Timeline

STATUS UPDATES – Recent Progress & Accomplishments

Phase I: FY21-23

HR Service Center

• Implemented pre-employment appointments to improve I-9 compliance and provide new hires with an introduction to Human Resources. This included decorating a conference room, purchasing refreshments and welcome gifts for new employees. $7330 funded by departmental budget.
• Launched Cookies & Conversation series where leaders across campus speak to new hires about initiatives going on in their areas and engage in a Q&A session. $200 per event funded by departmental budget.

 

Centers of Excellence

Benefits and Wellness & WorkLife

• • Repurposed Healthcare Administrator position when Jay Haley was promoted to Director of HRIS/Payroll to a Benefits Specialist. Healthcare Administrator duties to be absorbed by Benefits staff. Savings of $63,671.56.
  • Engaged OIT to program and design the annual required Total Compensation Statements. Savings of $15,000
  • Increased WellBAMA participation by 18% in 2022, increasing the costs for testing supplies, rewards for biometric screenings, and T-shirts. Testing supplies and rewards costs absorbed by UA Health Plan. T-shirt costs absorbed by dept.

HR Learning & Development

• • Revamped UA Essentials for Management and developed a new leadership development program. New program consists of two levels, Level I- new/front line supervisors and Level II- next level manager/leader. Piloted with Finance and Operations in Fall 2022. Rollout to campus will begin in Spring 2023. $28,226.80 funded by departmental budget.

HRIS/ Payroll

• • Started PageUp to Banner integration, eliminating the approval redundancies and need for manual completion of ePAs.

• • • Phase 1, new staff with no prior relationship to UA, is complete. 250 Phase 1 ePAs completed through 1/26/23.
    • Phase 2, has started with rehires and affiliates.
    • $14,168 funded by departmental budget.

• • Started eTime implementation of Classic mobile to eliminate the need for time clocks. This is a three- year process. $20,000 funded through FY23 budget process.

Talent Acquisition & Compensation

• • Partnered with OAA to kickoff transition from PeopleAdmin to PageUp for faculty searches. $37,872 additional annual cost funded by OAA.
  • Raised minimum wage to $14 per hour for 226 regular, benefits eligible employees in April 2022. $424,063.69 centrally funded.
  • Raised minimum wage to $15 per hour for 201 regular, benefits eligible employees in January 2023. $207,992.67 centrally funded.
  • Made compression adjustments for 627 regular, benefits eligible employees in February 2023. $571,986.38 centrally funded.
  • Initiated Compensation and Classification study. $459,000 centrally funded

 

Phase II: FY24

HR Business Partners

• Redirected vacant Assistant Director position to Assistant Director HR Business Partners – Meghan Royster
• Redirected internal resources to fund additional HR Business Partner, Chris Jennings – Office for Research and Economic Development, OTIDE and Office of Academic Affairs.

 

       HR Service Center

• Relocated the HR Service Center to Employee Resources Center to centralize the ERC as the building for employee services.
• Redirected internal funds to hire three HR Business Specialists to support the HR Business Partners. Each HRBS supports three HRBPs.
• Rebranded onboarding events to “Building Community at the Capstone” events to allow all employees to participate.
• Added the following Building Community at the Capstone events:

o    Campus Tours – Offered the last Wednesday of each month. Conducted by Capstone Men and Women.

o    Legendary Locations Tours – Offered every quarter. Locations include Digital Media Center, Arboretum, Bryant Museum

o    Tide Trivia – Online event offered twice a year where employees play a trivia game about UA and additional information is shared.

• Updated the New Employee Onboarding section of HR website to provide detailed instructions to new hires.

 

Centers of Excellence

Benefits and Wellness & WorkLife

• • Redirected internal funds to hire an Employee Accommodations Specialist.
  • Negotiated new, three-year agreement with Prime Therapeutics for improved pharmacy rebates resulting in $2,900,000 annual savings.
  • Implemented EAP with ComPsych Guidance Resources. Rate decreased to $1.04 PEPM resulting in $110,000 annual savings.
  • RFP for sponsored life/disability plans resulted in a 16% premium reduction with The Standard resulting in $615,000 annual savings
  • Initiated RFP for student health plan resulting in a 6% premium reduction and move to BCBS resulting in $121.90 per student savings.

Employee Relations

• • Completed Phase II of Performance Review System enhancements in March 2024.

HR Learning & Development

• • Completed LMS redesign.

HRIS/ Payroll

• • Continued PageUp to Banner integration, eliminating the approval redundancies and need for manual entry of ePAs.
  • Phase III, Faculty, completed on 12/4/23.
  • Phase IV, k2 to Banner for student employees, is scheduled to go live by August 15.

Talent Acquisition & Compensation

• • Completed transition from PeopleAdmin to PageUp for faculty recruiting.
  • Completed Phase I of Classification and Compensation study in February 2024.
  • Over 900 staff employees received salary increases to new minimum of range, reflecting $2.7M investment by UA in staff.
  • Compression adjustment planning initiated by end of February for FY25.

 

HReimagined Financial Recap for Phases I and II:

 

Projected Cost for HR:                                                                                                                 $8,847,850

Amount Spent within HR:                                                                                                           $1,557,466

 

Compensation Improvements (UA Min Wage & New Compensation Plan)

Total Compensation Increases to UA Employees:                                                          $3,897,043

 

DECEMBER 2022 —
As part of the HReimagined initiative, the Human Resources Office is making strides in retaining and supporting high-quality employees through strategic efforts:

• $40 million for faculty and staff pay raises allocated earlier this year, including a minimum wage increase to $14 per hour for regular benefits eligible, non-exempt (hourly) employees earlier this year and a second pay increase to $15 per hour in January 2023. HR is also developing plans for potential wage adjustments for certain non-exempt positions similar to those increasing to $15 per hour early next year.
• Competitive Hire Rates: Human Resources has been working with departments to allow new hire offers at more competitive pay rates to address recruiting challenges.
• Paid Parental Leave Benefit: The HReimagined project and the Strategic Plan both emphasize work-life balance with a family leave initiative. In January 2022, UA added four weeks of paid parental leave as a new employee benefit for the birth, adoption or placement for foster care of a child, to support bonding. Parental leave is in addition to other available leave, and both parents are eligible.
• Improved Orientation and Onboarding: New employees are also seeing improvements to UA’s orientation and onboarding process. New employees now have access to systems on their first day, among other improvements. Respondents have provided overwhelmingly positive feedback on the new hire experience.
• Flexible Work Arrangements Policy: After a successful pilot, the University has finalized a Flexible Work Arrangements policy, which takes effect Dec. 1. The policy provides guidance for vice presidents and college and division leaders to evaluate positions and employees for flexible work scheduling and location opportunities.
• New HR Business Partners: The reimagined model for delivering HR services includes adding HR business partners to serve as direct HR advisors for major campus units. Five business partners have been hired so far to support Arts & Sciences, the Culverhouse College of Business, Community Health Sciences, Student Life, Nursing, Graduate School, Advancement, Strategic Communications, Community Affairs, and the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Additional positions will be added in coming years.
• Compensation Review: In alignment with the 2022 Strategic Plan, the University will continue its ongoing review of salaries and compensation models.
• Technology Improvements: Recent HR technology improvements include enhancements to the system for managing new hires. The AbsenceTracker online leave management system for employees on Family Medical Leave or military leave was initiated in May.
• New Performance Review Program: A new performance review program to better link evaluations to job responsibilities is also being implemented, thanks to a campuswide working group.
• New Management Training: Human Resources has also updated the “UA Essentials for Management” training for new supervisors and is piloting a new Leadership series developed with input from a cross-functional team.

JANUARY 2022 —
Despite the impact of the pandemic on UA over the past year, the HReimagined Initiative has moved steadily forward. Below is a brief synopsis of progress and accomplishments, organized by the subcommittees working on key aspects of the initiative. We also provide a glimpse into ongoing activity and progress expected in 2022.

The HReimagined People Subcommittee:

• Administered a survey to gauge the amount of time spent on HR duties by employees who do not have an HR background or who do not have HR duties in their job description to determine the impact of newly defined HR Business Partners
• Created position descriptions for upgraded HRBP and new Senior HRBP roles
• Identified # of additional HR employees needed both centrally and to fully implement the HR Business Partner model across campus. Also recommended hiring priority for additional employees.
• A new position was created and filled by Susan Norton to lead HR and the HReimagined initiative: Senior Associate VP for HR. Susan joined UA in October 2021.

The HReimagined Process Subcommittee mapped current HR processes and identified pain points/risks and analyzed root causes for the issues and discussed future process opportunities. Several different process-specific committees were then organized to review/revise high-priority HR processes.

• Engaged with Gartner HR for advising and tools
• Completed the Gartner HR Score tool to assess the maturity of current HR functions
• HR processes/improvements include:
  • Implemented a new recruitment marketing system for building talent pipelines through current marketing technology
  • Created a Position Description Builder on MyBama to assist in the development of position descriptions
  • Selected an employee leave tracking system to remove risk and manual processes to be implemented in 1Q 2022
  • Ramped up Onboarding processes to enhance welcoming new employees via an exciting video. New employees may now schedule in-person onboarding appointments to complete their I-9 and register for orientation which is now held weekly.
  • Submitted project request to automate the onboarding of staff new hires to Banner, and to eliminate the ePA and manual entry to Banner – this project request is pending
  • Implemented Robotics Process Automation (RPA) for the first time in the staff CWID generation process
  • Renovated Employee Resource Center, including the addition of state-of-the-art A/V and Bama Dining Market, for employees to utilize for meetings, retreats, and other gatherings.

The Technology Subcommittee reviewed UA’s current use of Banner HR with Ellucian and determined a few recommendations to reduce risk and streamline processes.

The Facilities & Space Subcommittee identified building and office space for future HR Business Partners.

The Communications Subcommittee ensured that all major campus departments and committees received a summary of the HReimagined model via a new website, town hall meetings, meetings with campus departments and committees, and emails.
UA HR:

• Implemented an employee mobile app for HR-related services and information
• Increased campus communication efforts through social media and consistent digital signage messaging
• Enhanced current HR websites and created additional ones as appropriate to improve user access to information while keeping in mind ease of use

The Financial / Investment Plan Subcommittee developed three-year financial plan to fully implement HReimagined.

 

HISTORY:

The HReimagined Team began its work in mid-September 2019. The team’s first target milestone was to deliver to the project sponsor a draft operational and organizational model and comprehensive plan for reimagining the HR model by the end of 2020. The HReimagined Team proposed a three-year plan to implement the new model by focusing on key operations through these HR Centers of Excellence:

• Talent acquisition and compensation
• HR service center
• Benefits
• Payroll
• Learning and development
• Employee relations
• HR business partners
• HR operations