Re-engineering the administrative work processes appears to represent a unique opportunity to convert concepts used effectively in industry, in particular in manufacturing, to more people-intensive services, such as those found in support of education and research. Technical solutions can be powerful tools to accomplish tasks that are now primarily paper driven, therefore, labor intensive. Looking ahead, there is much to be improved. Changing the way work is accomplished is exciting, challenging, and sometimes, painful. Part of the goal of re-engineering is to accomplish needed tasks with fewer people.
While technology makes it possible to streamline operations and increase efficiency, we must not lose sight of the fact that people are our most important asset. As we go forward, it is important to respect those people who have been contributors, to encourage and support initiative and creativity, and to nurture the values that have provided a special environment in which education and research can continue to flourish. Our task is formidable.
I am proud of the efforts of the staff and thank them.
A number of staffing changes took place this year. Sarah Conroy, Benefits Analyst, Diane Gipson, Benefits Counselor, Phil Lima, Assistant Benefits Manager for Retirement Programs, and Nancy Olt, Retirement Programs Consultant, all joined the staff of the Benefits Office. Nancy Olt came to us from the Development Research and Systems Office where she was Associate Director.
Robert Lewis re-joined the Personnel Office as Assistant Director of Personnel for Employee Relations. Jennifer Walsh transferred from the Personnel Administrator position in the Physics Department to a Personnel Officer position replacing Maureen Wolfe who left to take a position in industry. Sharon Bridburg, Personnel Officer, Clayton Ward, Network Applications Programmer Analyst, and Virginia Hillen, Senior Analyst Programmer are all new-comers to the staff.
Deborah Kelly, Anne Coakley and Nancy Keitt left the Benefits Office for other positions. Sandra Titus left the Faculty and Staff Records Office to attend graduate school.
Well deserved promotions occurred from Support Staff to Administrative Staff for Judy Raymond and Paul Glac to Systems Coordinators, and Pam Hickey and Mary Markel to Benefits Counselors.
Last, but not least, Sally Hansen, Senior Personnel Officer, retired after 33 years at the Institute. For those fortunate to have worked with Sally, her leaving left a gap. We all wished her well in her retirement but knew that we would miss her wisdom, patience, knowledge which she would quietly share when asked, and her genuine caring for those many employees with whom she dealt over the years.
As of June 1, 1995, of the total of 33 administrative staff in the Personnel Office, 6(18%) are minorities and 24(73%) are women. (In 1994, of the total of 28 Administrative Staff in the Personnel Office, 6(21%) were minorities and 20(71%) were women.)
As of June 1, 1995, of the total of 20 support staff in the Personnel Office, 5(25%) are minorities and 16(80%) are women. (In 1994, of the total of 24 support staff in the Personnel Office, 3(13%) were minorities and 16(67%) were women.)
Joan F. Rice
The Compensation Office's activities are focused in the following areas: data gathering; data analysis; preparation of recommendations for annual review allocations for the Executive Committee of the Corporation; coordination and analysis of annual salary reviews; maintenance of the Institute's classification systems, and monitoring of all payrolls for salary equity. Other special areas of attention this year have been the DCAA audit at Lincoln Laboratory, the on-going review of staff members under the regulations of the H1-B visas, and contributions to discussions of retirement plan improvements.
The Compensation Office this year participated in outside 50 surveys conducted by various universities and other organizations from around the country. In addition, our staff conducted two major surveys of approximately 35 participants each, the results of which contribute in a significant way to the development of recommendations for the Institute's annual review allocations. We initiated nine separate salary reviews covering approximately 7,000 members of the faculty and staff. This year we developed electronic spreadsheets for entering salary recommendations, and made this technology available to Personnel Officers and to campus administrators on a pilot basis. We hope to make such spreadsheets more widely available through direct access to the Compensation Office databases.
The Compensation Office provides an active, on-going review of the Administrative Staff Classification System. During this fiscal year, we reviewed 130 separate requests for reclassification within the system, for promotion from Support Staff, or for other reasons stemming from a number of organizational changes across the campus, such as title changes, updated descriptions, and the like. This is the largest number of requests reviewed since 1990-91. Over the past five years, the Compensation Office has reviewed 516 individual requests, nearly 60 percent of the 900 or more position titles currently in the structure.
The demanding work schedule of the Compensation Office requires accuracy, timeliness, confidentiality, and a strong sense of commitment. I wish to thank my associates Susan A. Lester, Judy K. Raymond, and Dineen M. Doucette for the initiative, creativity, teamwork, and dedication they display in carrying out our many responsibilities.
Kerry B. Wilson
Members of the Retirement Counseling staff met with departments throughout MIT to discuss the MIT Retirement Plan and retirement options; the program will be expanded in FY96. Three meetings for the MIT community were held to explain the Retirement Plan annual statement.
There has been improvement in the participation in the Supplemental Plan. We will continue to promote plan participation through the new employee orientation program as well as through a series of educational programs throughout the community.
Marianne Howard
The Office continues to process a very high volume of approximately 14,000 appointments and changes. In addition, the office continues its role in the processing of salary reviews, in the servicing of the many data requests received from within the Personnel Department and the MIT Community, in responding to external employment verification requests, and in the production of the staff telephone directory.
This fiscal year the office worked very hard to automate most of the manual processes and to improve the collection and dissemination of data. As a result, personnel actions, union letters, and appointment letters are generated directly from data in the Cyborg Human Resource system. Also, most salary reviews have been refined to the point where data entry is no longer required by the Staff Assistants in FASIS. Other data and process enhancements included the monthly loading of Lincoln Laboratory data for the purpose of reporting, the weekly loading of Payroll's vacation and sick leave data into the Personnel database for Personnel Officer use, and the replacement of appointment/personnel action distribution to the Benefits Office with automated reports.
Members of the FASIS staff have spent a considerable amount of time working with various of the reengineering team. Projects that have required a major expenditure of time include the Appointment Process (TAP) and Query Facility, and the Help-It Team.
It was also necessary to contract the development of the Query Facility to an outside contractor. The FASIS Staff was primarily responsible for the contractor(s) and served as the liaison between the contractor and the programmers of the data warehouse.
The Cyborg Human Resource System was upgraded to Windows Solution/ST in the test environment. This new release of Cyborg contains significant enhancements that introduce a brand new GUI interface that takes full advantage of the Windows standards for ease-of-use and consistent presentation design.
Faculty and Staff Information Services worked closely with Administrative Systems Development (ASD) in the design and loading of Personnel data into the Institute Data Warehouse. Forty files containing 225 fields that represent both current and historical data and total approximately 100,000,000 characters are sent to the data warehouse on a nightly basis. The data warehouse then converts the files into fifteen tables. FASIS and ASD Staffs worked together to simplify the data to make it easier for the end-user to understand without having a technical background. FASIS developed a data dictionary and plans for data cleanup, in preparation for the future distribution of data to departments through vehicles such as TAP and the data warehouse.
A number of personnel changes occurred in FASIS. Virginia (Ginny) Hillen was hired as a Senior Analyst Programmer. Clayton Ward was hired as Network Application Programmer Analyst. Paul Glac was promoted to Administrative Staff as a Systems Coordinator. Sandra Titus left MIT to further her education.
Claire L. Paulding
During the year we have worked closely with several of the reengineering teams advising them on the human resources implications of the planned redesigns. We also worked with the Reengineering Steering Committee in drafting the Human Resource Principles for MIT employees and designed and implemented an outplacement program for employees impacted by reengineering. Several Personnel Officers were actively involved in counseling employees affected by the closing of the Office of Laboratory Supplies and have assisted these employees in understanding their benefit choices and job opportunities.
The Personnel Officers have also been actively involved in the Institute's increased emphasis on performance evaluations and will be teaming with department representatives to provide training to supervisors and employees on how to successfully conduct and benefit from performance reviews. We have also continued to work with departments on setting and achieving their affirmative action goals.
On August 26, 1994, the Institute signed a new two year agreement with the Security Officers' Independent Union (SOIU), who represents the security guards at Lincoln Laboratory. The wage increases in the agreement are consistent with MIT budgetary guidelines.
Agreements with the Service Employees' International Union, Local 254 for two bargaining units, (Campus and Lincoln Laboratory/Haystack Observatory) the Research, Development and Technical Employees' Union (RDTEU), and the MIT Campus Police Association, expire on June 30, 1995. Negotiations for successor agreements continue as of the date of writing. However, working with representatives of Local 254, we have been able to negotiate the implementation of three reengineering redesigns prior to completion of negotiations for the new agreements.
The number of grievances rose in comparison with the prior year (largely a result of continuing layoffs at Lincoln Laboratory). Five grievance arbitrations were held. The award in one is pending, three were settled prior to completion of the hearing, and one case is on-going. Thirteen grievances have been filed to arbitration and have yet to be heard.
During the year, Labor Relations also handled a number of cases brought before administrative agencies. Two cases involving challenges to retirement benefit changes were settled in a manner satisfactory to MIT's objectives and interests. Two charges brought before the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs were decided in MIT's favor. An unfair labor practice charge that had earlier been decided in favor of MIT was confirmed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after appeal and reexamination. One other charge brought before the NLRB has yet to be resolved. We successfully represented the Institute at two hearings before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and oversaw the handling of several other cases.
Robert Lewis
Barbara Roberts, formerly of the University of Rhode Island, was offered the position of Coordinator for Disability Services. Barbara has extensive experience in developing services for students and employees with disabilities and evaluating the accessibility of university facilities and programs. Since coming to MIT in June, she has been working to assess MIT's facilities, programs and students services.
In July 1994, Shelly LaVallee joined the office as Administrative Assistant, to assist in the preparation of affirmative action statistical reports and the Institute's annual Affirmative Action Plan.
We are actively searching for candidates for the position of Special Assistant to the Vice President for Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action and hope to fill that position within the next several months.
The affirmative action program has continued to aggressively monitor employment and promotional activity on campus and at Lincoln Laboratory, particularly the progression of women and minority group members in job groups where underutilization has been identified. The 1994-95 MIT Affirmative Action Plan was published in October and distributed to senior officers and department heads; a summary of the Plan was published in Tech Talk.
During the past year, approximately 12,000 applications were received and processed in the Personnel Office. 865 persons were hired for positions listed in the Personnel Office, of which 293 were MIT internal applicants who were seeking employment alternatives due to layoff or other circumstances. Nancy Collins, Personnel Recruiter, reviewed 1650 applications for support staff positions, interviewed 360 candidates, and assisted in filling 96 positions.
In May, the Employment staff along with representatives from MIT's advertising agents, JWG Associates, offered a program on recruitment advertisement for Institute administrative officers and personnel administrators. The program highlighted up-to-date information on specialized recruitment sources, ways to reduce advertising costs to departments, and employment services available on the Internet.
Over 500 unemployment claims were processed this year for former employees on campus and Lincoln Laboratory. We have worked closely with representatives of the Massachusetts Department of Employment and Training to provide timely information to MIT employees who terminate and may be eligible for benefits, including individuals in departments impacted by funding reductions or staff restructuring related to reengineering efforts.
Cynthia Vallino
A variety of topics, some in anticipation of the reengineering efforts, were offered in this year's programs. Such topics included participating in high performance teams, handling change, writing effectively (business, technical and scientific writing), leading and facilitating meetings, and dealing with conflict.
Departments and laboratories requested customized training programs as well as development opportunities for individuals. In addition, other groups, including and Administrative Advisory Committee and the Working Group on Support Staff Issues, sponsored training programs with the assistance of this office. An example is the course on living with change.
This office helped form the Training & Development Planning Team for reengineering and spent a significant amount of time working on that effort. The team is targeting training for those affected by redesigns. It is also helping to support the Human Resource Principles. One such effort is the implementation of training programs about giving and receiving performance appraisals; training and supporting internal MIT people as course leaders was the key to this successful implementation.
Margaret Ann Gray
Services were again expanded to include a greater variety of topics, types of materials, and formats that would respond to the current needs of the MIT community . Several new databases were established, including one to provide parents with quick, targeted information on summer camps and activities for children and teens. Parenting networks were created for parents interested in exchanging ideas by e-mail or telephone on topics of special interest, such as parenting adopted children and parenting children with special needs.
Center staff also played leadership roles in the development of new professional organizations, including, on campus, the creation of the MIT Human Services Network to provide opportunities for collaboration and exchange of information among MIT's human services professionals, and, nationally, the creation of the College and University Work/Family Association to provide opportunities for information exchange and professional development among work/family specialists at institutions of higher learning.
Lynn Sweezey, the Center's Senior Office Assistant, was replaced in October by Nancy Hay.
Kathy Simons
Rae Simpson
MIT Reports to the President 1994-95