Strategic Priority 2: Staff Development & Support

Strategic Priority 2: Staff Development and Support

Goal 1: Establish standardized onboarding and offboarding across the division, providing staff in all units with a strong and consistent foundation for success.

Student Affairs will provide infrastructure and set innovative standards for how employees should be onboarded and offboarded, leading new and current staff to feel more aware of resources and supported by their unit and the division.

Consistently review, update, and host an annual training for all FTE supervisors on how to utilize existing onboarding and offboarding procedures.
Engineer an engaging division-based orientation session that can be delivered consistently for new employees. This could include the development of Canvas modules about new employee policies, divisional services, benefits, ePTO calendar explanations, remote work arrangement processes, and more.
Create a feedback loop (assessment and documentation) for new employees that can be used for continuous improvement of the processes associated with onboarding and for holding supervisors accountable for conducting standardized unit orientation and onboarding.

One hundred percent of full-time staff supervisors are trained annually about onboarding and offboarding procedures.
Increase satisfaction with new employee onboarding process with 80 percent of new employees stating they were satisfied by onboarding process.

Goal 2: Create a sustainable structure for overall team morale.

Student Affairs will create intentional opportunities to assess current needs of staff through various methods and will purposefully coordinate training and retreats that help to address gaps. The division recognizes the important role supervision plays in individual and team morale. Focusing on assessing needs, coordinating training, and improving staff supervision experiences will result in a more engaged staff and help to create a culture of care within the division.

Regularly evaluate the health and well-being of current staff.
Conduct thorough exit interviews of departing staff in collaboration with IU Human Resources (IUHR) to learn about staff experiences.
Increase awareness of staff support resources by providing regular opportunities for staff to ask questions and learn from the IUHR enterprise. Use staff feedback and work with IUHR to fill knowledge gaps including benefits selection through open enrollment, searches and hiring and other process changes. Display visual resources in unit breakrooms that highlight staff resources such as the EAP (Employee Assistance Program), Healthy IU, and other university offerings.
Develop training and resources for staff supervisors so they can better meet their staff's needs.
Explore unique and creative nonmonetary methods of incentivizing participation on committees and recognizing staff for their participation.
Host divisional retreat each year that focuses on team building and allows individuals to deepen interpersonal connections across the division.
Evaluate who is responsible for planning divisional morale initiatives.

Improve Gallup® Employee Engagement survey Teamwork and Culture of Inclusion Index from a mean of 3.75 and 3.77 (both out of 5), respectively.

Goal 3: Create structures and allocate resources for all staff to engage in professional growth.

Student Affairs will clearly define what professional development is and create structures to clarify how staff can engage in these opportunities regardless of position. This will help to create an inclusive practice for professional growth within the division.

Utilize the Performance at IU Development Conversation Guide to create a professional development plan for all staff.
Define what professional development is and articulate its importance to the division.
Clarify professional development parameters and processes across the division.
Publish professional development opportunities with 8 weeks' notice, whenever possible, so all staff can attend without concern about staffing offices and meetings with clients.
Develop an opt-in mentorship or coaching program for staff.
Inventory opportunities for professional development currently available across the division and IU system and identify role specific opportunities.

Increase the number of staff who report success in meeting the objectives set in their professional development plans.
Improve the Gallup® Employee Engagement survey item on having someone at work who encourages my development (4.05/5) and a belief that they had opportunities at work to learn and grow (3.84/5).

Goal 4: Enhance business continuity, succession planning, and proactive plans for staff absences to support continuing staff.

Student Affairs will focus on creating infrastructures that are easily responsive to staff absences or departures. Developing these infrastructures will equip staff members with adequate knowledge and help to address unit and individual capacity concerns.

Use unit spiders and job descriptions to outline essential tasks for each position.
Evaluate job manuals or transition documents already utilized to develop a standardized structure. The manuals/transition documents will ensure tasks are more easily assumed in the event of an employee’s short-term or long-term absence.
Create a structure to determine feasibility of undertaking additional tasks when a person or multiple people assume an interim role. This could take the form of an action-item list of criteria to comprehensively review the tasks assigned to the vacant position and determine whether the tasks meet institutional policies for receiving additional compensation.
Set and publish expectations around communicating with divisional staff about interim responsibilities, temporary compensation, and timelines for rehire. Set expectations that supervisors regularly check in with those who take on interim responsibilities to discuss capacity.
Encourage employee cross-training as a means of developing employee’s skills, increasing team agility, and enhancing understanding within units.

Create job manuals or transition documents which will be reviewed during annual performance evaluations.

Goal 5: Devote time to enhancing how the division is able to recruit and retain staff.

Student Affairs will continue to invest time to explore creative and innovative ways to recruit and retain top talent compliant with IU system procedures.

Develop robust, inclusive, and compelling recruitment materials that enable DoSA to inform job candidates about working for the division including, but not limited to, defining workplace norms and describing staff morale initiatives.
Be transparent about salary and scope of employee benefits for all job candidates prior to first-round interviews.
Continue to utilize merit increases on a cyclical three-year basis, identifying ways to address salary disparities until targeted base levels for positions are met.
Address employment holistically to include support for performance, career growth, and well-being while fostering retention.
Regularly evaluate organizational structures and allocation of resources to address emergent needs, evolving staff and unit capacities, and ever-changing student demographics.

Increase the percentage of staff who are retained for three years.
Improve Gallup® Engagement Survey item about whether staff would recommend the organization as a great place to work (current mean of 3.54).

Strategic Priority 2: Staff Development & Support

Strategic Priority 2: Staff Development and Support

Goal 1: Establish standardized onboarding and offboarding across the division, providing staff in all units with a strong and consistent foundation for success.

Action Items

Metrics

Goal 2: Create a sustainable structure for overall team morale.

Action Items

Metrics

Goal 3: Create structures and allocate resources for all staff to engage in professional growth.

Action Items

Metrics

Goal 4: Enhance business continuity, succession planning, and proactive plans for staff absences to support continuing staff.

Action Items

Metrics

Goal 5: Devote time to enhancing how the division is able to recruit and retain staff.

Action Items

Metrics

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