april header

FROM DIANE'S DESK

diane

North Campus Update

The Business Affairs Managers meeting on February 28 included a presentation on the status of the North Campus move. The presentation was given by:

• Dave Lenox, University Architect/Director of Campus Planning and Design,
• Margaret Dyer-Chamberlain, Senior Director of Capital Planning, and
• Noel Hirst, Finance & Facilities Manager Business Affairs

Dave provided a visual overview of the entire campus planning – both historic and future – for “districts” such as Science, Business and Art. This overview included details about near- and long-term construction plans by GSB, IIS, Science and Engineering, and other schools and departments. Dave also provided an overview of the high level concepts for the North Campus master plan.

Margaret talked about the potential for a “Pre-North Campus” move for people who currently work in the 651 and 655 Serra buildings. She referred to the potential need for staff located in these buildings to make an interim move before the new North Campus buildings are ready for occupancy – which will probably be four years from now.

The 651 and 655 buildings will be removed at some point to make way for a new Graduate School of Business complex. If GSB wants to begin construction before the new North Campus buildings are ready, they may decide to fund an interim move.  Many of us attending the meeting on February 28 thought that this interim move was fairly certain and likely to happen in the summer of 2008. Since the meeting, I have learned that the GSB has not decided whether they want to spend the money to do this. The cost would be significant and they may conclude it is not the best use of their resources.  So, we are still not clear on whether an interim move will happen and if it does when it might happen.

Despite the uncertainty, we have concluded we need to move ahead in the planning process and will begin a large data collection effort later this spring. We need to collect data to figure out how we work now, and how we will work differently if we move to an interim location and then to the North Campus. This will help us determine what kind of space, working environments, and other needs we will require. This will be a great opportunity to collect everyone’s thoughts and ideas as we think this through. When it comes to administrative space for campus groups like ours, we’ve never had this kind of opportunity to think about what would really best for us.

The data collection effort will include surveys, focus groups and other means of collecting data, and then analysis and discussion of the findings.

This effort will give us a great opportunity to rethink the way we work and to take advantage of a modern work environment that is more flexible, designed for our needs and that provides new ways of working together.

I have asked that David, Margaret and Noel make a similar presentation for the HR organization and will let you know once we have set this up.

Most questions about the timing of our move remain unanswered. What we do know is that, at some point, we will need to move out of the 651 and 655 buildings but when this will happen and where we will go is far from certain. I appreciate your patience and understanding as we try to get answers to these questions.

 

This is the first of three articles on three descriptive words in our HR mission statement.

hrmission

 

Strategic. Innovative. Flexible.

Strategic always has to do with the bigger picture – the full scope, the long range. What does this mean to us in HR? Late last year Diane Peck keynoted an HRM conference with five important areas to think about in preparing for the future. The first of these – “knowing the business we’re in” –explains how to be strategic in HR work.

Here is some of what she said:

•

Understand the organization you serve (your school, department or work group).

•

Understand the broader direction of the University, how your organization fits in and is affected by the goals and aspirations of the larger institution.

•

Know the current challenges that the University and your organization are facing, and how these challenges can affect your work.

•

With this knowledge and understanding, work to define issues in terms that are meaningful to your organization’s leadership and the people you support.

An online interview with Diane on the subject of strategic planning will be available soon. Look for details in the next newsletter.

Judith Moss
Training and Organization Development Specialist

 

T&OD offers new Management and Leadership Development

Workshops and Seminars Starting Spring 2007!

management logoIt’s been more than five years since central Human Resources offered a program for Stanford’s management staff. We are very excited to be focusing now on programming that meets the specific needs of this community after so long!

Through a new series of development experiences, we hope to encourage our managers/leaders to capitalize on opportunities to build and enhance the skills, knowledge and characteristics we will be looking for in the next generation of leaders at Stanford.

In researching and designing this new series, several realizations have helped us to select and create the experiences that will build our management/leadership talent at Stanford.

We believe that managers:

•

Must lead their organizations in meaningful, collaborative and deliberate ways.

•

Will want to leverage their strengths and capabilities while maximizing those of others they work with.

•

Need to understand how to manage effectively within our various structures and systems.

•

Must seize opportunities to create long lasting differences, positively impacting what we do and how we do it.

This spring and summer, we are introducing eight new workshops and seminars for mid and senior level management. Key competencies developed in these workshops and seminars include building relationships and networks of support; designing vision and strategy, and then establishing plans; effective decision making; leading and developing others; and, building and supporting diversity.

Here is the schedule for the spring and summer workshops. Check out the TOG http://hrweb.stanford.edu/training and STARS http://axess.stanford.edu for program details and registration information.

Talent Management; the Recruiting Phase

April 12

Exercising Influence

May 17

Answering the Call to Lead Change

June 7

Managing the Cross Generational Workforce

July 18

Coaching & Mentoring Skills

July 19

Strategic Thinking

July 25

Facilitative Leadership

August 7 and 8

Allison Hecimovich
Training and Organization Development Specialist


HRA Meetings Return!

On February 22, 2007 several HRAs met for lunch with HRMs from the HRA Liaison Committee – Angela Lawton, Jennifer Mallon, Larry Niemeyer, Jen Trimble and Emily Tunteri. The purpose was to gather feedback on previous HRA meetings, discuss the possibility of future meetings, and brainstorm about what those meetings might look like. The attendees decided that the meetings will resume at the end of March. (By the time you read this, the first one should have already occurred.)

Initially, the meetings will be on a monthly basis. If it is determined that monthly is too often, they may switch to a quarterly schedule. Guest speakers and local experts from various areas of HR will be present  at several of these meetings to answer questions and address concerns from the HRA community. HRAs will be notified of those guest speakers in advance and will be encouraged to come to the meetings with questions. The committee believes this will be a key part of making these meetings successful. We hope to see you at future meetings! 

Sean Bywaters, HRA
Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education

 

BENEFITS BEAT

Financial Fair

On Saturday, March 24, the Benefits Department piloted an all-day financial education fair at SLAC. Originally intended just for SLAC staff, registration for the four workshops was slow. To increase attendance, faculty and staff of the School of Humanities and the School of Medicine were also invited. The end result: Over 100 participants who left with new knowledge about investing and confidence they can intelligently save for retirement and other financial goals. The Benefits group will review comments from a survey we’ll send to participants and determine whether or not future focused events such as this are appropriate.

Robbie DeBastiani
Manager, Benefits Communications

 

Faculty & Staff Help Center

Help with Hostile, Bullying and Intimidating Behavior at Work

help centerMany people experience hostile, bullying and/or intimidating behavior at work. Some examples would be incivility, rudeness, cussing, verbal abuse, excessive criticism, personal attacks, emotional explosiveness, direct or implied threats. The behaviors can be verbal or non-verbal and could include anything from gross neglect or exclusion to favoritism.

These behaviors can come from supervisors, co-workers and/or subordinates and the impact can be felt at many levels both personally and organizationally. Personally, people may experience increased fear and resentment, increased stress levels and physical and emotional symptoms such as sleep disturbance, anxiety and depression. Organizationally the impact can be felt in decreased morale and productivity, increased turnover, and grievances and lawsuits.

What can you do when you feel you may be facing a situation like this? It is important to plan your response and not react impulsively.  Some good questions to ask yourself would be:

  1. Should I handle this myself? If yes, how would I do that?
  2. What are the communication challenges?
  3. What outcome do I desire?
  4. Is physical safety an issue? Are there other risks?
  5. Should a third party/facilitator be present?
  6. Should I consult with someone? Are there confidentiality concerns?
  7. Are policies or legal issues involved? Can this be verified?
  8. Are others treated in the same way?
  9. How might I manage this issue, if talking with the person does        not feel like a good option?

Talking with a confidential resource can be an important step in deciding how to manage difficult work issues. Just hearing yourself talk about your experience can be a real help in determining next steps. And if you have already decided about steps, role playing the different possibilities can also be very useful.

If you or someone you are working with is experiencing these kinds of issues at the work place, please consider talking with the confidential resources that Stanford has to offer:

  1. The Faculty Staff Help Center, or call 723-4577
  2. The University Ombuds at, or call 723-3682

Rosan Gomperts
Director, Faculty & Staff Help Center

 

HR BIO

carol

Carol Skladany

Assistant Director and Resource Administrator

WorkLife Office

Carol Skladany is a little person with a huge spirit. The WorkLife Office is a perfect fit for her because Carol seems to have a wonderful sense of what’s important in life.  For instance, take her idea of a vacation. In August 2006, Carol volunteered to work at one of Paul Newman’s Painted Turtle Camps for chronically ill children. Carol worked as a camp counselor during Little People Week. Even though little people are not chronically ill, they do face some challenges in daily living and daily camping! She joked that her parents called it “luxury” camping because evidently the facilities – at Lake Hughes in southern California – were very nice, if not pretty posh. I asked Carol if she thought she’d go back and she said, “No, I’m too old to go to camp.” So, I guess it was pretty hard work and play.

Carol has been on campus since 1988.  She worked at the Stanford Arboretum Children’s Center for ten years and moved to the WorkLife Office in 1998. This was pretty much a natural, since Carol has a BA in liberal studies with an emphasis on early childhood education from Sonoma State.

Originally from Ohio, Carol came to California as a junior in high school when her father accepted a job here. Although it took Carol awhile to get used to all this sunshine, she’s now a bona fide Californian. So much so that even though her whole family – parents, a brother, and a sister, 4 nieces and a nephew – no longer live in California, she’s stayed.

In 2003, Carol took a year’s leave of absence and worked as the registrar at a K-12 school in Tokyo, Japan. She found out about this opportunity through her church and thought it sounded interesting…here’s that big spirit thing again. And, they did speak English. She thoroughly enjoyed herself and even learned some Japanese – as she says, “mostly food.” Well, that would be important. Carol told me that one of her friends had said that in order to enjoy an experience like that, you would need to be “comfortable being uncomfortable” or in other words, not “Lost in Translation.”

Carol is very involved in her church and co-leads a women’s Bible study group once a week. She is also learning to knit and has so far completed some truly fantastic pot holders. Not one to be complacent with success, Carol hopes to move on to some really fun scarves and even baby blankets. (Carol, you should check out Stanford Knitwits).

Carol is also taking a basic photography class. Her housemate is very interested in photography and inspired her to take a crack at this hobby. In addition, Carol enjoys reading biographies and novels. Her present favorite is The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. On the movie front, she’s a fan of romantic comedies. She has seen Return to Me countless times and was still misting up at the mere mention of the film.

Carol loves walking on campus and being part of such a diverse community. She enjoys seeing the students walking or whizzing by on their bicycles, the fact that there are so many different architectural styles on campus – and even a church!

In addition, Carol loves her work here because of her colleagues and the fact that there’s always something new and different going on. That sounds a lot like Carol’s approach to the rest of her life as well. Who knows what might strike her fancy next?

 

Sharys Wheeler
HRM, School of Education