FROM DIANE’S DESK

Happy New (Academic) Year!!

dianeFY07 is here. I am very excited about the upcoming year because one of our key areas of focus will be the future – the development of the next generation of Stanford leaders. This will be an energizing and exciting opportunity for us to collaborate with leaders across the University to create new ways to develop our people. You can read more about this in the T&OD update which follows.

This year, we will take a new approach with this column. Each month, one of the HR Directors will use this space to share the major goals/objectives and contributions of his/her area. I hope you will find these articles add to your understanding of how each of these groups works to support the mission of the University and Human Resources.

So here’s to a wonderful and promising new academic year. I look forward to working with you to make it a success!!

 

FEATURE ARTICLE

Stanford Employees Educated on Benefits

In July and August hour-long presentations were given to Stanford employees to explain the range of benefits provided by the University and encourage staff to consider ways to take advantage of the offerings as the fall open enrollment period approaches. In teams of two, presentations were given by Lori Branley, Julia Buszkiewicz, Mandy Capin, Jim Jezyk, Anne Klug, Agnes Miller, Barbara Miller, and Mike Minjares of the Benefits Department staff. Lynn Holm and Keith Smith of Employee and Labor Relations, and Norma Leavitt of Medical School Human Resources participated in presentations given to bargaining unit employees. Lee Lyon and Teresa Cervantes conducted the presentations for SLAC employees.

Previews of the presentations were conducted for management and supervisory staff. The presentations covered medical and dental plans, retirement eligibility, the retirement programs, medical and child care spending accounts, child care and adoption assistance subsidies, wellness programs, and educational benefits (STAP, Tuition Grant, and the Stanford Tuition Reimbursement Program). The presentations also revealed a new health care subsidy under consideration to assist full-time regular employees with dependents to provide full family medical insurance when total family income is less than $45,000 annually.

benefitslogo

Congratulations and thanks to the Benefits’ staff for their tireless efforts to educate the Stanford workforce. And a big thank you to all the local HRMs and HRAs who have been coordinating the meetings.

-Keith Smith, Employee & Labor Relations

T&OD NEWS

Two new and exciting programs are launching in T&OD!

The Management Development Curriculum project has begun with the piloting of three different programs this fall. The Leadership Challenge, Situational Leadership II, and Facilitative Leadership target mid to senior level managers and provide assessment of and experiences in leadership behaviors critical to managers’ success. The goal of these pilots is to identify the program that best meets Stanford’s needs at this time. Another part of the curriculum project – competency profiling of the successful Stanford manager – will take place in the fall/winter timeframe. This will help us select programs and developmental activities that can be recommended and offered in a meaningful sequence.

The Leadership Development project has begun with the honorable sponsorship of John Hennessy. There has been some time since our last formal leadership development program (in place throughout the 1980’s) and there is renewed excitement over reviewing and initiating ways in which we can build internal bench strength and develop the leaders (both academic and non-academic) that will successfully take Stanford into the future. A steering committee made up of Cabinet level participants has been identified and will meet in late September to confirm the project’s purpose, desired outcomes and leadership model.

We look forward to keeping you all updated.

-Allison Hecimovich, T&OD


skacHR HAPPENINGS

Susan Hoerger and her EOS team recently toured SLAC. If your group has an interest, contact Maura Chatwell, 926-4931 or Maura@slac.stanford.edu.


COMP CORNER

The Compensation Team has been hard at work on salary setting for the past few weeks. Watch for them to resurface from the sea of spreadsheets in the next few weeks!


BENEFITS BEAT

Benefits is busy gearing up for 2007 Open Enrollment. This year’s enrollment period runs from October 26 to November 15. Benefit Fairs – and flu shots – will be held:

-November 7 and 8 in Tresidder

-November 9 at Fairchild Auditorium

-November 10 at SLAC

As soon as dates are set for the What’s New benefits presentations, you’ll receive notification through a Benefits Bulletin. Staff will see the dates in a newsletter closer to October.

 

HR BIO – Keith Copeland

keithDirector, Recruitment and Talent Management

Keith Copeland has had an on and off relationship with Stanford for many years.

Keith was born and raised in a very diverse neighborhood in Washington, DC.  He values that diversity and feels very grateful that he had the opportunity to grow up with and get to know people from many different backgrounds.

He left DC to come to college at Stanford. His student job at college was in the “Personnel” department! While at Stanford, he joined the Stanford in Washington Program, which is still in existence. The program matches students with internship positions in Washington, DC. Keith was one of two students selected. So, he left Stanford to go to DC. (Seeing a pattern here?) In Washington, Keith was a “case worker”, meaning that he researched solutions to problems raised by constituents and was responsible for helping to get things “fixed.” His internship took place during the Watergate hearings, a pretty exciting time to be in Washington. At that time, you could walk up and down the “halls of state” and pass rooms full of people glued to television sets.

Keith returned to Stanford and finished his degree in Political Science/International Relations. He then worked for the City of Sunnyvale for a short while, returning to Stanford as an employment representative. He was the Manager of Employment for Stanford for a period during the 1980’s and has now returned to Stanford. (Getting dizzy Keith?)

While away from Stanford in the 80’s, Keith worked for a consulting company in (guess where?) Washington, DC. His job was putting together US foreign aid programs—a non-HR job! In the 90’s Keith was the Employment Manager for Apple Computer, and then VP of HR for CLI. He left that position when the company relocated to Texas.

From 1998 to 2005, he ran his own consulting business, specializing in high risk investigations, reorganizations, and organizational development.

In June 2005, Keith returned to Stanford as a consultant to do an overall assessment of recruiting and hiring at Stanford, manage the OSE group and figure out what to do with the function. He started a six-month pilot program offering a wide range of recruiting services for about 1/3 of the open positions at the University. This was well-received and the program was extended. During this time there was also a modest increase in the number of staff. Keith feels that OSE now offers a level of quality and service that is “very ok.”

Keith is working on a number of new programs, including recruiting for job families as opposed to single openings and the development of tools and resources to help clients self-manage the process. Talent management will be receiving more emphasis in the next year.

When asked about his personal life, Keith commented that he is “single, with nothing to report.” However, when he’s not working, Keith is into physical fitness, both weight training and cardio. “Back in the days” he was very competitive racquetball player and he plans to relive those glory days soon. Keith likes movies. His all time favorite is  “West Side Story” with “Crash” his favorite recent film.

Keith is very proud of his niece, Kimberley, who recently graduated from the School of Education at Stanford.

For Keith, the best thing about working for Stanford is working for an entity he really cares about. It’s rewarding for him to be involved in recruiting really good people to help the University accomplish its mission and meet its goals. When asked about his dream job, Keith replied that he was fortunate in that he’s been able to do pretty much what he wanted.

Now that’s a nice career!

-Shary Wheeler, Human Resources Manager

HR MISSION – OUR MISSIONS

This is part of an occasional series on how staff creates their own mission out of the Human Resources Mission statement.

 

Human Resources Mission

Human Resources at Stanford supports the University’s mission of excellence in teaching and research through strategic, innovative and flexible policies, practices, programs and services that:

-Are fair, ethical and legally compliant,

-Foster a productive work environment where people feel valued,

-Attract, develop, reward and retain a diverse and talented workforce,  and

-Are efficient, cost-effective and add value.

Kathleen Sexton’s role in managing retreats and producing 30+ training sessions each quarter clearly supports the parts of the HR mission that are related to improving the work environment and retaining the staff. Not as well known is all she does behind the scenes to support HR’s efficiency and commitment to cost-effectiveness.

kathleenKathleen is T&OD’s point person for balancing costs and benefits. She has created a matrix that lays out the parameters for negotiations with external training providers and shows exactly how much is spent for each hour of training and for each participant in a training session. This information, combined with evaluation mechanisms for which Kathleen is also responsible, assures that training assets are used for maximum value.

And what about those more public parts of her work? “Training helps participants understand their value to the University and feel more valued as employees,” she reports, noting that the

“Retreats where people work on communication, vision, planning, and their own work styles clarify what they and their colleagues are contributing to Stanford,” she adds. “These processes can lead to greater productivity, and that in turn helps the participants get a greater sense of their value.”

How does Kathleen state this on the HR Performance Evaluation form? “I think that my T&OD Specialist position helps develop and produce programs and courses for Stanford staff to further their learning and development. I think that the programs and courses I manage also help supervisors and managers learn how to develop, reward, and retain their staff members as well as helping the employees manage their own career development.”

-Judith Moss, T&OD Specialist

 

HR TRANSITIONS & OPENINGS

Welcome…

Patti Bowling  
Administrative Associate, EOS
Ronald Chan
HRM, Housing and Dining
Alice Chang 
Kronos Administrator, Graduate School of Business
Meghan Chrisman  
Administrative Associate, Comp and T&OD
Jill Gran
HRA, Graduate School of Business
Charles Lee  
Manager, Health & Welfare Plans
Bill Lewis 
Administrative Associate, Staff Employment & Information Systems
Heather McNeeley 
HRM, Office of Development
Al Roa    
HR Transaction Coordinator, Data Management Services
Jack Rosenhan 
Administrative Associate, Facilities and Finance/HR
Patti Smilovitz  
DMS Analyst, HR
Kaisa Smith 
HRM, Engineering and Earth Sciences
Vicky Tran 
HR Coordinator, Data Management Services
Jenny Uchida  
Supervisor, Finance and Facilities/HR