welcome back

GUEST COLUMNIST

Linda Lee
Director of
Compensation

The Compensation Department is embarking on a new initiative to provide more information and education about compensation across campus. This effort was sparked by a combination of strategic objectives and feedback that pointed to a need for greater understanding of our compensation system and processes. One of our key objectives is to facilitate effective decision-making. We plan to do that by helping those involved in making compensation decisions to gain a better understanding of the necessary principles, systems and processes.

Our specific goals include enhancing understanding of staff compensation and helping managers as well as HRMs feel well-versed about compensation actions and decisions for which they are accountable. Managers and HRMs have different roles and make a range of compensation decisions, so we will provide tailored information to these groups. However, the focus for all will be the same: To enable HRMs and managers of Stanford staff to excel in the compensation activities for which they are accountable.

Liz Douthitt joined our group last November to lead this effort. She and I spoke at a recent HRM meeting about this initiative, its goals and some of our plans for the upcoming year. First, we are working to build a more consistent understanding of Stanford’s compensation system across campus and among all staff groups. Second, we need to strengthen the knowledge and resource base for all those who make compensation decisions or deliver compensation messages to staff so that those messages can be conveyed as effectively and meaningfully as possible.

Our plans are underway, and we have already expanded our orientation process for new HRMs. Job aids and new materials and resources are being developed. Specific plans for FY09 include compensation courses for supervisors and managers, to start in Fall, 2008; participation in the Managing@SU conference in November; and, varied education and information resources about compensation for HRMs and for managers. We are expanding the tools, resources and delivery media available to HRMs and will provide many new tools, resources and training directly to managers who are responsible for compensation actions or conversations with their staff.

As I said, our overall goal is to help HRMs and managers be effective when making compensation decisions or discussing these topics with staff. We welcome feedback about what you think would be useful for you. Please contact Liz (lizd@stanford.edu or 723-7941) with your comments.

HR Moves are Complete

Benefits, the WorkLife Office, HR Operations and the Office of Staff Employment were the last to move and on August 14, the doors to 655 Serra were permanently closed. These groups can now be found at 320 Panama – aka Bambi. This location is the only central HR area open to the public. It includes interview rooms and testing rooms for StanfordTemps.

Here is where you’ll find the other HR departments:
Birch - Human Resources Information Systems and Data Services
Poplar - Employee & Management Services, Employee & Labor Relations, and Learning & Development
Juniper - Executive Director and Compensation

 

Benefits Corner

2009 MCAP Applications in the Mail

Applications for the 2009 Medical Contribution Assistance Program (MCAP) were mailed August 29 to over 7,000 Stanford employees. This year, employees whose combined family adjusted gross income is $60,000 or less are being offered the opportunity to apply for a medical contribution subsidy.

Depending on the family income level, a qualifying participant can receive up to a 100% subsidy on the cost of covering dependents in the low cost medical plan. Kaiser continues to be the lowest cost plan for 2009. Participants may choose another medical plan, they simply pay the additional cost of the plan they choose.

Employees who currently receive an MCAP subsidy must re-apply for 2009. All applications are due September 30.

Information and applications forms are available here in English and Spanish. Also available on the Stanford Benefits Website.


WorkLife Office Brings Back Brown Bag Seminars

Beginning in October, the WorkLife Office will be offering a series of lunchtime seminars on topics, such as parenting children and teens, caring for elders, active aging, and financial development.

Brown Bag #1 will be on Aging and Memory Loss (including a memory screening)
Date:  October 2, noon to 1 p.m. Tresidder, Oak West Lounge
Presented by: Stanford VA Aging Clinical Research

For workshop topics and schedules, get on the WorkLife email distribution list, look on Events At Stanford, or call 723-2660.

 

HR BIO

Kathy Geller

Kathy Geller
Director of
Learning and Development

Kathy Geller, Stanford’s new Director of Learning and Development, brings a world of experience to her new position at Stanford University. Before 1998, she said she was, “a typical OD person” working for Ryder System, Inc., Right Management Associates, American Express, and other large corporations.

In 1997, she got married and went with her husband to Hong Kong, which as she put it, “opened the world.” Kathy spent 5½ years in Hong Kong, where she worked for Standard Chartered Bank (a British company), in a variety of capacities too numerous to mention. Suffice it to say her duties included establishing the strategic direction for a leadership development approach for a 70,000 person financial services organization, which included redoing the global curriculum for the senior management, management, and supervisor talent pipelines. I guess this might be good experience for tackling our new Leadership Academy and Stanford Staff Leadership Development Program, right?

Kathy subsequently moved to Kuwait and then Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She took this opportunity to open a consultancy specializing in organization learning, design and facilitation of leadership, management development and team effectiveness in international settings. (Whew, thank goodness I take shorthand!) She primarily did project work for organizations in Singapore and Hong Kong with clients such as the United Nations, Microsoft, UBS and Chanel. One of her greatest joys during this time was teaching each summer in New York City for the Summer Principal’s Academy at Teachers College. (If you’re interested, she taught Conflict Management as well as Teamwork and Org Behavior in this special Masters program for urban educators.)

In 2004, Kathy finally had time to complete the Doctoral program she began in 1996 – which took second priority to her work in Hong Kong. She earned a Ph.D. in Human and Organization Systems with the dissertation topic “Creating a Model of Relational Leadership for Multinational Corporations in the 21st Century.”

Kathy was born in Houston, Texas, the younger of two children. After a remarkably rapid and uneventful childhood, she and her family moved to Washington, DC, where they lived for the next 14 years.

She is no stranger to the academic environment. She received her BA in Psychology at the University of Maryland and MA in Student Personnel at George Washington University. Then, she spent ten years working in Residence Hall management at the University of Miami, University of Maryland and George Washington University.

It appears Kathy’s favorite hobby is moving, but she also likes to travel (closely related), hang out with friends, write, and is active on the Alumni Council of Fielding Graduate University. She likes visiting wineries, eating out, and walking the Dish – in that order I presume. Although Kathy is allergic to furry friends, she has been the proud owner of a number of fish and, who knows, may someday she’ll furnish her new townhouse with an aquarium.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention Kathy and a colleague have two new publications coming out in the early part of 2009, Transnational Leadership Development: Preparing the Next Generation for the Borderless Business World, AMA, and Innovations in Transformative Learning: Space, Culture, and the Arts, Peter Lang Publishers.

Kathy is thrilled to be at Stanford…it’s the fourth University at which she’s worked, as you’d know if you’ve been paying attention. She is looking forward to the challenges – the biggest one right now figuring out how to connect with the constituent groups. She says it’s a great time to begin her work here, rolling out several new and exciting programs, re-examining new hire orientation and looking at supervisor training improvements.

It looks like a good fit to me – Kathy brings a wealth of global experience to an increasingly global University!