When Karen Simpkins took her interim position as associate
vice president for human resources in 2006, her task was
straightforward: Figure out what Eastern Michigan needed
to do to have a state-of-the-art human resources department,
then make it happen.
Straightforward, but not simple.
She inherited a department that, through budget cuts,
attrition and inconsistent leadership, was missing key
players, stretched to its limit and in no position to provide
state-of-the-art anything.
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RESOURCE READY: Members of Eastern Michigan
University's Human Resources staff pose in the
foyer
of HR's offices in McKenny Hall. Karen Simpkins,
associate vice president for human resources, has,
over time, reorganized the operation though new
hires,
a new team configuration and a reclassification
for the department's clerical staff. The goal of
these
moves is to be a proactive, rather than a reactive
organization. |
Simpkins has directed a gradual overhaul in HR, which
has included a change in reporting hierarchy, new hires,
a new team configuration and a new classification for the
department's clerical staff.
Applying the best practices of HR professional organizations
and benchmarking against other public universities in Michigan
and in the Mid-American Conference, Simpkins and her staff
have developed a strategy to make sure EMU's Human Resources
department has the right people committed to the right
tasks. At every turn, it's about being proactive rather
than reactive.
When she joined the department as its fifth director in
roughly five years, HR had lost its only staff members
with experience in union negotiations; and budget cuts
had eliminated the director of training and professional
development, and six clerical positions.
"And they wondered why there were problems," Simpkins
said. "We've been able to add a new employee relations
director, and able to fund a new director of training and
professional development. We got a clerical position back... It's
been a process of working with the folks who are here and
rebuilding things slowly."
With five union contracts to administer, Simpkins started
by re-creating the employee relations director position
and hiring labor relations specialist David Trakul to do
the job. This spring, HR added a director of training and
professional development, James Gallaher.
"Leadership development is a big trend right now," Simpkins
said. "It's really been neglected in higher education.
You have a lot of leaders moving through the ranks with
very little preparation."
In July 2007, Simpkins began reporting directly to the
president, rather than to the vice president of business
and finance, as previous human resources directors had
— a small change with big implications.
"If you think about it, they're really at cross purposes," Simpkins
said. "(The vice president of business and finance)
is trying to save money and the person lobbying on behalf
of the employee was getting lost in that. One of the big
trends (nationally) is to move that person right under
the president as a strategic adviser."
In April, the HR consultants and generalists were grouped
into three-person teams to help balance workloads and keep
service consistent during vacation or sick time.
In June, the department's clerical positions became non-union,
an important distinction in the department responsible
for negotiating union contracts. Three of those jobs were
reclassified as HR associates, a para-professional position.
While associates handle a lot of the day-to-day paperwork,
the two consultants in each team can be more proactive
with their assigned departments, developing forward-looking
strategies rather than just reacting to issues.
And by working with the consultants, the generalist assigned
to each team will learn skills that can help them move
up to a consultant position.
Simpkins would like to add a staff member who can specialize
in benefits, particularly retirement benefits, which are
getting more and more complex. But for now, HR will spend
the summer ironing out its reporting lines and getting
comfortable with its new configurations.
"It's been a departmental effort to look at all
of what we do and keep recommending steps that need to
be taken," Simpkins said. "When we ask for stuff, it's
not for us. It's really about what the university needs."
