ACU Staff Senate Minutes
Thursday – January 11, 2018
9:00-10:00 AM
Reeves Alumni Conference Room
In attendance:
Chris Ballard, Dave Beard, Emily Berry, Eric Gumm, Kathy Redman, Scott Delony, Stephanie Woodlee, Tina Chisholm, * Ex Officio – Prentice Ashford, Cindy Gravitt, Grant Abston, Steve Rowlands, Jill Fortson, Aubree Browning, Curtis King, D’Angelo Sands, Debbie Stewart
Call to order/welcome
Prayer – Chris Ballard
Approval of Minutes
Old Business
New Business
Wendy Jones, Chief HR Officer and Title IX Coordintor
1. Exempt/Non-Exempt employee classifications
Exempt and non-Exempt is a law
Determination is made by looking at duties and salaries
Some things are black and white
There are some positions that are exceptions such as teaching, administrative, coaching, first responders
There are some gray areas with what qualifies for exemption
$23,660 was the salary
$47,660 was the new salary
We made the decision to move ahead with implementation. A judge in Texas put a stay on the law. The stay has expired, what will Trump do?
There are still vacancies at the DOL
They have accepted comments and made adjustments
$32,000 is the new recommended salary minimum for exempt status with automatic increases
People expect it to go in effect next Fall
What can we do now?
We had a lot of people in the wrong category due to duties.
Some exemptions aren’t up for discussion because of the duties performed.
Three groups were allowed to change that we were unsure of: advisors, res hall, and
Duties made it clear they could be exempt, but salaries were not there
We are going to be conservative in HR, unless we have a clear picture that qualifies a position for exemption
EG: The goal is not to pay employees less, it’s a matter of how much overtime will we pay? I was not aware there was an opportunity for a discussion to change back to exempt. Duties are there for some of my employees but not salary.
Wendy: There isn’t an opportunity. We have to follow the guidelines.
Classification and compensation project: i.e. administrative coordinators: we will have a career ladder. Admin 1, 2, 3 then executive assistant 1,2 ,3. You will be able to see what you need to do or skills you need to obtain
Huge inequity in the past with some admins being exempt and some not. The career ladder will fix that. It will be great to have a career path.
Steve: When do you expect that?
EG: The broader issue is we had a lot of dissemination of information in the beginning, none since then. We know there are places that there were changes, and staff know. Why not me? Staff doesn’t understand why Emily was able to move back to exempt and not me? When changes were made to that process, there wasn’t good communication
Wendy: what would we have communicated?
EG: We are changing some positions or not, stay on the law
Wendy: I want people to read my emails. People tell me I never communicated this to me. Wow, that was in the myACU newsletter 5 times. How do I actually get people to open and read their emails
Steve: Maybe we can help you communicate. When will the Class comp roll out?
Wendy: I would love to come show you more detail. It has been a beast. Beginning to wind it down. Every person/ position has been plotted. Now we are going to directors and division heads to see if they agree with the plotting. I would like to roll it out June 1. We will also have red circles and green circles (Underpaid and overpaid) we also have to have a plan for how we will address those. Within 3 years we will have these addressed” may be the plan
The raise pool for staff no longer trickles down. Administration will work on green and red circles.
Steve: I have been wondering if we are going to do anything about that. Anything we can communicate that says we haven’t forgotten about you
Wendy: Only talking philosophy, no decisions have been made. To green circles, either we have to decrease your salary or you can gain some skills to get to this level
Chris: I know people think athletic has a lot of money, we are actually 11th out of 12 or 13. What level of detail are we going to? Will we compare to other schools?
Wendy: We use CUPA and local markets to compare and benchmark salaries. Billy has access to a group they look at too. We are using several sources. We have employees that don’t live in abilene.
Jill: In our area we use
Emily: Does this eliminate salary negotiations? Will finishing a degree be counted as something that we can advance in the ladder and salary?
Chris: Would this be public
Wendy: Yes, ranges would be public. We will have to work within the budget. Based on 3% raise every year. This year it was 1.5%. You will have a clearer way to ask because you know the range
Emily: It would go to your manager not admin?
Wendy: Yes we would hope so. We want fair and equitable pay for everyone.
Debbie: It’s ideal because if you want to change jobs within the company you know right away what the salary range would be.
Stephanie: Would that be for the entire campus?
Wendy: Will we roll it all out or by department? I want to get to when we are hiring within the plan and look at where the greens and reds end up. If we have a really big Christmas tree then it will affect roll out
Chris: That is a lot of great information. We might have to have you come back.
2. 2 Week Pay Cycle
Tina: It was me that brought up the 2 week cycle idea. 2 week cycle would make check amounts more even from check to check.
Wendy: We love it. We would be running 26 cycles instead of 24. So it would add a little to our staff, but it would basically be every other Friday. It is a massive amount of work. It’s a matter of when we have time and space for that. It is on our wish list. Crystal Cox is a rock star, she wants to do it we just don’t know when.
3. Survey
Steve: We are interested in sending a survey to staff that senate owned and we would share the results with senior leadership. We are still developing it. How do you feel about that, concerns about us owning that instead of HR owning it.
Eric: Do we get results from the chronicle ?
Wendy: Glad for you to do that and think that is appropriate. The questions to ask yourselves are what do we know, what do we share, what is the purpose. Faculty senate wanted to do the day care survey. Questions have to meet the objective. Can we work with you and really find out the information needed? Want to be sure staff know it’s a senate survey. Sometimes surveys create false expectations and we find that out after the survey has been sent out. We do get results from the Chronicle, it’s random employees that are surveyed, not all. In the past we have shared the highlights of what we have learned. I would be careful in the timing. Are you just sending it to staff?
Steve: Yes, we want to send it at the same time every year.
Wendy: We used to have a Treat our People Well committee and survey. That’s how we got Christmas closure.
Emily: How can we improve employee morale if we don’t know where it is? Are we asking how I feel about my manager or how I feel about my employer. How can we take this information and dig in and develop and recognize them?
Wendy: You can pay to survey more people (Chronicle). We could just use the Chronicle survey or do you want to make your own?
Steve; Can we add questions to that survey?
Wendy: Probably, for a fee. I will send that info to you.
Steve: In the other committee you had, were there questions that went out form them?
Wendy: I will look and get back to you
4. Bereavement Leave
David: Bereavement leave – we had several employees that had deaths in their families. Our direct report said that if you wanted to go to the funeral, just use bereavement time. About 6 months later, an employee’s father died, that supervisor said if you go to this funeral you have to use vacation time. Some employees came to me and asked what the rule is about going to a coworker’s family members funeral.
Wendy: Bereavement is under sick leave. FT earn 12 hours a month. People 1040 hours is the cap. The policy defines who you can use bereavement for – currently it’s family members. We can look at that. Some departments are more letter of the law, some are more flexible within the spirit of the law. I feel like your supervisor has the authority to say yes, you can use your bereavement time for. We need to change the wording Some people ask can we just have PTO, yes but we would have to drastically change how we distribute time. We have a lot of employees with 6 months of sick leave. If we change it to PTO, i won’t see you until august. We hold our own with the amount of time off we award compared to other institutions.
Emily: What about when I have to get my oil changed or minor life events. PTO puts you in a position where you can take time needed with integrity.
Wendy: If one of my nonexempt staff needs to leave for something, they may just work through lunch or as if they can just work from home for an hour on this? We can have flexible work schedules when needed. There are a lot of ways you can take some time here and there and balance it with shorter lunches, etc.
Emily: For example: I bought a house and it was very stressful to take care of all of that.
Wendy: Mental health days – I am a fan. Use sick leave for that. IF your supervisors would approve your time sheets to begin with….
Debbie: A lot of people don’t even mark their holiday pay
Wendy: Yeah, we know
Curtis: As we are talking about how some departments understand the value of a mental health day and some don’t, I see the value in setting a campus wide standard. I don’t know the solution, but it would be great.
Jill: it would be great if everyone ran their departments the way Wendy does. It would be nice to have that for every department.
Aubree: You could call it grace days. Sometimes you just need a little grace. Oh, my car broke down, I need a little grace.
Wendy: I think some managers need permission to do what they would like to do. Because I am not a stickler, it’s hard for me to remember that some are. Takes all kinds.
Eric: At 15 years, do we have 5 weeks or 4 weeks vacation accrual?
Wendy: 4 weeks. I don’t recall it was ever 5.
Chris: Thank you Wendy. This has been really helpful.
Wendy: You might not like the topic or my answer, but I am always happy to talk to you. Any member of the SLT would love to come talk to you. Staff senate is so different for the better and I am so thankful for that. I appreciate you giving your time and energy to do this.
New Staff Senate Chair-Elect
D’Angelo Sands is our new chair-elect
Decision on replacing Senator position:
We have to fill Craig’s position. This person will fill 3 semesters. There is a tie for the next alternate.
Senate votes on tied alternates. Brad Benham wins.
Announcements
We will meet on February 8 and we will be in the Bible Building
VII. Adjournment
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