Statewide Visits

I have completed six of my eight office visits statewide. Just over 1/3 of our staff have attended one of the sessions. I know busy schedules keep some staff members from attendance, so I thought I would update everyone on the major topics.

• Why Baldrige? - we are discussing our Baldrige journey and how it serves as our accreditation effort for IPS.

• Budget - a review of the email I sent a few weeks ago about the budget process and our anticipation of the Governor's budget request in early February.

• "Star Wars" initiative - this two-day think tank effort resulted in a list of "big problems" that IPS could consider addressing in the future. We will share this list with all staff, advisory committee members and some customers. The effort is intended to focus senior leadership on what we should do now to prepare for services we may need to provide in the future.

• Wellness - expect to hear more from the UT System about wellness in 2013. Judie Martin will lead an IPS team to come up with a plan for IPS staff. The City of Knoxville just won an award for their Wellness Program, so perhaps we can learn from them.

• Performance reviews - they are right around the corner. Supervisors will receive training in January as we work to achieve greater rater consistency across the institute.

• Communication - in an effort to improve communication, I will continue my twice annual visits to the offices. The two assistant vice presidents will also visit once per year so that at least once per quarter all staff have the opportunity to sit face-to-face with a member of the senior leadership team.  Have your questions ready!

A few other topics were raised by staff. Travel reimbursements are always an issue. Gail White is wrapping up travel training for all staff and will have one more session in Jackson. She is also working with the Treasurer's Office to see what we can do about improving the turnaround time.

There are two remaining visits December 14 in Chattanooga and December 18 in Oak Ridge. And, of course, I'm available for meetings "live" or via "OCS" if you want to talk between visits.