General Faculty Council, which represents non-tenured track faculty and staff, convened yesterday to discuss funding, payroll and Lead@UVA, the University's new performance management system.
Susan Carkeek, vice president and chief human resources officer, also explained the details of the University's new online payroll system, which will replace paper timesheets starting Monday. The discontinuation of paper timesheets, she said, is long overdue, as these time sheets are "terribly inefficient" and part of a "cumbersome and ineffective process," she said.
Human Resources currently processes 86 payrolls per year, paying students bi-weekly, staff either semi-monthly or monthly, and faculty monthly. This new system will cut the number of payrolls down to 38, paying students and staff bi-weekly and faculty monthly, thereby increasing efficiency and freeing up resources, Carkeek said.
Because this modifies how often employees receive their paychecks, however, the University has included a number of tools with the new system that will help them adjust to this change. These tools will allow employees to figure out the amounts of their newly segmented paychecks and help them plan out bill payments, she said.
"We're providing as many resources as we can, but it's not going to be without some pain to get through this," Carkeek said.
Carkeek also addressed the new online performance management system, Lead@UVA. This new system, which replaces and automates the Employee Work Profile, the previous evaluation system, allows employees to set goals for performance during the upcoming school year, she said. Employees then will self-evaluate at the end of the year to determine if they reached these goals. Supervisors can monitor and evaluate employees' progress along the way, and employees receive one of five performance ratings, which are partly measured by whether they achieved their goals.
An added layer to Lead@UVA is that of "competencies," which are broader goals and ideals that University departments and staff share as a whole. Establishing these parameters for employees, Carkeek said, will allow them to see how their work fits into the broader picture at the University.
Psychology Prof. Catherine Leslie, who is on the committee, said she has already heard great things about Lead@UVA from some of the 600 staff who piloted the project this past year.
"These people have said that this is the easiest and best online tool the University has ever rolled out," she said.
Council members also discussed a re-allocation of their budget for the upcoming year. Lunch will no longer be served at GFC meetings, said Council President Ricky Patterson, also a senior researcher in the astronomy department. Currently, Council spends a significant portion of its budget on lunch for GFC meetings, which is money that could be better spent, Patterson said, on recognition programs for outstanding non-tenured track faculty and staff, as well as on grants for employees to attend professional conferences and lectures.
"Money we use for lunches could potentially be used for something that better benefits our population and not just the folks who are on the Council," Leslie said.
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