing team headed by Susan Robertson. Susan was promoted into Queena Jones' position. Susan's old position will remain vacant until we complete a needs assessment. Judy Wilhite also works on Susan's team. Together they manage our print and electronic "publications" including the editing, lay-out and design. As you can imagine, we have several hundred of these each year. In addition, this team manages media relations including news releases and inquiries, special event preparation such as booths at the Governor's Economic Development Conference, and a variety of other marketing and communications efforts on behalf of all agencies and the Institute. Susan also represents IPS when the UT Statewide Information Officers meet to discuss UT issues.

Finance and Administration - Ron Loewen heads this team along with Thad Grace, Pat Frost and part of Sherri Brown's time. This team is responsible for all budgets, contracts, real property, audits, accounting, inventories and much more. They coordinate all these activities on behalf of the agencies working as the interface with system offices. In addition, this team manages the daily operations of the central office and the Naifeh Center. Ron serves as our Chief Business Officer and meets with UT's Chief Financial Officer when his team meets.

Human Resources - Judie Martin and part of Jane Davis make up this team. They handle all recruitments, HR transactions, training, and all the others things that relate to employee issues. Judie is also our safety officer. As Human Resources Officer, Judie represents IPS when the system team of HRO's meet. Judie also coordinates general administrative work of the central office with Sherri Brown and Marie Vesser and helps coordinate activities in the Jackson office.

Development - Paul Bowman and part of Jill Marling support our development operations. This involves our family campaign, annual giving, gifts in kind and all other private fund raising efforts of the agencies.

IT - Scott Gordy and part of Andi Damewood support our IT efforts under Chuck Shoopman's guidance. Scott and Andi provide IT support to the central office and LEIC. In addition, Scott helps coordinate IT activities that affect all agencies such as our recent conversion to Active Directory. Chuck serves as our Chief Information Officer when the statewide IT meets with the CIO.

What about those other administrators? More to come on them.

Budget Update

I'm sure many of listened to or read about the governor's budget presentation last night. There are many, many details for us to understand before I can report on the total impact, but I'll share my current understanding.

The higher ed budget was cut 6% overall. The three IPS line items are cut 3.4%, continued recognition that we do not have the opportunity to raise student fees to supplement our budget like the campuses do. We were anticipating this part of the budget and already have a plan to deal with these cuts.

There was one piece of news that I was not expecting. The governor has proposed a 3% bonus for state employees. Of course the budget has to pass the legislature and the rules must be written, but this is really good news in an otherwise bleak budget outlook.

I'll share more as details become available.

Congratulations to Mike Tallent

I am pleased to announce that MTAS Executive Director Mike Tallent will take over the role of IPS assistant vice president effective March 1.

After serving as MTAS interim executive director since December 2007, Mike was named executive director in September 2008. He joined MTAS in 1979 as a municipal management consultant and has covered West Tennessee and Southeast Tennessee over the years, advising cities that range in size from Englewood to Chattanooga.

Mike is a valuable member of the IPS leadership team, and it is a natural move for him to step into the role of assistant vice president. Having been on board here since 1979, he has a solid grasp of our public service mission and is dedicated to seeing IPS and its agencies fulfill that mission.

We will begin an internal search to fill the executive director’s position at MTAS. In the interim, Mike will serve dual roles.

Please join me congratulating Mike on his promotion.