In February 2021, the university took a significant step in that direction with the opening of the . The center provides various employee-centered resources and opportunities for personal and professional growth. Coaching circles allow employees to gather and collaborate on significant topics, such as anti-racism initiatives. Well-being retreats and mindfulness initiatives are also offered to cultivate a strong community of care. Award programs, which honor employee achievements and milestones, are also part of the center’s many efforts.

From the goals set in the Strategic Plan came seven initiatives to maintain a thriving spirit for UofL employees and ensure the institution is, indeed, a “Great Place to Work.” They are outlined below.

Web Improvement
The is a multi-year initiative aimed at revamping and improving the entire digital presence of the university. The effort marks the first funded, comprehensive web initiative in ±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s history and is the largest concurrent “reset” of UofL websites, systems and platforms.

The project focuses on enhancing the daily lives of students, faculty and staff by modernizing and improving all university web-based experiences, as well as the processes behind developing and maintaining them. This digital overhaul will allow the university to attract new students, foster a stronger relationship with the community and provide staff with opportunities to further develop and implement current technology in their professional capacities.

Metrics and guiding strategies of the project will be routinely re-evaluated and the response with the web realigned accordingly.

Digital Transformation
To prepare the UofL community for engagement in the evolving global market, the university has undertaken a broad array of digital transformation projects designed to provide the digital and mobile on-demand solutions and services required to efficiently work, learn and create, as well as training opportunities for high-demand workforce applications.

The implementation of Microsoft Teams and other Office 365 applications has improved efficiencies in academic and operational services. Every active UofL student, faculty member and employee now have access to the Adobe Creative Cloud at no cost thanks to a university enterprise license. Creative Cloud is an industry standard platform for creating documents, videos, audio, graphic design, photos, illustrations, websites and mobile apps.

±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s provides training for these and other software applications to faculty, staff and students at little to no cost. Many training programs come with badges, certificates or other credentials upon completion.

The Employee Success Center and the DTC announced in March that UofL employees and students have no-cost access to LinkedIn Learning. The platform includes more than 16,000 virtual courses designed to refine and develop technical, business, software and creative skills.

Workday
In order to simplify and enhance the day-to-day lives of employees, the university is transitioning from PeopleSoft human resources software to a newer, more accessible system. Information Technology Services identified the system that would best address employees’ needs. After working with various members of the campus community and engaging more than 77 stakeholders across 20 departments for feedback, the software was selected as the best system for the university.

Workday is an industry leader that provides a unified system for Human Capital Management. The implementation of the modern cloud-based system will offer timely and cost-effective functionality to employees while simplifying and standardizing numerous human resources processes across the university. The functionality of the software will improve hiring processes, reduce payroll calculation and processing errors, upgrade security and provide users with a more positive overall HR and payroll experience.

Brand Evolution
At the direction of the Office of the President and in support of the university’s Strategic Plan, UofL has refreshed its identity to include the addition of a strategic brand framework and messaging guidelines to complement the existing core brand visual standards.

More than just a logo, colors or tagline, the represents the core of who we are — from what it feels like to be a part of the Cardinal Family to the interactions that our faculty and staff have with students, families, fans and supporters.

Throughout the summer and fall of 2021, the Office of Communications and Marketing hosted several workshops to share ±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s new brand positioning and messaging with faculty, staff and students. These sessions also included the rollout of an extensive toolkit for communicators across campus and coincided with the formation of the UofL Brand Council. Comprised of the top-level communicators in each school/college and key administrative units, the council is responsible for developing and managing communications and marketing strategies to improve overall brand awareness, perceptions and engagement.

The official brand rollout to the entire university will take place Friday, Jan. 14, 2022.

Grand Challenges
UofL is dedicated to creating and applying knowledge that improves lives. By harnessing our research and scholarship efforts behind three of our time, we will find solutions that make a difference and lead to thriving futures here and beyond. The three Grand Challenges, as identified by a president-appointed subcommittee are: 1.) empowering our communities; 2.) advancing our health; and
3.) engineering our future economy.

Throughout the past year, the UofL Office of Research and Innovation has expanded or launched programming aimed at celebrating and supporting researchers and their work in the Grand Challenges. That work is now the focus of the office’s research and innovation town hall meetings, where UofL researchers can share their projects and find collaborators.

R&I, in partnership with the UofL College of Arts & Sciences, Office of Diversity and Equity and ATHENA program, also launched a new program called Ascending Stars that provides mentorship, funding and other support to high-performing associate professors who focus on work in diversity, inclusion and empowering our communities.

Other efforts have focused on giving researchers better tools. UofL recently selected a new Electronic Research Administration system called Cayuse, for example, meant to minimize the administrative burden of conducting research and facilitate the growth of UofL research programs.

Cardinal Anti-Racism Agenda
In the summer of 2020, the Office of the President announced a goal for the university to become the “premier anti-racist metropolitan research university in the country.” To guide us toward this goal, UofL has launched the .

While the university has taken many strides toward service to a more racially and socio-economically diverse workforce and student population, it is appropriate as a higher education institution to explore and to grow for the purpose of being a model for the communities we serve.

UofL has already established a few key commitments, including the recruitment and retention of more Black employees and students, building intentionally anti-racism curriculum across all disciplines, ensuring diverse representation on boards and committees, developing budgets that reflect the priority of diversity and equity and more. The in partnership with the , leads the charge to engage our community for more potential items to add to the anti-racism agenda.

Additionally, a vice president of diversity and equity will be named in 2022. This position will report directly to the university president, serving as a member of the President’s Cabinet, senior leadership team and other key institutional committees.

Total Rewards and Compensation Studies
Finally, the Strategic Plan identified fair and equitable compensation for faculty and staff as a critical aspect of ±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s commitment to being a great place to learn, to work and in which to invest. To honor this commitment, the Office of Human Resources is leading the . These studies will assess both employee wages and Total Rewards, which is the total of benefits offered including health care, tuition remission, paid leave and more.

The comprehensive studies are divided into a six-phase approach that will be accomplished over the next 18 to 24 months with assistance from Segal, an outside human resources consulting firm with extensive experience in conducting higher education compensation studies. Findings from the studies will provide the necessary framework for employee salaries and benefits moving forward.

“When I was onboarded by the Employee Success Center, I noticed these things called ERGs,” Wang said. “I saw that we had the Black Faculty/Staff Association and a group for the Latinx community. As I’m Asian myself, I took note that there wasn’t an ERG for our community.”

±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s Employee Resource Groups emerged in response to the “great place to work” initiative outlined in the . These voluntary, employee-led groups provide regular meetings, events and networking opportunities for faculty and staff members with common interests, backgrounds or identities. ERGs have been established to foster strong connections and networks of support, while also serving to address feelings of isolation among university employees from minority or underrepresented backgrounds.

Wang acknowledged early on that the Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander community would benefit from additional university resources, but she didn’t take action immediately. That changed following the Ěýspa shootings in Atlanta, which are being prosecuted as anti-Asian hate crimes, as well as a national spike in hate crimes against the AAPI community. , hate crimes targeting people of Asian descent in the U.S. rose by 70% last year versus 2019.Ěý

“The first few months passed, and I hadn’t taken any action. Then we had the shooting in Atlanta where Asian women and women of Asian descent were targeted. That was a turbulent and traumatizing time, to say the least. At that moment, I didn’t feel there was an AAPI organization at UofL to make a statement or to say that we are here for each other as members of this community,” Wang said.

This led to the establishment of ±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s new Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander ERG. In immediate response to the Atlanta shooting, Wang assisted in organizing two town hall events. These town halls provided both AAPI and non-AAPI members of the university community with an opportunity to come together and express pain and grief associated with the tragic events in Atlanta. Over the summer, the AAPI ERG also offered several virtual coffee chats, as well as an in-person meet-and-greet for interested university employees.

“Student-wise, we talk about retention, recruitment, sense of belonging and the importance of seeing folks that look like you. This is just as true for employees, so we want to talk about the diversifying of faculty and staff, as well as the retention efforts for AAPI employees.” Wang said.

UofL is home to an expansive AAPI community with more than 1,200 students and 750 employees self-identifying as of fall 2021. Moving forward, this ERG aims to champion action and change, promote diversity and provide a strong sense of community, visibility and belonging for AAPI employees. The AAPI ERG is open to all faculty and staff identifying as AAPI, and non-AAPI employees interested in supporting diversity and equity within the UofL community are also welcome to join.

“Overall, I think that this is contributing to our anti-racism agenda. We don’t always see visibility, representation or initiatives behind the AAPI community. Advancing racial diversity and equity is our goal, and we’d be missing an important opportunity if we failed to improve our resources and include our AAPI employees in the conversation of anti-racism,” Wang said.

Faculty and staff members interested in learning more about the AAPI ERG are encouraged to contact Stella Wang. For additional ERG information and a , please visit the Employee Success Center’s .

From March 2 to March 20, the Human Resources Employee Development and Success Office is taking applications for a pilot program in which staff members can spend time in a department or office different from the one in which they work. The short-term learning opportunity is similar to an internship or a practicum in which the staff member will get real-life experience in an area of interest and can learn from university colleagues.

The Staff Fellowship Program supports the goal of ensuring UofL is a great place to work “because it is a workplace dedicated to personal growth and professional development.”

“Being a great place to work means giving employees a way to explore their career interests, especially at a university where education and growth are such pillars of our mission,” said Brian Buford, director of the Development and Success Office. “The beauty of working at a university is that there are endless opportunities to test the waters and discover new paths. You don’t have to leave UofL to figure out your perfect fit.”

The Employee Development and Success team will choose up to 10 employees for the pilot and work with them to create their fellowship placements. A fellowship will generally consist of 30 to 60 onsite days that could be done all at once or incrementally, depending on the nature of the work to be done and the employee’s workload in their home department. Participants will develop agreements with their unit heads for temporary staff release and to discuss how the employee will cover work assignments for the duration of the fellowship appointment.Ěý

“Giving employees the opportunity to consider other jobs might seem counterintuitive in some ways, because we don’t want to lose them. But I am confident the gains will far outweigh the risk of seeing good people leave,” Buford added. “When people work in departments where they feel valued, have opportunities to grow, and know that someone cares about their development, things like loyalty and engagement go way up.”

Visit to apply or learn more.

The Open Walls Exhibit, hosted annually by the Office of Communications and Marketing and taking place in Ekstrom Library, features works of various mediums by employees of all backgrounds. From humanities to STEM fields, from classroom to cubicle, one thing remains constant: the artists’ passion for their work, though it may not be their day job.

For this year’s show, Development Officer Shauntrice Martin paid homage to a faculty

member who inspired her — Dr. Blaine Hudson, the late Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

“This exhibit meant so much because it is the first time my art has been displayed in a major gallery,” said Martin. “It gives me hope that I can have my work featured at the Speed museum or even the Guggenheim one day. I am blessed to have known Dr. Hudson as he championed for so many meaningful milestones in the Black community.”

Zhanna Goldentul, a professor and costume designer for the Department of Theatre Arts, displayed her breathtaking design renderings for costumes in the Louisville Ballet, Kentucky Opera and Louisville Opera collaborative production of Beyond, Project Faust.

“The demon characters wore hand-painted unitards, and their makeup was designed to complete the look,” explained Goldentul, whose piece includes both costume and makeup design. “I had a small construction team to help me hand-paint unitards for 48 ballet dancers. Costume design is an important part of Scenography, the art that aids any production, no matter how intricate or simple it looks. Costumes and makeup help the audience to identify characters; it also helps the entire production to deliver the main theme of the show. This also is a very time consuming craft, which is not always given enough time.”

The work of Martin and Goldentul is just a glimpse of the talent the Open Walls exhibit highlights. Exhibit goers can see for themselves by visiting the Photographic Archives Gallery, Archives & Special Collections, in the East Wing, Lower Level of Ekstrom Library. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibit runs through June 27.Ěý

to see more photos from the opening reception.Ěý

For Diane Tobin, the position also promotes the mission of making UofL a great place to work.

Tobin has served as ±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s ombuds since June, reporting to the provost. She previously served as special assistant to the president of the Kentucky Center and spent eight years as a faculty member at Spalding University. Her biggest skillset, she says, is solving problems.

This makes her the perfect fit for the ombuds office. The goal of the office is to provide dispute resolution services for faculty and staff. Her primary office is on the Belknap, but she serves all three campuses and offers office hours by appointment in the Kornhauser Library on the HSC campus. She also maintains that her availability is 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“It is important for me to take calls at any time. Someone on the custodial staff, for example, might need me at 6 a.m. I can even meet off campus,” she said.

Such access is necessary for her to achieve her objectives, which are essentially to diffuse grievances before they escalate and to provide tools to employees to resolve any problems that may arise in the future. Ěý

“My job is to find out what the issue is and provide options to solve them. Most people come up with their own solutions,” Tobin said. “Many people just need someone to talk to. I’m very sensitive to those needs. If they take the time to call, their issue is legitimate.”

Some employees might be reluctant to bring up a work issue with a third party. Tobin understands such hesitation. However, she insists that the process is informal, independent, confidential and neutral.

“I don’t have skin in anyone’s game. I don’t advocate for anyone,” Tobin said. “This allows me to help decide on the best options.”

Sessions with Tobin are completely confidential and her isolated office space clearly supports that. There are two exceptions to disclosures, however: If she believes an employee is going to do harm to themselves or others, or if the employee gives her permission for disclosure.

Per the Redbook, faculty members are required to visit the ombuds office on a type one complaint – which is the least serious level.

Tobin is also required to provide a periodic report of themes that emerge from her work.

“It’s good for upper administration to know what’s going on with our employees,” she said, adding that stagnant compensation has been the most frequent grievance thus far.

“The circumstances are terrible, but we don’t have a lot of money right now,” Tobin said. “What we do have is a fabulous president who I have no doubt will correct this. But it’s going to take some time.”

Tobin is optimistic, however, because most employees aren’t driven by money .Ěý

“Research shows that people stay in their jobs because they’re happy, not because they’re getting paid a lot,” she said. “Knowing that informs my job.”

If an issue involves other employees, Tobin tries to bring them in for a group meeting.

“My job is for them to solve their own disputes and that’s easier to do when everyone gets to share their perspective,” Tobin said. “It can be very helpful to go over processes to get them to come to the best resolution.”

One department who used her services, for example, now takes a 5-minute break every day in order to take the time to connect with each other. Members of the group have told Tobin that this simple solution has been very helpful in creating synergy.

Sometimes, however, there’s nothing she can do to prevent a situation from escalating. If that’s the case, she can either reference the employee to HR or to the faculty or staff grievance officer directly. The grievance process is more formal than a visit to the ombuds.

“It is on the record, there are committees and legal gets involved. It requires a lot of paperwork and time and money,” Tobin said. “My job is to get people to take a look and see if there are other ways to solve their issues more informally.”

The entire ecosystem at UofL is collaborative and efficient, she adds.

“I am really impressed with HR and the grievance officers. They are dedicated and knowledgeable and they all want to make this the absolute best place to work,” Tobin said. “That’s why we have our processes set up the way we do.”

Tobin said her best case scenario is if she works herself out of a job because everyone’s happy. She also knows that will likely never happen because human nature is a tricky thing.

“I will just continue to help the people who need me to help them and try to make the workplace the best it can be on every single level,” she said.