Indiana University Human Resources has wrapped up a series of listening sessions focused on its Job Framework Redesign Project intended to help employees understand the university’s new job framework for appointed staff and the related roll-out plan. The next series of sessions has been scheduled for the fall.
IU compensation director Betsy Larson spelled out Human Resources’ work to date. Last summer, her team began gathering feedback and insights from stakeholders across the university, including leadership from many units and departments across Bloomington, IUPUI and regional campuses, as well as union leadership and the School of Medicine.
They also talked with the university’s top leadership, including President Michael A. McRobbie, as well as human resources professionals in the field.
Larson said the team took away several points from those interactions, including that it’s difficult for staff employees to see clear career paths within the university due to an outdated, confusing structure that is inconsistent and inflexible.
“The idea with this redesign is to retire the current structure and replace it with a much more dynamic and flexible framework, as IU and the world around us continue to grow and change,” she said. “You, as the employee, are the designer of your career but we, as the university, can provide the best tools and information to accomplish your career goals.”
Larson and her team will spend the bulk of the 2018-19 academic year designing and building the new job framework for the university, and they anticipate rolling out the new plan starting in October 2019.
The new structure won’t eliminate any jobs or lessen the importance of any jobs across the university, she said, and it won’t change salaries or job duties. Instead, it will organize the university’s 11,680 full- and part-time appointed staff employees into job “functions” and “families.” The example given during listening sessions included student services as a job “function,” with accompanying “families” including financial aid, admissions/recruitment and academic advising. Specific jobs in those families could include admissions directors, academic advisors and financial aid specialists.
“The new framework puts the focus on the role, not on the individual,” Larson said. “The framework will clearly show how jobs fit within the larger IU workforce and how they contribute to the university. Staff will better see how they can manage their career at IU.”
View the spring session
Employees would no longer be referred to as professional, service or support staff but would be delineated either exempt or non-exempt, depending on whether they’re eligible for overtime pay as defined by the Department of Labor.
The redesign focuses on university staff appointed positions, which are employees who hold budgeted university staff positions that may be eligible for such benefits as health care, life insurance, tuition benefit and paid time off. Academic positions and temporary/hourly positions will not be a part of the project.
Employees who attended recent listening sessions had specific questions, including how a more unique job might be handled in the new framework. Larson said her team will be developing the new role descriptors and taking the lead on mapping current jobs to the new framework, working with human resources partners and key stakeholders for their input.
The compensation team has updated the job framework redesign website with the most common questions from the listening sessions. Visit hr.iu.edu/redesign to see frequent updates, the project timeline and the FAQ section.
Fall sessions
Additional listening sessions are scheduled for the fall, including a Zoom-only session. Fall sessions will cover all new information, so employees are encouraged to attend even if they attended a session in the spring.
Sessions will take place Oct. 3 to 17 at the following campuses:
- Oct. 3: IUPUI (multiple sessions)
- Oct. 4: IU Kokomo
- Oct. 10: IU East
- Oct. 11: IU Bloomington (multiple sessions)
- Oct. 11: Live Zoom-only event
- Oct. 17: IU Southeast
Times and locations for each session are being finalized now. Staff will receive an email sharing full session information in early September.
