Pima County Community College

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Pima County Community College

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Executive Summary

Pima Community College (PCC or the College) is a complex system of diverse public higher education institutions, consisting of six two-year college campuses with unique focuses and cultures, three satellite adult learning centers, the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base Learning Center and a facilities services division. For the 2013-2014 academic years PCC had 49,504 students enrolled in credit courses.1

Like many higher education institutions, the College has recognized the need to maintain its focus on providing a high-quality education to its students. At the root of being able to provide a value-added educational experience is an effective, responsive and strategic human capital management function.

Baker Tilly was engaged by PCC to review the current Human Resources (HR) structure, explore models and approaches to improve HR management and identify a more effective, efficient and responsive HR department structure, which better meets the needs of the College. The request coincided with the review of the College by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) resulting from the College being placed on probation by the accrediting body. Given the high level of scrutiny that PCC has recently received, it is a testament to College leadership that it has chosen this opportune time to address optimization of the HR function college-wide.

This assessment highlights recommended changes to ensure that the College is able to transition to a human resources environment where not only the basic HR needs of faculty and employees are met, but also one where the HR Department can serve as a strategic partner for its stakeholders. The review focuses on three main areas relative to human resources:

> Human Capital management College-wide

> The structure of and competencies in the HR Department > Policies and processes related to human capital management

In general, we found that the College is currently struggling to overcome a lack of trust in the HR Department and challenges relating to the overall approach to human capital management. Additionally, a disjointed HR Department structure and insufficiently clear policies and processes related to HR has led to difficulties in delivering the basics of human resources functionality to employees of the College. Furthermore, a misalignment of both HR staff and College-wide staff and faculty competencies with the human capital needs of the College has led to HR staff job performance challenges and low overall employee morale. With the implementation of our recommendations, the College could greatly improve its

management of human capital assets and the delivery of human resource services, and begin to regain the trust and confidence of its customers. This report contains 19 primary findings and recommendations.

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Our recommendations fall into the following broad categories:

> Collaborative leadership (HR and campus/program based) facilitating a high-level strategic vision and executable plan for human capital management at PCC

> Adoption of organizational structures and a culture that embraces a “shared” responsibility for consistently implemented human capital management

> Clearly defined roles relative to specific HR decision-making, authority and required transparency > HR department focus and capabilities in alignment with campus and program/department needs > Compliant and responsive HR processes and practices

> Establishment of College-wide training, including supervisor and job specific > Comprehensive change management related to HR functions

Recognizing that there are still issues to be addressed, we did find several recent improvements related to human capital management at the College. These have been summarized below:

> Initial recognition of the strategic and collaborative partnership role to be played by the HR department > Revision of the internal hiring policy resulting in the ability of all PCC employees to apply for posted positions

> Formation of the adjunct faculty and temporary employee task forces to provide a voice to generally underrepresented employee groups > Highly functional and proactive Employee Service Center (i.e., Payroll and Benefits administration)

> Renewed focus on employee training and onboarding (e.g., hiring an experienced and proven Director of Organizational Effectiveness and Development)

We would like to thank the College for their participation throughout this process and look forward to the opportunity to work with the College in the future. If you have any questions regarding this report, the discussions we facilitated, or future improvement approaches, please do not hesitate to give us a call.

Sincerely,

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Project Scope and Methodology

Baker Tilly was tasked with reviewing the human resources function at the College which includes overall human capital management approaches College-wide, the HR Department and other HR related units, HR Department policies and procedures, and HR systems and frameworks. This review was completed in order to make recommendations related to the following:

> Enhanced HR management effectiveness organization-wide

> Improved alignment of labor resources with strategic and program priorities > Reduction to the level of effort required to manage the College’s workforce > Reduction in risk from HR decisions and activities

> Improved implementation and enforcement of personnel policies and procedures > Enhanced collaboration on critical HR activities across the College

In order to achieve a comprehensive view of the HR function at the College, Baker Tilly employed several avenues for input, including: > Survey of all PCC employees with over 1,000 responses received

> Over 28 focus group interviews with representation from (see Appendix A for a list of interviews conducted): − PCCEA, ACES and AFSCME

− Faculty Senate and Staff Council

− Adjunct Faculty and Temporary Employee Task Forces

− Various HR divisions and staff outside of HR providing human resource functions (e.g., Employee Service Center, Faculty Certification)

− College Executive Leadership − College Administrators

> Documentation review of PCC HR Department policies and procedures, including policies in the process of being rewritten (see Appendix B for a list of documents reviewed)

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Baker Tilly conducted 28 interviews in addition to hosting several open forums where employees were encouraged to engage with Baker Tilly project members individually. Representation from various groups was encouraged and Baker Tilly was able to speak with representatives from all three employee groups, Faculty Senate, Staff Council, staff members of various HR areas, multiple College administrators, College leadership and employee task forces. Additionally, open forums were held at both the Desert Vista campus and the Downtown campus in addition to the District Office to encourage participation from employees on all campuses. The basis for the recommendations was validated with a variety of

stakeholders as part of the interview process.

Many college employees took advantage of the opportunity to speak with the engagement team about human resources at the College. The open forums at the District Office, Desert Vista campus and the Downtown campus were well attended with the District Office and Desert Vista forums each having approximately 25 participants. In addition to the open forums, open office hours were held where employees were encouraged to come and speak one on one with the engagement team. Several employees took advantage of this option.

Throughout the interview sessions Baker Tilly identified several themes that were repeated in multiple sessions by College employees from a diverse range of employee groups, campuses and functional areas. In conjunction with survey results and our review of documentation provided by the College, the themes elucidated during the focus groups comprise our findings and inform our recommendations.

This report begins with the current state in which we present our findings, including key HLC findings, of areas in need of attention. The current state is followed by the future state section where we have detailed our recommendations for the College’s HR organizational structure, decision making matrix and implementation of additional best practices.

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Current State

Overall Findings

The engagement team has 19 findings in the areas of Human Capital Management, the Human Resources Department and Human Resource Processes. Below we define what we have included in these areas:

> Human Capital Management – Human capital management refers to the strategic approach to optimizing the College’s personnel assets. Many of the human capital findings involve human resource issues that require involvement from stakeholders throughout the College. These are opportunities that are not isolated to the HR Department but that affect the College as a whole.

> Human Resources Department – While all of the findings in this report relate in some way to the HR Department, the specific findings in this category are those that can be implemented almost entirely within the HR Department. These recommendations focus more narrowly on changes the HR Department can make without involving multiple stakeholders.

> Human Resources Processes – These findings relate to potential improvements to HR processes throughout the College. Findings were only placed in this category if it was noted that the process was the root cause of the finding. If the main finding had a root cause related to organizational structure, culture, strategy or change management, those findings were placed in one of the other categories. The following sections present our specific findings in the areas of Human Capital Management, the Human Resources Department and Human Resource Processes. The bullet points below summarize some of the high-level, key areas of concern that were presented throughout the course of this study:

> The Human Resources Department does not function as a business partner to its stakeholders throughout the College > There is no shared approach to human capital management between the campuses and the HR Department

> The College does not use data to drive strategic activities like workforce planning > High turnover in key HR positions

> HR Department internal policies are unclear and applied inconsistently

> The HR Department operates on a tactical and transactional level, strategic direction and initiatives are missing

Overall, we found that the College is struggling to provide comprehensive and effective human resource services to its “customers”, particularly in the areas of talent acquisition, training, and employment processing. The inability of the HR Department to seamlessly deliver these basic

functions has reduced the level of confidence of College employees in the HR Department. A recent Bersin & Associates study on high impact HR organizations indicated that organizations that were unable to provide core services were also unlikely to obtain respect from leaders in the organization.2

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Many of our findings focus on these core services while the remaining findings focus on more strategic HR activities such as succession planning and performance management. In the future state section of this report, we present our recommendations for each of these findings. With thorough implementation of our recommendations relative to core services, the HR Department should be able to regain the trust and confidence of its customers and begin to perform HR activities that will allow the department to serve as a strategic partner to its key human capital managers and other important stakeholders throughout the College.

Key Areas of Concern

Human Capital

The following table summarizes our findings in the area of human capital.

Item # Category Current State

1 Human Resources Leadership

The HR Department has had at least 5 changes in leadership over the past 12-18 months. The inconsistent leadership in HR has contributed to a lack of direction and focus on strategic HR management priorities and activities. Additionally, this lack of leadership consistency is a contributing factor to the lack of consistency of HR processes.

2 HR as a Business Partner

HR does not have a shared and understood approach to managing the College’s human capital. HR does not effectively and consistently work in a collaborative manner with key human capital managers across campuses to coordinate and develop solutions to human capital matters such as retirement planning, trending skill sets for faculty, and talent acquisition coordination. HR has been focused solely on tactical tasks, instead of an overall strategic approach to human capital. Additionally, the current inconsistencies in applying HR policy and processes across the varying units of the College has led to an inability to provide the level of responsive, efficient, and accurate HR service and direction to its business partners that the College requires to effectively manage its human capital.

3 Professional Development

Across the College, training is insufficient to meet the needs of employee job preparation and professional

development, nor are training programs in place to ensure compliance with key HR related activities. For example, as it relates to hiring practices, members of hiring committees and hiring managers are not adequately trained on interviewing techniques and who to contact with questions or concerns related to specific HR functions such as EEO. Overall, employees of the College are not trained adequately on systems and processes related to their job. In addition, training for first line supervisors is not mandatory which creates considerable risk for the College.

4 Organizational Development (OED)

OED is underutilized by both the Human Resources Department and the College as a whole. As indicated previously, the College lacks a systematic approach to both general and job specific training. OED staff is willing and available to assist in a more significant way to train and/or collaborate on training College employees and ensuring that human capital resources develop key competencies in emerging or priority job requirements.

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5 Change Management – HR Transformation

Employees do not have trust or confidence in the human resources functions at the College. Although multiple efforts are currently in progress to improve human resources delivery at the College, these efforts and recent HR

transformation successes have not been thoroughly communicated to employees. Therefore, employees continue to distrust Human Resources and are not engaged in human resource management improvement.

6 Required Competencies

The recruitment and selection process does not allow the College to obtain the most qualified candidates with the appropriate competencies for the position given that it is currently much more of an intake process. The HR Department does not take a proactive approach to recruiting qualified, experienced, and diverse candidates. For example, the HR Department does not participate in conferences to help build recruiting networks and seek out candidates, or use social media or subject expertise specific forums to promote and advertise vacancies.

Additionally, the posting of open positions is limited to a small window of time (7 to 10 calendar days) and posted in very few places, if at all, outside of the College’s internal job site (i.e., Pima jobs). This may limit the pool of qualified candidates that results from the search. Also, a lack of understanding by recruitment staff of the skill set needed for specialty or niche positions does not allow them to recognize transferrable skills in potential candidates. Hiring managers expressed that qualified candidates are often removed from the pool due to this lack of understanding.

7 Succession Planning

There is no formal succession planning at the College. Employees throughout the College expressed that there is not a clear path to achieving career goals and continuing to grow within the institution. The College does not identify and develop leaders throughout the College to step into new roles when they become available.

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Compensation Program Alignment with

Performance Management

The College's annual performance review process, which is crucial to managing employees’ development and leadership skills and aligning PCC’s human capital strategy College-wide, is widely viewed as arbitrary. The College currently has a Step Progression program that requires specific steps to be completed, which are not necessarily tied to job performance, to receive an increase in pay. The Step Progression program is not tied to the annual

performance review process; thus, there is little incentive for employees or supervisors to complete annual performance reviews because there is not a merit based salary incentive. In general, employees from various employee groups and at various levels in the organization indicated that they would like to have a performance measurement system that identifies areas of growth and recognizes their job performance achievements.

9 Employee Relations

Underperforming employees are a systemic issue at the College. It was widely reported that underperforming and disruptive employees were difficult to terminate and discipline. This poses a risk to the College, decreases overall efficiency and reduces employee morale. It should be noted that the Human Resources Department has a new Employee Relations Director and that some changes have been made over the past year to the employee disciplinary process. It is unclear whether all of the issues presented in the interviews stem from past employee relations practices or if there are still ongoing issues with the system. However, it remains that many supervisors feel that they are unable to remove ineffective employees and that the employee disciplinary system is broken.

10 Decision Making Authority

In multiple functional areas of the College (including human capital management) it is unclear who has the final authority to make decisions. Additionally, middle managers are not empowered to make business decisions and upper level management is relied upon to make an unusually large number of operating decisions. For example, campus presidents approve every hire at each campus. In most cases, the hiring manager, along with his/her supervisor should be capable of making this decision. Additionally, most employees feel like they have to go all the way to the "top" in order to receive approval or a final decision for most operating procedures.

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11 Data Analytics The College does not widely use data analytics to make operating decisions related to human capital and general business decisions.

Human capital management leadership is crucial to ensuring items 1 – 11 above are fully implemented and vetted to meet the needs of PCC. The HR Department may take the lead, but human capital management is not the sole responsibility of the HR Department. For human capital

management to work effectively, College-wide collaboration is required to ensure the College’s human capital needs are being met, but also strategic planning is occurring related to matters such as succession planning, industry leading practices, talent acquisition trends in various academic and functional areas. Human capital management leadership requires top leaders (e.g., Chancellor, Vice-Chancellors, Deans) to emphasize its importance, while also obtaining buy-in and feedback from stakeholders on all levels College-wide. Human capital management should be a standing agenda item during the Chancellor’s Cabinet meeting, including frequent follow-up to ensure progress at the Campus President/Vice Chancellor levels.

Human Resources Department

A specific focus of this project was also related to the effectiveness of the actual Human Resource Department. The following table summarizes our findings for the Human Resources Department.

12 Classification and Compensation

The College's classification specifications are not regularly reviewed which can lead to outdated job

competencies and related compensation. This is especially true for functional areas that experience rapid change such as Information Technology. Additionally, the College has not conducted a market analysis in approximately 15 years. Without being aware of market salaries and classification specifications, the College cannot be confident it will recruit and retain the best potential candidates.

Furthermore, new hires must be hired by the College at the first step of each grade of their classification

regardless of their years of experience. This may limit the pool of qualified candidates that apply for positions with the College and does not incentivize highly experienced candidates to apply to the College.

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HR Department Policy and Process

Clarity/Knowledge/Framework

Throughout all human resources functions there is a lack of clarity surrounding HR Department processes and policies. Process and policy interpretation appears to differ by employee group and which HR employee is performing the interpretation. This has resulted in inconsistent application of policies and procedures, poor customer service and lack of responsiveness, which has negatively affected the reputation of the Human Resources Department within the College and also the reputation of the College as a whole, as noted by the recent HLC matter.

Additionally, there is a lack of framework related to HR Department process and policy interpretation and clarity (e.g., How is a policy created? How is a policy implemented? How is a policy monitored to verify it is working effectively?) For example, when processes and policies are changed and/or updated, interviewees indicated they were not informed and could not locate the documentation noting the changes/updates.

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14 Workforce Planning

Particularly with administrative staff, the College does not perform workload analysis. Therefore, some

departments could be overstaffed while others appear to be understaffed. Understaffed departments can be just as inefficient as overstaffed departments causing poor quality of work, bottlenecks and high employee turnover.

15 Organizational Structure

Human resource functions across the College lack collaboration. The siloed divisions within the Human Resources Department have led to a lack of collaboration within HR, which has resulted in miscommunications between staff, poor customer service, and missed opportunities to enhance HR services.

Additionally, there are critical HR functions that report through Finance (i.e., Payroll and Benefits) and the Provost's Office (i.e., Faculty Certification), but have limited interaction with the HR department. The lack of coordinated effort between HR, Finance, and the Provost's Office has created additional impediments toward collaboration and negatively impacted customer service and effectiveness.

16 Collaborating and Leveraging Effort and Economies

HR functions do not collaborate and leverage effort and economies to provide a more effective means of meeting stakeholder needs by working together on “like” initiatives. For example, if the College has five campus hires for a similar position, HR would currently post each position separately and each campus would compete against the other, instead of coordinating efforts and obtaining a large pool of qualified candidates to meet each campus’ needs.

Human Resource Processes

Key to effectively implementing consistent and compliant human resource activities is the presence of clear processes and procedures and consistently following processes and procedures. The following table summarizes our findings relative to Human Resources processes.

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Meet and Confer/Employee Groups

The College's three employee groups (ACES, PCCEA and AFSCME) are treated as bargaining units despite the fact Arizona is a right to work state. Due to this, the College has created an environment where the employee groups are allowed negotiating power and have significant influence over policy. This is one of the main causes of the complex and confusing HR Department policy environment which makes it difficult for Human Resources to consistently apply policy as some policies change annually during the Meet and Confer process. This is highly inefficient and requires the Human Resources Department to implement changes in an unrealistic time frame which can lead to systemic errors and contribute to the inconsistency in policy interpretation.

Additionally, there is no standardized Meet and Confer process or guidelines for engagement during the annual meeting and planning process. This has resulted in confusion and discord throughout the process.

18 Mandatory Training

The College does not have mandatory and ongoing systematic training in high risk compliance areas, including sexual harassment, conflict of interest, and EEO/ADA. As a public institution and an institution that serves a diverse

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19 Supervisor Training

The College does not require mandatory supervisor training for employees who supervise other employees and are responsible for those employees' professional development. During our meetings with various employee groups, it was brought to our attention that supervisor training is available, but not mandatory. Mandatory supervisor training is essential to developing supervisors on how to:

> Evaluate employees > Develop employees

> Handle employee grievances

> Manage administrative tasks (e.g., approving time)

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Survey Results Summary

As part of this project, Baker Tilly administered a survey of all PCC faculty and staff. Although each question had varying levels of participation there were 1,025 overall respondents. Below is a summary of the survey results (see Appendix C for the full survey results and analysis).

Participation

The majority of respondents were Full-time Staff but not a director or supervisor, followed by Full-time Faculty and Adjunct Faculty. Directors and Administrators had the lowest percentage of participation. Additionally, the West Campus had the highest percentage of responses, while Maintenance and Security had the lowest response percentage.

Areas of Concern and Improvement

The survey indicated a high level of dissatisfaction with human capital management at the College in general. Overall, only 34% of respondents indicated agreement that they have confidence in the College’s ability to manage human capital issues. While 64% believe that HR makes attempts to resolve their issues, 38% indicated they have a hard time finding the right person to answer their questions, and about 50% feel that getting HR information is more difficult than it should be given lack of sufficient skill in HR.

As it relates to the HR Department specifically, overall the majority of respondents (64%) feel that HR services are adequate; however this percentage dropped to 37% and 38% respectively when rating disciplinary actions and recruitment and selection of new hires. The lowest scoring characteristic relative to HR department effectiveness was clarity (39% found inadequate) and accuracy (33% found inadequate). The department received high ratings for manners/respectfulness and confidentiality.

The most notable areas of concern included the following: > HR Department policy interpretation/Clarity

> Performance metrics and expectation for employees > Succession planning

> Promotions/Salary increases > Discipline/termination

> Insufficient HR presence on campuses > Step Progression Plan

> Lack of Training

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Additionally, the survey indicated the following HR processes need improvement (some are also mentioned above): > Recruitment

> Cyclical review

> Classification and compensation > Performance evaluation

> Step progression > Onboarding

> Communicating HR Department policy/process changes

>

Employee discipline/termination

Also, 25% of respondents indicated that they were not sure who was accountable for various HR functions (e.g., position classification and salary determination, wellness programming, succession planning, recruitment and advertisement). This is concerning as it indicates that in general PCC employees are unclear about what department is ultimately responsible for HR functions.

Strengths

It is also important to note that the survey indicated the following as strengths: > Payroll processing

> Employee benefit and insurance administration > Professional Development staff and resources > Recent willingness to change and improve > Customer service

− Access to HR employees for advice and assistance − HR employees are respectful

− HR made a sincere attempt to resolve employee issues − Positive interactions with HR

Additionally, the HR Department is the most common resource for assistance with HR questions (38%), followed by Supervisors (32%). It is good that employees are reaching out to HR and Supervisors for HR questions. Now, the HR Department and Supervisors need to work on providing consistent responses.

Also, 36% of respondents were somewhat familiar with most compliance standards, specifically The Americans with Disabilities Act (48%). Compliance is an area where some refresher courses might be necessary.

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Future State Roadmap

Getting the Basics Right

As mentioned in the Current State section of this report, and as evidenced by many of the findings and the survey results, the Human Resource Department is not consistently providing basic human resource services that are accurate and timely. The bullet points below are a summary of the human resource function issues that consistently emerged as themes:

> Payroll processing: Incorrect pay setup or late payment > Benefits administration: Incomplete or incorrect benefits setup

> Compensation and Classification: Both salaries and competencies are not in line with market. Classification system is overly complicated, does not meet needs of College

> Employee Relations: Unclear grievance process. Inability to discipline or terminate problematic or underperforming employees is a systemic issue

> Recruitment: Lack of transparency and consistent application of HR Department policies. Disconnect between hiring manager needs and candidate pool selection

> Training: Insufficient trainings for supervisors as well as lack of training related to job competencies

> Other: Lack of consistency in HR Department policy interpretation, competency and shared ownership for “getting it right”

An inability to provide the level of service that College employees expect and need has led to a lack of confidence in the Human Resources Department. In order to regain that confidence, the HR Department will have to work diligently in the short term to:

> Align HR staff so there is a clear expectation of exceptional service to HR customers > Assure that HR Department policies are consistently and correctly applied

> Guarantee a meaningful presence on the campuses to re-build trust > Ensure consistent quality control

Once the HR Department is getting the basics right, the Department can add strategic functions such as succession planning and performance management to its purview. Many of the organizational changes we suggest in the sections below will facilitate a more efficient and accurate delivery of core HR services. However, an organization redesign alone does not ensure success. College leadership and administrators within the Human Resources Department should be held accountable for ensuring that HR policies are consistently applied, that their customers are

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Strategic vs. Tactical Human Resources

Once the HR Department has gotten the basics right, it can begin to transform into a strategic partner for College leadership College-wide. Below, the various categories of Human Resources work are described3:

> Transactional: Administrative, order-taking. For example, updating an individual employee’s HR records, filling a vacant position, locating a training program for an individual. Completing this work efficiently and effectively is a requirement to earn credibility to work strategically > Tactical: Solutions offered. Most HR work over the past 20 years is tactical. For example, analyzing position classifications, training

programs, restructuring of departments

> Strategic: Work that moves the organization into a favorable position supporting one or more courses of action developed by the organization’s leaders

− Long term (two or more years) − Linked to one or more business goals

− Solution neutral in early stages of partnering. When a department manager approaches with a tactical request, resist the urge to offer an immediate solution. Focus on the result the client is seeking to achieve and propose ideas for analyzing the root causes of the problem

− It’s macro (focuses on department, function or entire enterprise)

Currently, the HR Department is focused almost exclusively on tactical and transactional activities and is not always able to deliver these services seamlessly and consistently.

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Jones, Frankie S., Ph.D., “Beyond Tactical”. 2009, SHRM Presentation.

Strategic

Tactical

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Clearly Defined Human Resource Business Partner Roles and Relationships

In order for the College’s HR function to be successful going forward, the role of HR in the organization must be clearly defined and

communicated. This is not limited to defining the role of the HR Department; the roles of HR stakeholders throughout the organization as they pertain to human capital management must be clearly communicated as well.

At their core, HR departments should be customer centric and the values, vision and mission of the HR department should be driven by the priority of providing customers with the HR services they need to carry out the mission of the College. Bersin & Associates cited an enduring and relevant HR philosophy and mission as one of the top ten practices of high-impact HR organizations, “They strive to create positive employee

environments, and clearly communicate these expectations in the HR philosophy and mission”4. The HR Department at the College has

undergone a difficult period with high-turnover in the top HR leadership position, the Vice Chancellor of Human Resources. During this period, the HR Department has not been able to focus on defining its HR philosophy and mission and communicating this to its customers. Now more than ever, the HR Department needs to define itself as a customer-centric organization that provides a high level of service to College employees. This renewed focus on providing core HR services seamlessly as well as serving as a strategic partner on human capital matters should be communicated clearly and often to the College’s stakeholders. This will be a crucial step in reestablishing trust.

The HR Department is not the sole party responsible for effective human capital management at the College. The HR Department’s business partners are also responsible for the provision of HR services to College employees. For example, while the HR Department can design a performance management process and train employees on how the process works, College leadership is responsible for emphasizing the importance of performance management, supervisors are responsible for performing reviews that are fair and meaningful, and administrators are responsible for holding their supervisors accountable to the process. Without all of these elements working in tandem, the College will have a performance management process, but it will likely not be as effective as possible. While this is just one example, most HR functions directly impact all College employees. It is essential that all College employees understand and are accountable for their role relative to human resources functions and that supervisors and administrators are given the appropriate level of authority to make HR related decisions.

The HR Decision Matrix below illustrates this concept and indicates the involvement of various positions in HR functions. The following defines each position’s involvement:

> Potential Involvement: indicates that these positions may become involved in the process if it escalates or requires a higher level of authority. For example, the Chancellor may get involved in hiring decisions for positions that will become part of the Cabinet. > Input: indicates a collaborative process that requires multiple avenues of input from stakeholders across the College

> Participant: indicates a process that all College positions take part in, such as performance management

> Support: indicates a position involved to provide subject matter expertise and guidance to the process leader and final decision maker > Lead: indicates a position that either initiates a process or is responsible for guiding that process through to completion

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> Final Decision: indicates a position that has authority to make the final decision in the process. Where possible, this role should be pushed to lower levels of the organization in order to avoid “bottlenecks”, gain engagement and commitment to effective human capital

management, and ensure decision-making occurs at the level of impact.

HR Decision Matrix

Position/Department Hiring Disciplinary

Action

HR Department Policy Setting and

Interpretation

Performance

Management Merit Pay

HR Strategy and Mission

Chancellor Potential

Involvement

Potential

involvement Input Participant

Potential

Involvement Final Decision

Vice Chancellor of HR Potential

Involvement

Potential

Involvement Final Decision Participant

Potential

Involvement Lead

Campus Presidents/Vice

Chancellors Input Final Decision Input Participant Final Decision Input

Campus Directors of

Administrative Services Input (Budget)

Potential

Involvement Input Participant Input Input

Hiring Manager Lead Potential

Involvement N/A N/A N/A N/A

Supervisors (e.g., Deans, Program Managers, Administrators)

Final Decision Lead Input Final Decision Lead (i.e., Direct

Reports) Input

HR Department Support Support Lead Lead/Support Support (e.g.,

Overall Framework) Support

Organizational Redesign

A redesigned organizational structure will facilitate the implementation of many of our recommendations addressed in the Future State

Recommendations section of this report. The next several sections outline our recommended structure and rationale. The following depicts our high-level vision for human resources at the College. This will be described in more detail throughout this section of the report. Positions that are highlighted in light blue are positions that currently exist, but will have a new focus or new reporting lines under the proposed structure. Positions in dark blue are newly created positions funded through a reduction in total HR Directors.

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Overall Structure

Our proposed organization structure is designed to:

> Promote coordination and a comprehensive approach to HR service delivery within the HR Department by reducing the amount of individual divisions and Directors from 6 to 4

> Streamline processes by grouping together related and dependent activities (i.e., placing Employment Processing with the Employee Service Center and placing Faculty Certification within Talent Acquisition)

> Prioritize and create capacity for increased focus on strategic activities by creating the HR Strategy and Planning division > Create strategic partner relationships between HR and campuses through HR Generalist campus and function assignments > Increase flexibility and back-up by forming an HR Generalist pool

> Enhance HR quality control with the addition of a compliance component within EEO/ADA Centralized versus Decentralized HR

The HR Department should remain a centralized organization but will need to increase its presence on each of the campuses as well as within the District Office and Maintenance and Security. Increased contact with College employees is important in the short term to rebuild trust. In the long term, College employees will benefit from increased access to HR staff. However, to maintain consistency in HR Department policy application and rules compliance and to avoid additional HR silos and autonomy the HR function should remain centralized. The Bersin & Associates study on high impact HR organizations indicated that high-impact HR organizations are flexible and structured to be adaptive. Additionally, the study

indicated that no overall HR structural model (centralized vs. decentralized vs. a combination of the two) in itself emerged as a predictor of HR success.5

Another need of the College from its HR Department is flexibility. Under the current structure, staff are siloed into multiple divisions which impedes the ability to understand issues from a holistic view and to offer responses with well-rounded perspectives yet consistency in direction. Also, employees often do not know who to contact for assistance and the current structure creates unintended delays in getting a response quickly. There is limited redundancy so when positions are vacant or someone is out sick, HR customers suffer from reduced or lack of service. Increasing each Directors span of control by decreasing the total amount of Directors and divisions will provide the foundation for an HR Department that works collaboratively to meet employee needs. The diagram on the following page reflects the specifics of the proposed HR Department organizational structure in more detail.

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In the above diagram, the light blue positions are positions which currently exist, but will take on different responsibilities or which have a new reporting structure (i.e., Faculty Certification Analysts). The dark blue positions are new positions funded through the reduction in HR Directors. In comparison to the current structure, the new structure incorporates the following changes:

> Management indicated that Organizational Effectiveness and Development (OED) will become a stand-alone division when the new Vice Chancellor for HR begins, and we support and encourage this change as is demonstrated in the proposed organizational redesign above > Employee Relations, Talent Acquisition and Classification and Compensation become one division with program managers for Talent

Acquisition and Employee Relations

− The HR Generalist Pool will report to the Program Managers for Talent Acquisition and Employee Relations

− Faculty Certification, formerly part of the Provost’s Office, will report to the Program Manager for Talent Acquisition. This staff will also collaborate with the Provost’s Office for requested changes in CDAC (College-wide Discipline Area Committee) Proposals. Long term these positions may also be able to assume additional roles relative to talent acquisition in support of the HR

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> A new division, Human Resources Strategy and Planning, is created to ensure that the HR Department is able to focus on more than transactional activities. This Division will focus on strategic planning, budgeting, HR Department policy development, developing HR staff, HR systems, data analytics, the Meet and Confer process and marketing and communications for the HR Department. This function will be responsible to involve all key HR staff in defining framework needs and in developing such frameworks to ensure a more consistent approach to HR Department policy and procedural execution.

− The Program Coordinator listed under this division is currently part of the Employee Relations Division

> The EEO/ADA Division will retain its Director and HR Advanced Analyst. In addition, this Division will gain an HR Advanced Analyst who will focus on compliance issues. This includes performing audits of HR work to ensure quality control as well as ensuring that compliance related policies are being implemented consistently and appropriately. Many higher education institutions have a separate compliance division or function which assumes responsibility for risk management and compliance monitoring for all issues across the institution frequently led by a Chief Compliance Officer (refer to the Risk Management within Human Resources section on page 48 for additional details on the Chief Compliance Officer’s role).

> The Vice Chancellor of Human Resources should designate a clearly defined “second in command” to address day-to-day operations. The “second in command” would likely be the Director, HR Services or the Director, HR Strategy and Planning depending on their experience. Designating one or more second in command positions (i.e., it might be just one of these positions, or it could rotate between the two if clearly communicated to the campus), would also allow the Vice Chancellor of Human Resources to establish a clear succession plan and proactively develop individuals with the appropriate skills and knowledge base to fulfill the Vice Chancellor of Human Resources role, if necessary in the future.

Human Resource Generalists

To address the need for an increased campus presence as well as increased flexibility, we are recommending that the College move to an HR Generalist structure. Under this model, the HR Department will have a pool of HR Generalists who serve specific College locations and position categories (e.g., faculty, maintenance, clerical). As generalists, this pool of HR staff will serve as the primary point of contact for campus supervisors, managers, and employees with complex HR issues. Below is an example of an HR Generalist definition that makes sense and that the College can easily adapt for their own purposes:

> The role of an HR generalist is to serve as a consultant to influence client decisions by providing a comprehensive look at alternatives that comply with HR Department policies and laws and which support the mission and goals of the organization. Within HR, generalists serve as the primary point of contact for managers, supervisors and other leaders. Support from functional areas (compensation, payroll, records, organization development) along with the combined expertise of the managers and staff, enables the HR Generalists to provide the full range of human resource services (recruitment/employment, benefits, compensation/classification, employee & labor relations, etc.).6

6

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This model has been deployed successfully at many other institutions. Until the College has adequate resources to add to its HR staff, we also recommend that these Generalists serve as advisory specialists to the HR Strategy and Planning group in defining key HR frameworks and systems and serve to work with the HR Services Program Managers in designing consistent frameworks for all primary HR processes.

When considering current staff or candidates for the HR Generalist roles, the College should ensure that the candidates have both a broad array of HR experience and that they also have specialty experience in at least one HR functional area (e.g., Class and Comp, Employee Relations, Recruitment). This will ensure that the HR Department maintains its subject matter expertise. It also guarantees a point of contact within HR that will be able to answer customer questions directly or consult with an HR colleague to obtain the correct answer. This will greatly improve the level of service that College employees receive. Below are some of the specialty areas that the College should recruit for in hiring or assigning HR Generalists:

> Market-based compensation and classification > Return-to-Work/ Leave Management

> Proactive and effective recruiting

We are not recommending that these generalists be placed full time at each of the campus locations. Rather, the District Office will remain the “headquarters” of HR, but generalists will be expected to maintain a routine and frequent presence on their assigned campus or campuses (e.g., assigned specific days and times at the campuses and a regularly scheduled weekly or semi-weekly HR meeting at the campuses). As mentioned previously, this presence is crucial to regaining trust and ongoing effectiveness of HR. HR Leadership (i.e., Director, HR Services) should ensure the consistent presence of HR Generalists on their assigned campus or campuses.

As noted in the organizational structure, the HR Generalists report to both the Talent Acquisition and Employee Relations Program Managers. We recommend that the HR Department assign one of the two program managers to each of the HR Generalists as a performance counselor. That program manager will be ultimately responsible for the supervision and development of their assigned generalist. Additionally, although the generalists will report to the Program Managers, they will be expected to be constantly consulting and working across all HR Department divisions as they will be able to provide key insights into human capital concerns at the various College locations.

Allocation of Human Resource Generalists

Using a mixture of positions currently classified as Human Resource Specialist, Human Resource Analyst and Human Resource Advanced Analyst within the HR Department, as well as the Human Resource Specialist currently assigned to Community Campus, we identified a total of 9 positions that the proposed organizational model reclassifies as HR Generalist. Additionally, our organizational model reduces the number of Directors from 6 to 4. Using the median salary of a Director at the College and the average salary of an HR Specialist in Tucson, we

conservatively estimate that the College could fund an additional three mid-level HR positions. We applied one of these positions to the EEO/ADA Division as a Human Resources Advanced Analyst focused on compliance. The other two positions have been added to the HR Generalist pool to make a total of 11 positions.

> Performance management > Employee relations

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The pool of HR Generalists was assigned using data provided by the College on current employees at each campus by employee type. The four available HR Analysts in Faculty Certification were assigned a campus or campuses using the same methodology. We are confident that our proposed distribution of HR Generalists will meet the level of need at each campus and discuss this methodology in the following section.

However, as the College implements this model, it is important that statistics relative to the HR Generalist workload at each campus are recorded in the event that staffing adjustments need to be made. The chart below details the assignments of each proposed HR Generalist. HR Generalists are denoted as HR1-HR11. Faculty Certification staff are denoted as FC1-FC4.

Human Resources Contact Guide Faculty Certification and Adjunct Hiring

West and Downtown Campuses FC1 and FC2

Desert Vista and East Campuses FC3

West and Community Campuses FC4

General Human Resource Matters

Maintenance & Security Personnel HR5 and HR6

District Office Personnel HR5 and HR6

Faculty and Adjunct Faculty for Community and Downtown Campuses HR1

Faculty and Adjunct Faculty for Desert Vista and East Campuses HR2

Faculty and Adjunct Faculty for West and Northwest Campuses HR3 and HR4

Administrators, Exempt, Non-Exempt and Temporary Employees at Community and Downtown Campuses HR7 and HR8 Administrators, Exempt, Non-Exempt and Temporary employees at Desert Vista, East and Northwest Campuses HR9 and HR10 Administrators, Exempt, Non-Exempt and Temporary employees at West Campus HR11

One of the most important aspects of this model is the consistency it provides. Each campus has a pool of 3-4 HR Generalists at least partially supporting that campus. This ensures that multiple HR staff have familiarity with the focus of and programs offered at a specific campus.

Additionally, this model provides back-up in HR staff that support faculty or staff positions. Another benefit of this model is the clarity it will provide for all College employees. The contact(s) for each employee group and each campus are clearly defined.

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Methodology

As previously mentioned, the HR Generalists were allocated by the number and type of staff on each campus. The table below shows the estimated need of the proportion of the 11 HR Generalists at each campus and per each employee group. Additionally, the Allocation under Proposed Model column shows the count of HR Generalists actually assigned to each group/campus under the proposed model.

Proportion of Generalists based on Campus size

Location Estimated

Need

Allocation under

Proposed Model Difference

Community Campus 1.73 1.50 (0.23)7

Downtown Campus 1.43 1.50 0.07

Desert Vista Campus 1.22 1.25 0.03

East Campus 1.19 1.25 0.06

Northwest Campus 1.02 1.00 (0.02)

West Campus 2.33 2.50 0.17

Maintenance & Security 0.54

2.00 (0.08)

District Office 1.54

Total 11.00 11.00 0.00

Proportion of Generalists based on Employee Type Employee Type Estimated

Need

Allocation under

Proposed Model Difference

Administrator 0.20 7.00 0.54 Exempt 1.48 Temporary Employees 2.47 Non-Exempt 2.31 Adjunct Faculty 3.17 4.00 (0.54)8 Faculty 1.37 Total 11.00 11.00 0.00

The proportion of the generalists assigned to each campus should meet the needs of the employees. Additionally, the four HR Analysts in Faculty Certification are not included in the above chart. These employees support both faculty certification but also oversee the adjunct hiring process. Therefore, they will provide additional support to the HR Generalists in areas that appear to be understaffed.

7

Nearly half of the employees at Community Campus are adjunct faculty. Therefore, while this campus appears to be understaffed, the Faculty Certification group will be providing additional support for adjunct faculty hiring and faculty certification.

8

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HR Support Staff

The HR Department also employs a number of HR support staff who assist with various HR support functions. We recommend that the HR Department retain these support staff in their current roles. The support staff who answer the phones at the HR Department will often serve as the first point of contact for employees calling the HR Department and should be able to assist employees with general questions or issues that do not need be elevated to an HR Generalist. For example, the HR support staff should be able to provide general information about HR Department policies and processes and inform employees where they are able to find this information on the College intranet.

The HR page on the College’s intranet has recently undergone a redevelopment and contains a number of useful resources and toolkits for staff. The HR Department should continue to bolster its page on the intranet and make College employees aware of the resources on that page. This will enable employees to find the answers to many of their basic needs without tying up the time of an HR Generalist.

HR Staffing Levels

In addition to having the right competencies, the HR Department must be appropriately staffed. Aon Hewitt published a report in 2012 which provided Human Resources staffing benchmarks specific to Higher Education.9 The table below shows the comparison of the College’s HR staffing ratio under the proposed model to the benchmark:

Comparison to Aon Hewitt Higher Education HR Staffing Ratio

Human Resources Employees in Proposed Model 2810

Total College Employees 3131

Ratio of HR Employees to College Employees 1:112

Benchmark, 50th Percentile 1:112

As noted in the table, the College is right on target with its number of HR employees. However, the assumption related to these staffing levels would be that the incumbents of HR Generalist positions have the skill set noted earlier in this section. Without the necessary skill set the HR Department may appear to be understaffed until the appropriately qualified HR Generalists are hired and/or trained. Furthermore, the HR Department should continuously measure employee workloads within the HR Department to ensure staff is distributed correctly.

9

“2012 Higher Education Survey: The State of HR Effectiveness”. AON Hewitt.

10

This figure only includes HR Department employees under the proposed model. It does not include employees from the Employee Service Center. Additionally this figure does not include HRIS staff that are under the HR Department or HR support staff.

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Employee Service Center

The Employee Service Center (ESC) will remain intact, but include an additional area (i.e., Employment Processing). During focus group sessions and through survey results, it was evident that the ESC is a relatively high performing unit and that employees are satisfied with the service they receive from this group. Therefore, our proposed model maintains the ESC as part of Finance.

The primary change relative to the ESC is that the two Employment Processing HR Specialists will now report to the Director of the Employee Service Center. During the focus group sessions it was noted that entry and approval of ePARs is a pain point for the College. It was also noted that retirement selections (i.e., Defined Benefit Plan through the Arizona state vs. Defined Contribution Plan through a third party) are not clearly understood by College employees and require more effort by Employment Processing to provide further clarification. As Employment Processing is the starting point of the payroll and benefits process, including retirement benefits, aligning these employees with the ESC will provide a more streamlined and cohesive process. Additionally, the ESC has developed comprehensive quality control measures that can be extended to Employment Processing and will further improve payroll and benefits administration at the College.

The Director, ESC and the Director, HR Services will need to work closely together to ensure HR, Payroll, and Benefit operations, directives and urgent messages are coordinated and communicated consistently. These areas will be the main touch points with HR customers (applicants and employees), which will require any communication barriers to be broken down to help facilitate better customer service. Additionally, with the HR Generalist having a larger presence on the campuses they will need to be familiar with Payroll and Benefit updates/changes; thus, requiring a significant coordination of effort between ESC and HR Services to provide accurate, timely, and consistent information to HR stakeholders. The Directors of these areas should be held accountable to ensure information is funneled down to their individual staffs.

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HR Competencies

Although our proposed organizational structure and recommendations will enable the HR Department to better deliver HR services, the key to any successful organization is always its people. For this reason, it is critical that the HR Department is both staffed appropriately and that staff have the competencies needed to perform their job. This starts with hiring the right people but continues with ongoing development for HR staff. Under our proposed organizational model, the Director of HR Strategy and Planning would be responsible for the continuous development of HR staff. Using the SHRM Competency Model11 as a framework, the chart below reflects some general competencies that HR professionals should possess at various points in their careers.

While this is just a sample of the competencies that HR professionals require, these are ones that will be particularly important as HR rebuilds itself and gains the trust of stakeholders throughout the organization.

11

The Society for Human Resource Management. 2012. “Competency Model”.

• Serves as the HR subject matter expert to managers

• Applies policies and procedures consistently across organization • Manages day-to-day HR functions

• Reports trends to senior leadership

• Implements solutions within designated area of responsibility

• Develops reputation as a neutral and approachable HR professional serving employees and the organization • Recognizes potential employee relations issues in a proactive manner and either resolves the issue or moves the

concern to senior leaders

Mid Level

• Provides expertise to support staff development • Insures the delivery of high-quality HR processes • Designs strategy for organizational culture • Assesses compliance risk

• Recommends methods for integration of HR services with organizational initiatives • Resolves escalated conflicts among stakeholders

• Designs programs and policies to cultivate a strong customer service culture in the HR function

Senior Level

• Assumes responsibility for HR and business outcomes • Assesses strategic organizational HR needs

• Influences direction and creates a vision for the HR team

• Oversees HR issues involving legal and financial risk to organization

• Provides vision for achieving mission objectives through human capital strategy • Develops and champions organizational customer service strategies and models

• Fosters a culture that supports intra-organizational relationships throughout the organization (i.e., silo-busting)

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Future State Recommendations

In the Current State section we presented our findings related to Human Capital Management, the Human Resources Department and Human Resource Processes. In the following sections we will present our recommendations tied to each of those findings. Recommendations that are considered to be high-impact or a solution for the root-cause of multiple findings are presented in more detail below each table. Our recommendations as well as our proposed organizational structure represent a substantial amount of change for the College. It would not be recommended that the College attempt to implement all of our recommendations at one time. Rather, the College should first focus on

recommendations that impact core HR services such as recruitment and employee relations. Recommendations that focus on more strategic initiatives such as succession planning and performance management should be implemented only after the College has mastered the basics of HR service delivery.

Human Capital

The following table summarizes our findings in the area of human capital. Below the table, critical areas of concern are discussed in further detail. Item

# Category Current State Future State Recommendation

1 Human Resources Leadership

The HR Department has had at least 5 changes in leadership over the past 12-18 months. The

inconsistent leadership in HR has contributed to a lack of direction and focus on strategic HR management priorities and activities. Additionally, this lack of leadership consistency is a contributing factor to the lack of consistency of HR processes.

As the institution looks to hire a new Vice Chancellor of Human Resources it needs to select a candidate that has significant experience in the following areas:

> HR in a higher education environment;

> Change management and systemic approaches to change;

> Organizational redevelopment; and

> Communication and engagement with stakeholders in executive management, the community and diverse college constituents.

The successful candidate would also be able to provide a high-level strategic view for human capital management at the College and relate that back to Human Resources operations. Additionally, this person should be someone who is invested in making a long-term commitment to PCC and dedicated to re-branding HR.

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Item

2 HR as a Business Partner

HR does not have a shared and understood approach to managing the College’s human capital. HR does not effectively and consistently work in a collaborative manner with key human capital managers across campuses to coordinate and develop solutions to human capital matters such as retirement planning, trending skill sets for faculty, and talent acquisition coordination. HR has been focused solely on tactical tasks, instead of an overall strategic approach to human capital.

We recommend HR eventually move away from only performing transactional and tactical tasks, and consider becoming a strategic business partner to its customers by assisting customers with long term planning that will link to a positive human capital approach. For example, when approached by a customer to post a position, focus on the result the customer is seeking, ask questions and analyze the root cause for the vacancy, then brainstorm on long term solutions related to the vacancy and future postings. Refer to Getting the Basics Right –

Strategic vs. Tactical Human Resources section for additional details.

3 Professional Development

Across the College, training is insufficient to meet the needs of employee job preparation and professional development, nor are training programs in place to ensure compliance with key HR related activities. For example, as it relates to hiring practices, members of hiring committees and hiring managers are not adequately trained on interviewing techniques and who to contact with questions or concerns related to specific HR functions such as EEO. Overall,

employees of the College are not trained adequately on systems and processes related to their job. In addition, training for first line supervisors is not mandatory which creates considerable risk for the College.

The College should work with the Office of Effectiveness and Development (OED) and supervisors to establish job specific training modules as well as general training modules for overarching job functions such as hiring.

It is also essential in developing the College's human capital for future succession planning.

4 Organizational Development

OED is underutilized by both the Human Resources Department and the College as a whole. As indicated previously, the College lacks a systematic approach to both general and job specific training. OED staff is willing and available to assist in a more significant way to train and/or collaborate on training College

employees and ensuring that human capital resources develop key competencies in emerging or priority job requirements.

OED recently hired an experienced Director who has the capability and staffing resources to take a strategic approach to employee training. College leadership should collaborate with OED when considering implementing training and use OED's expertise and resources to develop training that is more effective and can be tracked and reported consistently.

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Item

5 Change Management – HR Transformation

Employees do not have trust or confidence in the human resources functions at the College. Although multiple efforts are currently in progress to improve human resources delivery at the College, these efforts and recent HR transformation successes have not been thoroughly communicated to employees. Therefore, employees continue to distrust Human Resources and are not engaged in human resource management improvement.

In order to reinstate effective working relationships and confidence in the human resource functions, the College needs to undertake a comprehensive change management program related to improvements being made in the HR Department and other human resource related functions. Effective change management would include increased communication to College-wide stakeholders and the community to obtain buy-in and rebuild trust.

6 Required Competencies

The recruitment and selection process does not allow the College to obtain the most qualified candidates with the appropriate competencies for the position given that it is currently much more of an intake process. The HR Department does not take a proactive approach to recruiting qualified,

experienced, and diverse candidates. For example, the HR Department does not participate in

conferences to help build recruiting networks and seek out candidates, or use social media or subject

expertise specific forums to promote and advertise vacancies. Additionally, the posting of open positions is limited to a small window of time (7 to 10 calendar days) and posted in very few places, if at all, outside of the College’s internal job site (i.e., Pima jobs). This may limit the pool of qualified candidates that results from the search. Also, a lack of understanding by recruitment staff of the skill set needed for specialty or niche positions does not allow them to recognize transferrable skills in potential candidates. Hiring managers expressed that qualified candidates are often removed from the pool due to this lack of understanding.

The College can institute several changes that will result in an improved recruitment process to obtain employees with the skill set needed to perform their function. First, job announcements should be posted for a minimum of 14 days to maximize the pool and ensure job announcements have been posted thoroughly. Secondly, job announcements should be posted more widely in order to increase public awareness of the position and increase the candidate pool (e.g., HR has certain required posting sites, but allows the hiring manager to select one to two other specialized posting sites). Third, HR recruitment staff should receive training on how to recognize transferrable skill sets and requisite competencies through collaboration with those specialized/niche areas. Finally, our recommended organizational structure (see the Organizational Redesign section of this report) would allow recruitment staff to focus on individual employee types and develop a level of expertise in that hiring area. Therefore, they would become familiar with the appropriate skill sets for different employee types and functional areas.

Pima County Community College