Chief Financial Officer Dan Durbin told senators the university entered the academic year with a balanced budget with expectations to generate sufficient revenue to cover expenses. These costs included last fall’s 1% salary raise and $1,000 bonus for university employees, and the return of retirement contributions to pre-COVID levels.

“We also had a provision for an additional 1% raise in the spring; we said we would revisit that raise based on how we were doing from a tuition revenue standpoint,” Durbin said. “We have looked through the fall semester and through spring registration. The good news is our tuition revenues are higher than last year; the challenging news is that those tuition revenues are below budget by almost $7.9 million.”

Despite this challenge, administration maintained the additional raise would be within the best interest of the university. The 1% raise was authorized by the Board of Trustees and went into effect in March. Senators were informed that a financial plan was developed to ensure adequate funding for the institution-wide pay increase. Tactics of this financial plan included withholding a 3% contingency back from the units to cover unforeseen costs, as well as an increased emphasis on the importance of funding available to colleges and units through the University of Louisville Foundation.

“While we have tactics to ensure that raise, we still continue to work on enrollment not only for spring, but for the fall and beyond. Applications look really encouraging at the moment, but it’s all hands on deck to make sure we can get back to our original estimates on enrollment so the university can be on good, solid footing next year,” Durbin said.

Kari Aikins, director of Total Rewards for UofL, provided senators with information on the . Segal, an HR consulting firm with expertise in higher education, is currently reviewing data collected from the employee survey. The survey closed March 1, and an aggregate report of this data, which Is being generated by Segal, will provide input on remaining aspects of the HR initiative.

“One of the projects that this data will be used for will be our guiding principles and compensation philosophy, which we want to make sure aligns with our employee feedback and incorporates that input. We will also be using the data as we move through benchmarking, development of the career progression, leveling and some other components of the study that are still to come,” Aikins said.

Committee reports and a of the virtual meeting can be found on the . The next Staff Senate meeting will be held April 12 via Microsoft Teams.

Overseeing the Compensation and Total Rewards Study are co-chairs Kari Aikins, director of total rewards for UofL, and Krista Wallace-Boaz, associate dean of the School of Music. An additional of UofL faculty and staff members was also selected to serve as the voices of the campus community and provide feedback throughout the studies.

This comprehensive study comprises several studies that assess total rewards- employee wages and employee benefits (e.g., health care, tuition remission, paid leave, etc.). During May 2021, the six-phase compensation study began with the help of Segal, an HR consulting firm with expertise in higher education, and will conclude 18-24 months after the launch date. For a further look into the six phases, visit the .

Findings from the studies will provide the necessary framework for employee wages and employee benefits moving forward. If the compensation study shows a market position at a lower salary grade, UofL will not lower the employee’s salary.

During Phase 2 of the study, the university reviewed and/or developed job descriptions, minimum requirements, preferred qualifications, and essential duties for most university positions. This review ensured that position descriptions were up-to-date, accurate and consistent across all schools and departments, and was essential to obtain benchmarks comparable to similar jobs in the market.

“The goal was to submit job descriptions reflective of the role, not reflective of the employee in that role” said Aikins. “When we’re benchmarking for our compensation structure, we’re benchmarking the positions. Once we have our compensation structure in place and jobs are classified and graded based on comparable market data, we can then review and recommend equitable pay.”

More specifically, said Vice President of Human Resources Mary Elizabeth Miles,  “once we have the baseline data, the consulting firm will conduct a gap analysis that will look specifically at any unintended disparities that may cause women and minority employees to be paid less. These gap analyses will help us honor some of the other commitments made in the strategic plan and our anti-racism agenda.”

The study is now in phase three, with Segal and university leadership working to define a compensation philosophy for the university. This philosophy, developed by university employees in conjunction with Segal, will serve as guiding principles throughout the study.

“Our compensation philosophy will be a high-level statement that outlines our values as they relate to how we will compensate our employees, both through wages and benefits,” said Miles. “A compensation philosophy is needed so that we can establish our parameters moving forward.”

During this phase of the project, employees will receive a brief survey to complete on the university’s compensation and total rewards. A link to the survey will be distributed to all full-time (non-clinical) faculty and staff via email on Feb. 7, 2022. Responses will be confidential, and all are encouraged to participate.

For a description of future project phases, a project timeline and subcommittee members, visit the . Additional information can also be found on the .

In preparation for the return to campus, President Bendapudi and Provost Gonzalez stressed the importance of in-person work through a .

“This fall, we expect to offer a majority of in-person classes and highly engaging experiences on campus that support the whole student body. To do that, we must have a strong, welcoming presence in our classrooms and student-service areas. This means front-facing and student-service positions will need to have a consistent presence on campus,” the communication noted.��

Although many have eagerly awaited the return to pre-COVID conditions, the impending transition back to in-person work has left employees throughout the nation feeling anxious. Over the past year and a half, individuals rose to the occasion and adapted to the difficulties of isolation and remote working conditions. Just as employees have fully adjusted to these changes, employers are now requesting personnel to return to in-person operations. Several universities have proposed stringent policies that will make remote work difficult for employees, which has caused mounting tensions and high turnover rates among university workers nationwide.

While there is an emphasis on in-person work at UofL, leadership has been committed to providing flexible work options for employees when possible. The went into effect on July 1 and allows UofL employees to request remote work arrangements with their respective department leaders. To help supervisors and employees navigate the process, HR provided a series of training sessions during the month of May to review both the Remote Work Policy and Remote Work Agreement.

The flexibility offered through UofL’s Remote Work Policy intends to lessen the anxieties of both faculty and staff as they resume on-campus work. Employees like Kevin Ledford, enterprise systems programmer with Information Technology Services, see potential for lasting positive changes for employees at UofL.

“During COVID-19, our staff has been largely acting remotely and been doing a fantastic job in the face of challenges. We have proven that a number of our workers can work remotely and be as effective, if not more so, than they were before,” Ledford stated. “Allowing workers flexibility goes a long way towards making UofL a great place to work. Giving the worker the flexibility to request what works best for them and work with their department to come up with a plan is a good step forward.”

Despite the flexibility of working from home, many faculty and staff members have been yearning for in-person interactions with students and colleagues. Sherri Wallace, professor of Political Science, is among the employees eager to return to campus this August.

“I’m looking forward to the energy I get from my students during in-person instruction, the looks on students’ faces that indicate where they are and the dynamic discussions that emanate from being in the moment or in the room. I’m looking forward to the casual or vigorous intellectual exchanges that occur in the hallway or on the way to a meeting with colleagues and staff,” Wallace said. “I realize and appreciate virtual or electronic discussions are now part of the norm for communication; however, nothing can or will ever replace social interaction from working in-sync and in-person with those around you.”

Whether employees are returning to campus, continuing remote work or some hybrid fashion of the two, a cautious optimism is felt throughout as UofL begins transitioning back to pre-COVID operations. For more information on the Remote Work Policy and the return to campus, students and employees can refer to . All remote work requests should be submitted and finalized by Aug. 1, 2021.

In regard to this necessary change, President Bendapudi stated, “a university can only be a great place to work if it is able to provide the resources necessary for its people to be most effective.”

PeopleSoft, an enterprise management system developed nearly 30 years ago, has several inefficiencies that contributed to increasing costs and a poor user experience. In addition to these problems, the parent platform service, Oracle, recently announced that they will stop supporting the PeopleSoft HR software by 2031. Given these challenges, the university began the search for a new and improved enterprise management system.  

When tasked to find a replacement for PeopleSoft, the Information Technology Services team worked diligently to identify the system that would best address the needs of employees, as well as the great place to work goals of the . After working with various members of the campus community and engaging over 77 stakeholders across 20 departments for feedback over the last year, the Workday software was selected as the best system for the university and its employees.

Workday is an industry leader that provides a unified system for Human Capital Management (HCM). The implementation of the modern cloud-based system will offer timely and cost-effective functionality to employees while simplifying and standardizing numerous HR 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.

While introducing the Workday software to Staff Senators in November of 2020, Mary Alexander-Conte, director of disbursement services, stated, “it’s going to make our lives a lot easier, both internal to payroll and external to all of our departments.”

In addition to its user-friendly dashboards, Workday also includes mobile-friendly technology that will allow employees to access and change personal information, view paystubs, find business directories and access various HR polices and information all from their personal mobile devices. The intuitive mobile interface will provide users with immediate access to time entry and approvals, and Workday’s bi-annual system updates will ensure that employees always have access to the most efficient and reliable HCM system available.

Other leading educational institutions and organizations have already taken advantage of the host of benefits offered by Workday, and now UofL has begun the phased transition to the software. Over the next six years, Workday will be integrated across several areas of the university in phases. First, Workday’s HR software will be used to replace our Peoplesoft HR system. After Workday HR is implemented then the university will start the Workday Finance journey.��

Starting in July of 2022, all units and departments will utilize Workday HR. In the coming months, readiness and development sessions will be conducted along with the university’s software implementation partner, Huron. To get the campus ready for the Workday HR system, the project team will leverage the , training sessions, video guides and step-by-step aids to assist employees during the transition.

Employees are also encouraged to share questions and feedback with representatives of UofL’s . The Change Ambassador Network kicked off in April under the leadership of Melissa Shuter, executive director of operation support services. The 50 employees serving as change ambassadors in this network act as representatives for every unit and department across the university, and also include representatives from the Faculty and Staff Senates, Commissions, and lead fiscal officers. The feedback collected through the change ambassadors, as well as town halls, will be used to refine and improve the system moving forward. Additional information including the current implementation timeline, the list of change ambassadors and FAQS can be found on the website.

As part of the Great Place Journey campaign kicked off by President Bendapudi to keep the campus community informed about each of the major projects and initiatives happening in the university, regular updates about the implementation of Workday and other major university initiatives will be regularly provided to the campus community via UofL News, the UofL Today employee newsletter and the Student News and Events newsletter.

Senators were joined by Executive Director of Campus Health Services Phillip Bressoud, who provided information on the positivity rate of COVID-19 on campus. Bressoud reported that positivity rates declined from 4.1% on Jan. 4 to 1% as of March 1.

Bressoud also informed senators of the new guidelines issued by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The guidelines state that fully vaccinated individuals should still wear a well-fitted mask and practice physical distancing when in public, adhere to preventative measures when visiting with unvaccinated individuals, avoid medium and large in-person gatherings, and get tested if they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. Other CDC guidelines about vaccinated individuals can be found . At this time, all the university’s health protocols and the required testing program, are still in effect.

The commonwealth, in cooperation with Campus Health and UofL Health, will be opening a in the purple lot of Cardinal Stadium on April 1. Vaccinations will be more readily available to faculty and staff as a direct result of this new vaccination location.

Bressoud stated, “Our plan is that all university faculty and staff who have not been vaccinated by April 1 will participate in the first couple days of that operation, and we will finish vaccinating faculty and staff at that time. If you can get the vaccine somewhere else, you are free to do so, but you will be able to receive that vaccination there if you have not already.”

Katie Partin, director of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, and V. Faye Jones, senior associate vice president for diversity and equity, presented senators with information on the Employee Climate survey. The survey was redesigned in 2017 and is divided into two modules that are administered to faculty and staff on an alternating annual schedule. Data collected from previous surveys has been used to measure improvements on campus, create and implement action plans and increase accountability and transparency to the campus community.

The survey was initially planned the fall 2020 semester; however, it was postponed until spring of 2021 due to overlap with the Wellbeing and Resilience Survey. For this reason, invitations to complete the survey were sent out by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness via email on March 15. The survey is scheduled to close on March 28 but could be extended past this date depending on response rates. Findings will be available approximately 30 days after the close of the survey. Previous results from the Employee Climate Survey can be found .

Committee reports and a of the virtual meeting can be found on the . The next Staff Senate meeting will be held on April 13 via Microsoft Teams.

The luncheons honored UofL employees who have worked at the university for 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 years.

Two employees – Ralph Hornickel from the Research Resources Center and Linda Jenkins from Performance Improvement and Business Analytics – were recognized for 50 years of distinguished service.

Jenkins said her fondest memory is when UofL closed at noon for a blizzard.

“I was alone in the office in the Administration Building when President Woodrow Strickler found me waiting for my 5 p.m. ride. He pulled up a chair and told me wonderful stories until my ride got there,” she said.

Three employees were recognized for 45 years of service, including Gail Hudson, Dentistry clinic support; Rita Siegwald, Law administration; and Janet Spence, ����ֱ�� academic support.

Siegwald said her fondest memory, other than working with staff, faculty and students, is when her son graduated from the Speed School.

Rounding out the distinguished service recognition are 20 employees who have been working for UofL for 40 years. They include:

• Sherry Allen, McConnell Center
• Michel Ball, ����ֱ��, HPES
• Paula Berry, VP for Operations
• Rickie Cardwell, Business Services, print/copy
• Robert Gray, Cancer Center
• Rebecca Higgins, VPR, research
• Barbara Jones, IT
• Robert Jones, IT
• David King, VP for Strategy/general counsel
• Ramona Lucas, Pathology
• Patricia Maguire, ����ֱ��, HPES
• Michael Osoffsky, Library, technical services
• Sharolyn Pepper, International Affairs
• Teresa Protenic, Campus Health Services
• Sharon Robards, Payroll Services
• Emylene Rodenas, Nursing administration
• Charles Sloan, facilities, Physical Plant operations
• Michael Toba, facilities, Planning, Design and Construction
• Janice Wooldridge-Ware, Pathology
• Gina Yunker, Speed, computer engineer and computer science

In addition to the above distinguished service awards, 280 other UofL employees were recognized in Athletics, Community Engagement, COO, Health Affairs, the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, Research, Student Affairs and University Advancement.�� 

Photos from the luncheons and honorees can be found on the .��