For Your Benefit

The System HR office periodically distributes a newsletter called "For Your Benefit."  In the Fall 2013 issue two IPS staff members were highlighted.

In the Employee Feedback section Brett Ward talked about his interactions with the Partnership Promise program. Thankfully, it worked out for him.

In the Becoming a Better Boss section Pat Hardy was a featured manager. Pat says, "I'm not afraid to make difficult decisions because I listen to my team and get their feedback."

You should have received this newsletter at your home address.  If not, check it out on the UT website at:  For Your Benefit

Thanks to Brett and Pat for participating!

Using Knoxville Hotels Made Easy

Good News Regarding Rates at Three Downtown Knoxville Hotels

 We recently received some good news for employees about some downtown Knoxville hotel rates. The orders placed with these properties do not require bids or contracts. UT plans to obtain similar agreements with hotels in Nashville and other areas where university travelers frequently hold events.

Through a competitive process the university has issued system-wide framework orders to three hotels in downtown Knoxville for lodging, meeting space and food and beverage prices. The hotels are the Hilton, World’s Fair Holiday Inn and the Crowne Plaza. The hotels have provided CONUS rates or lower, discounts off catering menus and they agreed to accept a standard university ordering form, which can be found at: http://app.perfectforms.com/PresentationServer/(S(yobojsmoebjop2uuvcur1b45))/Form.aspx/Play/sD1CAg4E?f=sD1CAg4E.

• Bidding is not required to use the services of these hotels, even if the event exceeds $5,000.
• Orders can be placed using the University’s Event Order Form and contracts are not required. Departments may sign their form.
• Perks and protections are built into the agreement such as:
• One free night for every 40 rooms reserved at an event
• Upgrades for VIPs based on availability
• Attrition charges are capped

To see more information about planning a conference at one of these hotels, go to http://treasurer.tennessee.edu/travel/confratesknoxville.htm for details.

Further, these hotels have agreed to give UT employees on regular business travel preferential rates and discounts. To see more information about using these hotels for regular business travel, go to http://treasurer.tennessee.edu/travel/prefhotelsknoxville.htm for details.

UT HR 128

All UT department heads recently received the message below regarding staff training. Professional development is a priority for the University and an expectation in IPS. Who doesn't want to learn and get better? When we stop learning, we stop growing.

Your agency director has a current report of your training hours. If you have not already completed 32 hours this year, you still have time to find meaningful training through some of these resources.

 

 

Dear Deans, Directors, and Department Heads:

HR Policy 128 emphasizes that staff employees of the university are expected to complete 32 hours of training per year. Performance review time for staff will be here shortly, and it’s important to see that your employees have met development goals for 2013. These goals can be reached in three ways:

1.       Complete classes available through Employee and Organizational Development (EOD).  For example, a partial list includes the upcoming classes:  Balancing Your Life and Career, Stefani Mundy (Oct. 15, 8:30-11:30); Retirement Strategies for Women, UTFCU (Oct. 15, 11:30-1); Community Response to an Active Shooter, UT Police Dept. (Oct. 17, 12-1); Introduction to Supervision, Stefani Mundy (Oct. 22, 8:30-11:30); Safe Zone Training, Ashleigh Moyer (Oct. 25, 1-4); and Preventing Sexual Harassment, Marva Rudolph (Oct. 29, 8:30-11:30). Most classes are free to faculty and staff.

2.       Complete a training class/seminar/conference outside EOD’s listings, fill out the Additional Training Credit Form, and send it to EOD, 220 Conference Center Building.

3.       Complete a free course from EOD’s e-learning 300+ classes, fill out the Additional Training Credit Form, and send it to EOD, 220 Conference Center Building.

For complete course offerings, forms, and other details, you may visit the EOD website: http://humanresources.tennessee.edu/eod/registration.html.

In addition, you may request departmental training reports, which illustrate how many hours have been completed by individual employees in your department, by contacting Johanna Owenby, jowenby@tennessee.edu.

Update on New IPS Offices in Knoxville

In August we talked briefly about the possibility of the Knoxville area offices of IPS moving into a building on University Avenue.  The State Building Commission has approved the plan, the UT Board of Trustees has approved IPS as a tenant in one of the buildings, and I anticipate that we will be able to make the move after the first of the year.  This move may raise uncertainty and anticipation with many of the IPS staff, so in this note I will take just a moment to talk about where we are in this project.

Our present offices, both in the conference center and UTK campus, total about 17,000 net square feet, and the new building has about 29,000 square feet, provided on two separate floors. We will have training space and videoconferencing facilities that we don’t have now. This will probably leave about 5,000 square feet of space still available, and we are working with the university to determine who else might locate there.

 

We will be a tenant in the building, and the Knoxville campus will continue to provide maintenance and other services for the building, just as it does for our current buildings. We will continue to pay for parking, as we do now. UTK will patrol and maintain the parking lot. We will arrange for visitor parking.

While we are still months from the move, I believe that we all share concerns that the timeframe may not be enough time to plan for our offices and to make the transition.  I have asked Steve Thompson to serve as the project manager to help us get into the building, and I’ve asked several members of the Central Office and MTAS staff to serve as team leaders on this move.  At this time I envision five different teams, and have asked the following to serve as team leads on these efforts:

Team                                                              Lead

Planning                                                          Rick Whitehead         

Logistics                                                          Judie Martin

Business Office                                               Gail White

IT                                                                    Scott Gordy

Library                                                            Frances Adams O’Brien

I have also asked several members of the Central Office area staff and MTAS to serve on these teams. These teams will start meeting and moving forward over the next few weeks.  For those Knoxville-area employees directly impacted by this move, I ask that you start reviewing your files and materials that you expect to move.  We have all accumulated a lot of stuff over the past couple of decades, and certainly do not want to move anything that we do not need to take into new offices.  Please start purging your files now, and let’s prepare for our move.

 

We will be scheduling tours of the facility this fall for anyone in IPS interested in seeing the building and space.  I hope that you will be interested and take the tours to see the new building.  I believe that you will find that this is both a nice improvement for IPS, and that this will help us as we continue to deliver our mission of public service outreach in Tennessee.  Please let me know if you do have questions, thoughts, or concerns, and I look forward to a successful project and move. 

 

New IPS Employees

Congratulations again to the 8 new employees who yesterday participated in another phase of our overall IPS new employee orientation. Some joined our staff before the re-design of our process, but all benefited from this part of the process. Yesterday's overview included the organizational structure, highlights of each agency's services, an overview of our strategic plan and measurement processes, and an update on IPS operational issues.

Thanks to IPS Leadership Team for leading the presentations and representing all of us so well. I know the new employees learned a great deal.

If you have not met our new employees, please take an opportunity to introduce yourself when you have the opportunity.

Jeff Broughton - MTAS
Chuck Gluck - CIS
Jennifer Hagan-Dier - CIS
Brent Lackey - LEIC
Gary Peevely - Naifeh Center
Jessie Stooksbury - Central Office
Karen Smith - LEIC
Lyndy Wibking - MTAS

WELCOME TO THIS GREAT GROUP OF NEW EMPLOYEES!