University of North Carolina School of the Arts UNC Tomorrow Phase II Response Section D D. Faculty and Staff Recruitment and Retention 1. Is your campus engaged in a thoughtful and deliberate planning process to address your campus workforce needs now and for the future? Do you believe you have a thorough understanding of your current workforce and the changes that will be occurring over the next 5 years? o Have you begun to identify the staffing levels and skill sets or competencies needed over the next 5 to 10 years? o Do you have the analytical tools you need to conduct a workforce planning process? o Is Human Resources included in your organization s solution strategies to enable your organization to accomplish its mission, goals, and objectives? UNCSA continuously assesses its workforce needs in light of budgetary constraints, its current programs and potential future needs. The Office of Human Resources consults regularly and works closely with the Chancellor, the Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Academic Officer to determine ongoing needs and to manage efficiencies throughout the organization. Since UNCSA does not anticipate significant enrollment growth in the future, staffing needs for the campus, including faculty and staff, are not anticipated to change dramatically in the years to come. We are confident that we have a thorough understanding of our current workforce, including faculty and staff, and the potential changes that may occur in the next five years. Please see the charts in the power point presentation attached hereto. We do anticipate some faculty retirements as well as normal attrition among faculty and staff. However, we are prepared to manage those transitions through our ongoing recruitment practices. Because of UNCSA s mission and highly specialized faculty, we must continuously assess potential needs within the faculty and support staff. Human Resources, the Chief Academic Officer and the Deans work closely together to track those potential needs and to identify areas that will need particular attention among our faculty. The career banding of all support staff and the E&Y study have moved the organization closer to understanding the competencies required for all staff and administrative functions on our campus.
The Office of Human Resources went live with HR Banner this fall and now has excellent electronic employee data. The Office of Human Resources is working to develop reporting capabilities within the system to quickly evaluate our employee population including identifying demographics and examining attrition statistics, including resignations, retirements, internal transfers and promotions, and involuntary terminations. Upon the completion of the implementation of the position module of People Admin we will be able to electronically conduct a skills inventory of current employees and vacancies. As noted above, the Office of Human Resources plays a major role in development of strategies relating to workforce and organizational development at UNCSA. Although, historically, UNCSA has not had a strong human resources function, in recent years the Office of Human Resources has become a critical player on the campus and is now involved in all major recruitment activities, and works much more closely with the senior management team to ensure that faculty and staff are in place to enable the campus to meet its goals and accomplish its mission. 2. With respect to critical talent issues, have you begun to identify gaps and surpluses between the present and the future with respect to leader and worker shortages? o Have you implemented or do you have plans to implement a proactive recruitment strategy designed to attract top talent and identify candidates to target hard to fill positions? o Have you developed or do you have plans to develop a strategy to retrain, redeploy or reduce in force employees where functions are not needed in the future? UNCSA is somewhat unique in that it must hire highly specialized artists that can teach a particular art form to students. The campus understands, to the extent possible, its workforce needs in the next five years. UNCSA does have plans to implement a proactive recruitment strategy to attract topquality talent, but its implementation may be delayed due to severe budgetary restrictions. Through the exercise of evaluating potential budget reversions as high as 7%, and as part of UNCSA s ongoing assessment of its workforce, Human Resources and the Chief
Operating Officer continuously determine where efficiencies can be achieved within the workforce. The campus is understaffed in many areas and cutting positions will cripple departments to a degree that will prevent them from performing the basic functions of their respective areas. UNCSA employees represent a talented and dedicated workforce that, with appropriate training, can grow with the institution. The Office of Human Resources had completed interviews to hire a trainer, but the position was frozen due to the current budget crisis. The absence of an onsite trainer hampers our ability to develop and retain employees. UNCSA already adheres to a policy of redeploying employees where possible and will reduce the size of the workforce when necessary. 3. With respect to the aging workforce and attrition, have you evaluated the percentage of employees who will be eligible for retirement over the next 5, 10, 15, 20 year period and the impact this will have on your campus workforce? o Have you addressed how you can improve recruitment and retention of employees and reduce turnover in your organization? o Are there policies or programs that General Administration should consider implementing that would help to improve your campus recruitment and retention efforts? o Has the availability of phased retirement been helpful in addressing faculty recruitment, retention, and retirement issues? Given the increasing numbers of non tenured and non tenure track faculty on UNC campuses, should phased retirement be extended to these faculty? UNCSA continuously evaluates its workforce and has determined, based on the make up of the workforce currently, the percentage of employees eligible for retirement in the coming years. As noted above, since the campus will not experience significant enrollment growth, we believe UNCSA can manage the retirement and attrition of its workforce effectively without any significant detrimental impact to the campus. UNCSA s Office of Human Resources now has a full time human resources generalist that oversees all of the recruitment activities and job design on the campus. This has significantly improved the effectiveness of the recruiting activities. Through improved screening and interview processes, employee orientation, the retention rate of employees has improved and turnover has decreased. Further improvement will come from the ability to train our employees in both hard skills and soft skills, to provide each employee and manager with a baseline for success. General Administration could assist our effectiveness by coordinating shared services between campuses, facilitating opportunities for policy comparisons and reviews,
providing standards when appropriate. Most importantly, General Administration could assist our effectiveness by supporting the recommendations from the UNC Task force. The availability of phased retirement has not had a major impact at UNCSA. Due to the relatively small size of our faculty and the fact that we do not have tenure, we have been able to manage retirements relatively well. 4. With respect to worldwide demographic shifts in age and ethnicity/race, what challenges have you identified for your university at the present time, or within the next 5 years, as a result of demographic shifts? UNCSA, not unlike other campuses in the UNC system, continues to have a difficult time recruiting persons of color for open faculty positions. Due to the specialized nature of most of our faculty positions and the fact that the candidate pools for such positions are so limited, we do not anticipate any change in this circumstance. Consequently, as our student body becomes increasingly diverse, our faculty may not mirror that diversity, which can create challenges. Human Resources will continue to seek a bilingual workforce. In addition, Human Resources and the wellness committees will continue to evaluate our population s need for family friendly workplace practices and policies as the age of our employee population shifts. 5. What are some of the barriers that your University is facing with respect to recruiting and retaining high potential talent? What additional resources/flexibilities would be helpful to help you address these challenges, e.g., policies, programs, compensation, benefits, etc.? UNCSA is recognized as one of the leading conservatories in the United States. We compete with the likes of Juilliard, Eastman, and other private institutions for our faculty and, to some extent, our staff. In addition, many of our faculty are recruited from the private sector. Consequently, the most significant barrier to recruiting high potential talent is our inability to offer competitive salaries and benefits. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that we are the smallest campus in the system, with little or no enrollment growth, and with approved salary ranges for positions that are compared to other small campuses but are not competitive with the market place in which we recruit. To effectively address these challenges, UNCSA should not be compared to small campuses within the system but should be compared to the top professional (law, business, medical) schools within the system, and should be funded similarly. The
additional resources would provide us the flexibility to compete for the very best performing artists and instructors and would enable us to attract the highest caliber students in the country. Simply put, financial resources are the single most significant obstacle to the school reaching its full potential. 6. With respect to managing a diverse multi generational workforce, how are you defining diversity in your university? o Are you setting goals for achieving increased diversity among faculty and staff? o Have you implemented programs, policies and activities to support diversity in your university? If so, describe those diversity initiatives? Have you found them to be effective, and if so, how do you measure effectiveness? UNCSA strives to attract and maintain a diverse workforce throughout all program and support areas of the university. We define diversity as race, color, creed, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, or political affiliation. The university defines its goals in our EEO/AA Plan filed with the Office of State Personnel each March. The Office of Human Resources is committed to achieving those goals and is particularly sensitive in each recruitment effort to seek minority candidates to fill positions. In 2005, the Office of Human Resources became the EEO/AA office for UNCSA. The bias related harassment policy was revised, the EEO Plan was updated and the recruitment processes were revamped to include an emphasis on assembling diverse hiring committees as well as training hiring committee members on issues relating to interviewer bias. The initiative has been somewhat effective in that 55% of new hires for 2008 were diversity hires. However, we believe additional efforts will be required to make more progress including climate surveys, and sensitivity and awareness training. We hope to see continued improvements in the years to come. 7. With respect to succession planning, has your campus engaged in a systematic process to identify key employees and the critical competencies that these employees possess to prepare for their replacement? What level of professional management and leadership development programs are available for your senior and mid level managers? Please describe. UNCSA continues our commitment to diversity and to our EEO policy and plan through competitive recruitment. We strongly encourage managers to offer development opportunities to their current employees so that they may become the most qualified
candidate to apply for a vacancy within the institution. The state prohibits pre selection as dictated by G.S. 126 7.1. As referenced above, recently, the school created a training position within the Office of Human Resources. That individual would be responsible for training and professional development programs for employees. However, due to the budget reversion, the position has been frozen and has not yet been filled. Consequently, the school does not have any formal training or professional development programs for employees. UNCSA does encourage its employees to utilize programs offered through the Office of State Personnel, UNC system and other outside professional organizations that will contribute to the professional development of the employee. 8. Beyond what you may have already identified in Questions 1 7 above, are there any other significant issues relating to recruitment and retention of high quality faculty and staff that you wish to highlight? If so, please provide a brief description of the issue, how you would propose the issue be addressed, and any related policy, regulatory, or other administrative changes needed. UNCSA is, perhaps, the most challenged campus in the system from a resource standpoint. In addition, it is more like a professional school than a traditional university or college campus within the UNC system. We believe the reclassification of the campus would change the perception of the campus and would help the Board of Governors and the General Assembly understand why UNCSA requires a different funding model. That is the largest single barrier preventing the school from hiring and retaining the highest quality faculty and staff.