FROM DIANE PECK'S DESK

The Director of Human Resources

It’s the start of another academic year – one that will be full of challenges but also opportunities. I want to share several of them this month.

One of our key challenges will be the move next year to the new offices – not to Porter Drive as anticipated, but elsewhere on campus. If you have been involved in a move of this nature, you know how disruptive it can be and how hard it is to think about all of the things that will change as a result. While the move will be disruptive and create extra work, it is also a great opportunity to think about new ways of getting work done, new ways to improve communications, to become more efficient and to change processes that will soon become out of date. Perhaps the most exciting thing about this move is that it ratchets up emphasis on creating a “work from anywhere” culture at Stanford.

We have several significant objectives this year that will be competing for our attention but that will create opportunities to improve service and create new tools to make us more productive. We have already begun work on an upgrade to Trovix and the PeopleSoft version 9 upgrade. The V9 upgrade is significant and will be the major focus for the HRIS group this year. This new version of PeopleSoft allows us to take advantage of new and exciting functionality such as e-perform, an online performance management tool that we plan to pilot (on a small scale) in Business Affairs this year. We will also be implementing a document imaging system – the beginning of our move out of the world of paper records in Benefits and, later, other areas.

I am very excited about changes we are making to support Stanford’s focus on environmental sustainability. You have already seen a couple of announcements on this. Many of our Open Enrollment materials that used to be printed and mailed will now be communicated via the Web. We have stopped producing paper versions of the administrative guide. Now users will access Admin guide information on the Web – which also ensures that they are seeing the most current version of the guide – not some out of date paper version. The Work Anywhere initiative also supports our desire to be more environmentally aware by reducing commutes between University locations or commutes from home to work. I welcome any ideas you have for how we in HR can make changes to reduce our environmental footprint.


HEART OF HR

The Heart of HR nominations are currently open. Be sure to look around and nominate a HR team member you feel fits this criteria:

  • Exemplifies integrity, team work and collaboration.
  • Demonstrates significant contributions to HR and/or the University.
  • Models caring and compassion for others in performing his/her job.


Use the attached form to submit your nominations for the 2007 Heart of HR award and send it to heart-of-hr@lists.stanford.edu. Nominations must be submitted by November 7, 2007.

 

TIPS & TRICKS

Working with multiple windows in PeopleSoft

Have you noticed that when you open a second window in PeopleSoft (by clicking on the New Window link) that the second window often covers up the first and renders it unusable? Here’s what it looks like:

 


The way to avoid this is to right click on the New Window link and select Open in New Window. You’ll see that an entirely new browser window will open which will allow you to toggle between the two.

I hope this tip makes life easier for all those PeopleSoft users out there!

Sean Bywaters
                        HRA, School of Humanities & Sciences

 

NEW TEMPORARY STAFFING SERVICE

Due to popular demand, and the need for a strong contingency workforce, the Office of Staff Employment (OSE) has re-established their in-house Stanford temporary staffing service – STANFORDTEMPS.

Thanks to their knowledge of Stanford’s unique environment and demands, business is brisk and growing. They can provide temporary clerical or administrative staff from a pool of strong candidates and have already placed over 30 workers in the last two months. Candidates come from a database of former Stanford employees, retirees, alumni and external applicants. The best part is – they offer their services at a lower rate than you can find from our outside temporary agency.
 
Your STANFORDTEMPS contacts:
Monica Valerio (valerio@stanford.edu) 723-4075
Darlyne Andrade-Esparza (desparza@stanford.edu) 725-9585
Tom Castillo (camillo@stanford.edu) 723-0918.
General office number 723-1888.

Check out the flyer for details. 

Rosemary Bracy
Employment Specialist

 

HUMAN RESOURCES ANNUAL TRAINING

Don’t Prepare. Just Show Up.

Don’t prepare. Just show up. Yes, that was the invitation to the HRM annual training day on October 4, 2007. Needless to say, there was a lot of curiosity and a little bit of apprehension among participants regarding what was planned for the day.

Participants were welcomed by the Organizing Committee who donned wings to introduce the day. The wings quickly came off when it was made clear that the emphasis for the day was on improvisation with a focus on creativity, communication, collaboration and team building – not just “winging it.”

Patricia Ryan Madson, Senior Lecturer Emerita from the Stanford Drama Department, facilitated the group through a day of improvisation exercises. Patricia has taught improvisation for four decades helping people develop their collaboration and teamwork. She has taught over 75 times in Stanford’s Continuing Studies program and founded the Stanford Improvisers in 1991.

Key focuses for the day included celebrating our creativity, collegiality, and common purpose. There was a strong focus on team building, working cooperatively, honoring our partners and finding the power of YES!

In addition to the HRMs, representatives from the other Human Resources functional areas attended, as well as representatives from SLAC and the Medical School.

What can’t be said in words about the day may be able to be seen in pictures from the day. For one activity, teams were given various poses to strike for a high school yearbook picture. Guess which one of these is a pose for the Future Farmers, Chess Club, Cheerleading Squad, Computer Club and the Wrestling Team.

At the end of the day Patricia autographed her book, Improv Wisdom. Participants also left with a new appreciation for their creativity, teamwork and ability to improvise effectively in their daily work and personal lives.

Congratulations to the Organizing Committee for a successful day. Team members included: Laura David, Chairperson, Ann Allison-Marsh, Patti Bowling, Allison Hecimovich, Judith Moss, Charnette Richard and Sharys Wheeler.

 

Ann Allison-Marsh
HRM, Employee & Management Services



Jackie in the streets of Barcelona

Jackie Buttice
Mulitmedia
Designer

Have you ever met a drum-playing, mountain biking, Bikram yogi who also happens to wield magic on web pages? No? Let me introduce you to Jackie Buttice (pronounced in Italian “Bu Ti Che”), our Multimedia Designer in HRIT since May 2006. Without Jackie’s talent, the newsletter that you are reading right now would be as interesting to look at as a home appliance manual.

Jackie’s story started in Los Angeles, where she was born into a very glamorous family. Her Dad was a record executive, her Mom a model. After being surrounded by famous and beautiful people the first few years of her life, her family decided to sell their house to….David Hasselhof!

During junior high in San Diego, Jackie’s classmates were smart enough to appreciate her wonderful sense of humor and voted her Class Clown. Her teachers, however, did not necessarily share the sentiment and decided that her loud, gregarious personality could use some toning down. So they moved her to sit next to Will, the quietest boy in the class. Will was so “straight and dorky” and so unlike any of her friends, that Jackie thought that he was kind of interesting. But it wasn’t until Will, in an uncharacteristic show of defiance, refused to participate in 9th grade PE class that Jackie really fell in love. As proof that opposites really do attract, Jackie and Will have now been happily married for nine years.

After graduating from UCSD with a degree in Media and Computing, Jackie tried braving the elements in Pennsylvania and D.C. before settling down in the Bay Area. Being “married with no kids (yet)” has allowed Jackie and her husband to travel the world in the past few years.

Jackie and her sister Chase behind a Claus Oldenburg in Barcelona

The U.K., the Netherlands, Belgium, Scotland, and the Caribbean are just a few of the places that they have visited. Her most recent trip to Barcelona was especially memorable, both because she got to celebrate her birthday there and because she got to visit with her sister, who is stationed in Morocco as a Peace Corps volunteer.

When they are not busy traveling the world, Jackie and her husband also record their own music. She plays the bass and the keyboards and her husband plays the guitar and the drums. To balance out all this creative energy, she practices Bikram yoga (for zen) and mountain biking (for adrenaline).

Elaine Chiu
Senior Benefits Analyst