September 20, 2016
9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
HR Conference Room
Present: Veronica Bosley, Bonnie Bresett, Kim Altiere, Tamra Hjermstad, Susan Gaskell, Helena Warburg, Brian Teal, Rachel Louis, Martha Tetrault, ex officio, Kevin Thomas, ex officio, Vishakha Sheoran, ex officio
Absent: Joey McClain and Miguel Gutierrez
Next Meeting: October 24, 3:00 p.m. – 04:00 p.m. in HR Conference Room
- New Member to the Council
Martha shared that Jessie Nairn resigned over the summer from OCR. Martha said we should look for another member and requested members to share suggestions for new names in the next meeting.
2. Update on Health Insurance Plan Changes
Martha shared that the college is rolling out significant changes to its health plans in 2017 for the first time in 20 years and communication about it will be sent to the campus by the end of the week. A focus group was gathered from primarily former members of the Benefits Committee to review communication strategies. Martha requested members of the SAC to serve as ambassadors encouraging colleagues to attend information sessions. The updated health insurance plan will provide more options. Employees in dining, facilities, and campus safety will have individual informational session.
3. Update on Admin. Leave/PeopleSoft Time Entry
Kevin shared updates on the usage of the updated administrative leave on PeopleSoft. Only 47% recorded either sick or vacation leave between July 1 and September 9, 2016. The number of vacation hours reported were 9,576 hours and the total number of sick hours reported were 317 hours.
4. Draft policies to be reviewed
a. Grievance Policy
Martha shared the draft to be reviewed by the council. A member asked what a “peer group” means in this policy. Martha explained that it would be dependent on the job of the person bringing the grievance. The council suggested rephrasing and better clarifying a long sentence into two sentences. Martha emphasized that this policy only covers current employees. The council discussed how to handle a possible conflict of interest if a direct report or one of his departments involves the VP of Finance.
A member pointed out that there would be similar conflict of interest concerns if the Director of HR was involved in the grievance, and recommended developing a procedure that would address those cases. Another member suggested that may be the Provost should be included in the process to add fairness to this process. Another member suggested hiring a third party to function as an external investigator or using college counsel.
A few members asked about specific examples of scenarios when this policy would apply. Martha suggested that by adding specific examples we may risk limiting the scope of policy.
b. Bereavement Policy
Martha shared the final draft of the bereavement policy based on the research conducted by the council last spring. The council struggled to decide between giving authority to managers for granting 5 days for bereavement leave if need be. If additional time is needed, supervisors can consult with HR to extend the leave. Martha explained that all events directly related to funeral will be covered under bereavement leave and bereavement leave is a paid leave. Some members were of the opinion that employees should speak to their supervisors about their specific needs for bereavement, others felt that employees should be able to take the full three days without having to give an accounting of how the time was used to their supervisors. Some members were comfortable with the language that specifically earmarks bereavement for attending services; others felt that grief at the loss of a loved one should also be covered under the policy.
Next Meeting Topics
- Input from committee members on additional members of the advisory committee.
- Recommendation on hourly vacation increase timeline
- Finalizing Bereavement policy
- Finalizing Grievance policy
- Input from committee on future agenda items
Please submit any agenda items to Kevin prior to the next scheduled meeting.
