Dedicated to the community member experience

When Carolina Willsher, associate vice-president of Human Resources, reflects on the work of her team in 2023-24, the themes that come to mind are continuous improvement, collaboration and the community member experience.

The university successfully negotiated contracts and collective agreements with eight labour unions this year. It also introduced multiple online tools for employees and managers to more easily track important information, like seniority and compensation. And it offered its community members a wide range of training opportunities — from the return of the Change Resilience Development Program to new self-paced learning courses.

A lot of work also went on behind the scenes to develop internal resources and progress monitoring systems. These important day-to-day operational improvements took place alongside and in conversation with bigger-picture strategic and operational planning — work that Willsher says is being guided by a deep commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.

A big year for employee and labour relations

Much of the focus of the employee and labour relations team of HR was focused on negotiating new agreements with a broad cross-section of employees on campus.

“It’s good news that we’ve been able to come to agreements with many of our groups” Willsher says. “And I think it reflects well not only on the collaboration of our team, but also on the union teams coming together and getting agreements that are in the best interest of all parties.”

Apart from these negotiations, another highlight was the successful launch of a seniority module on UNITY. For Willsher, it’s an example of the fine-tuning of the services HR is offering its community members.

Human Resources Information System: ‘going in the right direction’

After the initial years of implementing the Human Resources Information System (HRIS) in UNITY, Willsher is pleased to see HR shifting into a new stage of continuous improvement.

“We can now go in and audit, monitor and check to see how our systems are working,” she says. For example, a time management review allowed for the resolution of some issues related to vacation liability.

Willsher also reported that this year saw a decrease in the number of service requests relating to UNITY, as well as a quicker turnaround time in responding to requests.

“We’re getting better at understanding the system and answering questions more effectively — we’re going in the right direction,” she says.

New tools and training for employment and organizational effectiveness

This year HR developed a new talent sourcing guide and tool to better support managers in the hiring process.

The Employment and Organizational Effectiveness teams also relaunched programs that had been on hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the Change Resilience Development Program, which ran from February to May for directors.

Additionally, both managers and employees had access to new self-paced courses on topics ranging from effective objective settings, to enhancing team accountability, to making successful requests, to enhancing collaboration.

Compensation, benefits and pension: ‘a lot of work is happening in the back end’

A new module was added to the HRIS this year which focused on compensation for non-unionized employees. The system is now able to more efficiently collect and process the information required for annual salary reviews.

“It was the first time using it this year, and it has been very successful. We’ve had some really positive feedback,” Willsher notes.

Other fine-tuning measures the Compensation, Benefits and Pension team implemented include improvements to disability benefits management and the introduction of retirement planning sessions.

“We still have some process improvements coming for pension and benefits. We have turned our attention to those, and a lot of that work is happening in the back end,” she adds.

Making EDI integral pieces of operational and strategic planning

From the big-picture perspective, HR has been working to improve its operational and strategic plans, underpinned by the same themes of continuous improvement, collaboration and community member experience.

“We are extremely mindful of other themes, including equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI),” Willsher shares.

Key to this work has been incorporating the recommendations made by the President’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism and collaborating with central partners including the Black Perspectives Office, Indigenous Directions and the Equity Office.

“We’re very proud of this work and the integration of the recommendations and making sure that they are integral pieces of our operating and strategic plans.”