Managers participate in a Job Family Redesign Working session and more at the IT Leadership Team meeting

The IT Leadership Team met on January 26 to review the following topics:

IT M&P Job Family Redesign Project

John Barden kicked off the discussion by highlighting that the Job Family Redesign, set to launch at the start of FY23, was initiated in response to Workplace Survey Feedback from staff. Feedback indicated that IT staff were interested in better understanding how to advance their careers, ensure equity across positions, and other important topics that support IT’s goal of being a Workplace of Choice. Based on staff feedback, the IT SLT has been working over the last few years to rethink the IT Job Family. IT is the first department at Yale to pilot a Job Family Redesign, and any insights gathered through this process will ultimately benefit other departments at Yale.

Blanche Temple reviewed the details of a recent IT Update article on the Job Family Redesign, including the benefits of this Redesign for IT and IT M&Ps. They include making it easier to manage your career using the new job profile catalog, being responsive to the labor market and economic conditions, and more. Blanche also previewed a list of new job titles for individual contributor roles and manager roles (not including finance roles or C&T roles), which reflect standardized titles. John reinforced the benefits of this approach, stating that “vanity titles make it hard to understand what our staff actually do, and this new process will allow us to utilize industry-standard titles, manage job expectations, and improve our ability to align with the market.”

All managers of staff were invited to attend this Leadership Team meeting, to participate in a working session. Managers were assigned to breakout rooms, facilitated by SLT members, and were asked to answer questions such as:

• How will these changes impact you, as a manager?
• What questions do you anticipate staff having about how these changes impact them?
• What training and resources are needed to support this change?

Following the breakout rooms, SLT members shared highlights from those discussions. All of the feedback gathered through these discussions will be used to inform the rollout, including the development of information and training sessions.

John thanked managers for their input and expressed excitement for how this will positively impact the IT organization moving forward. He encouraged staff to share any questions with their managers, as well as via Ask John.

New ServiceNow forms for consultant requests

Cheri Ross, Manager of ITS Finance and Business Operations, shared an update on how they will streamline and enhance the current Statement of Work (SOW) process. As early as January 31, a “friends and family” test group will select from three new “consultant request types” to improve the tracking of requests, provide transparency around the status of requests, and enforce the submission of the required information (SOW, Background Check, Sole Source Form, etc.). After making improvements based on test group feedback, the process will launch for the broader community in March 2022.

The new consultant request types can be accessed via a customized ServiceNow form, and include:

• Requesting a New Consultant
• Resource Name Change, to be utilized when the SOW remains, but the resource is swapped out.
• Early Resource Off-Boarding, to be utilized when a project ends early and the resource’s SOW and/or the consultant resource is replaced with a full-time employee.

After engaging in this process, submitters can track their request, view attachments, and rest assured that their request will be integrated with the Procurement Portal (before being returned into the ServiceNow system). Additionally, the Business Office will be able to engage early in the process to offer budget approval, support vendor selection, and more.

In preparation for the rollout, the Business Office is developing reference material to support all users with this change and they will monitor and measure their process to ensure it is effective. For questions, please contact Cheri Ross (cheri.ross@yale.edu). To request to be added to the “friends and family” test group, contact Glenn Hasiotis (glenn.hasiotis@yale.edu).

Ask John

What is the current guidance related to returning on February 7?

As it stands right now, I would expect the February 7 return date to remain intact. I would also encourage people who are remote-eligible to start discussing their preferences with their managers.

If people who are remote-eligible choose to remain remote, are they forfeiting their desk, desk phone number, etc.?

As it stands, we haven’t clarified entitlements. Over some reasonable period of time, I can’t imagine that we would keep individual desk spaces for remote staff. I anticipate that we will be able to share more details in the months ahead.

The next IT Leadership Team meeting will take place on February 23.