18 September 2018

SAC Minutes

09.18.2018

“Listening to and lifting staff voices to build an informed community”

Ben Wilson, Steve Lockard, Diane Fritz, Nabil Kashyap, Lynn Grady, Trish Tancredi, Domenic Porrini, Susan Eager, Pamela Borkowski, Pamela Prescod-Cesar, Zenobia Hargust

Calendar:

Tuesday, Oct 23                      SAC meeting, Sharples Room 4

Thursday, Nov 1                      Fall All Staff Gathering, 10:30 am – 12:00 noon

Tuesday Nov 20                       SAC meeting, Sharples Room 4

For Discussion:

SAC Internal Committee Assignments:

            Moderator/Co-moderators

            Secretary(ies)

            Web Site Admin

            Communications

            Staff Discounts

            Community Building

            Recruitment

Individual committee assignments and charges to be finalized at October meeting

November All Staff: speakers

Diane will work with Pamela to finalize list and invite speakers.

Open House – October?  Date? 

Will do an Open House in the Spring; maybe with a guest speaker?

Assistance is requested from SAC to support and help publicize efforts to support the annual the United Way Campaign. 

Career guidance and coaching including help in updating resumes, cover letters and practice interviews is available through HR.  Contact Tony Natale to schedule a time.  HR plans to include more resources on how to navigate your career on the HR web site.

Questions to SAC [from separate individuals]:

Question #1

“Swarthmore College is committed to sustaining our position as a competitive, private, liberal arts College through the purposeful selection, and ongoing development, of our internal talent.”  Swarthmore HR Website

The college has stated a commitment to staff development, devoted time and expense to staff development activities, and encouraged employees to participate. Why doesn’t it also have policy and procedures that encourage promotion from within the college community? Staff development is inconsequential unless it is also accompanied by changes to the workplace that result in advancement for current employees. The ability for staff to move up or across in an organization is paramount to good staff morale and performance. 

Some of the changes could include:

Internal advertising of open positions, when there is a reason to believe that there are qualified internal candidates, then advertising externally if no viable internal candidate applies.

Weighting internal candidate applications and taking into account their term of service to the college.
Allowing campus community members to see how job openings are graded so they are able to evaluate if the job opening is a promotion for them.

Clear information for staff that outlines what they can to advance in their jobs and become qualified for promotion.

Clear and concise grading of positions, to make transparent the skills and knowledge that are needed for each pay grade.

Make clear the results of the Campus Climate Survey (i.e. personnel low morale) and make transparent the changes as a result of the survey

I am sure others will have additional suggestions.

Question #2

AAs have low morale on campus

AAs have no advocate, no voice for promotion or salary discussion [faculty chair are not responsive as supervisors]

AAs have a lot of responsibility and no authority [often serve as unofficial student advisors] - not compensated for the job being done

Qualified candidates for advertised positions drop out of searches due to low pay, or quit after a year (i.e., Soc/Anth failed search; Interdisciplinary Studies over-qualified AA)

AAs have multiple new systems to learn and manage but they are not consulted when new systems are being considered (25Live); no-one to turn to for help with systems; current systems are hard to locate on the different college webpages (resort to using Google)

Resolution:

Questions 1 and 2 are in the process of being addressed by/with HR; conversation on these questions will continue at the October SAC meeting.

Question #3

Apparently the night shift evs staff have difficulty getting supplies. especially the 'new' bags for the 'new' trashcans (you've seen the big trash cans on campus that are green for compost, grey for trash, etc).

also - there is a communication problem (apparently) in that night time shift evs staff have difficulty contacting supervisors, or supervisors are 'absent' from their lives. 

thank you again!

Resolution:

Steve Lockard, night shift supervisor, is attending SAC meetings to facilitate communication between staff and SAC. 

Supervisor visibility for EVS night shift to be addressed by Steve Lockard.

1,000 new trash cans were set up over the summer.  The compost bags cannot be ordered in bulk and stored as they break down quickly; as soon as they’re made.   EVS is learning to navigate a 2-day delivery turnaround on the bags.