Job Descriptions, titles, and other Job Family Redesign updates at ITLT meeting

The IT Leadership Team met on April 27 to discuss the following highlights:

Job Family Redesign Update

Building on a recent update on the Job Family Redesign launching in July 2022, Blanche Temple shared the following:

• Job description feedback: After receiving feedback from ITS leadership we sent the descriptions to Compensation for their review. As a result, we are conducting a final review of the job summaries as well as the required education and experience to ensure are aligned to market benchmarks. On or before the end of May, finalized job descriptions will be provided to managers so they can begin to familiarize themselves with the expectations of the new roles and career levels.
• Upcoming manager training: In June, managers and ITS staff will be invited to attend training and information sessions to help support the transition to the new structure.
• Communicating with staff: The Leadership Team discussed the best time to discuss forthcoming changes with staff, ideally during performance management conversations in June. More to come regarding the timeline to advise staff of their new titles.

Market survey data is updated yearly, typically in April. ITS will continue to partner with Compensation to review the survey data to ensure that pay remains fair and competitive and is updated with current market trends. In fact, data recently collected in April 2022 will be used to determine recommendations for this year’s merit program. John added that “we’re creating something that’s much more market-driven, and much more clearly associate how someone’s career can progress and what that means in terms of their pay and pay equity.”

Business Title Redesign

John Barden noted that vanity titles can create community confusion; therefore, as part of the Job Family Redesign project, ITS will be putting guidelines around how to structure business job titles. The current proposal is formatted accordingly:

[Role*] [Level*] – [Specialization]
*Required

Specialization could be defined with any reasonable freeform text. This flexibility “allows managers to match their needs for the role with the expectations of the individual,” John shared.

Examples:
Business Systems Analyst II [OR] Business Systems Analyst II – Student Systems

Blanche confirmed that these business title changes will be editable in Workday after the implementation in July. All submissions would need to meet established formatting and be approved by HRGs for ITS within Workday prior to being updated.

Ask John Anything

Regarding space consolidation, are we getting more clarity around how to consolidate floors?
Yes and no. In Jack and Scott’s note on April 26, they mentioned that “employees working on campus less than 50% of the time should expect to share workspaces with other employees over the long term.” Within ITS, 125 people have chosen to remain fully remote, which might allow us to do some re-clustering and regrouping or open possibilities with IT groups across campus. Once the university confirms their guidance around entitlements, we should be able to share more on this topic.

How are we measuring if staff are present at least 50% of the time?
If your team members are in a hybrid designation, they need to follow university’s guidance of working on campus “no fewer than 2-3 days a week.” We will need to establish our expectations within ITS.

Do you have any insight into how Local 34 fits into the hybrid work model?
In aligning staff to on site, hybrid, and fully remote eligible, the IT leaders and SLT members determined how best to support campus needs by job role, not by representation. Many job roles filled by local 34 staff have been designated as hybrid. However, there are no job roles currently filled by local 34 staff that have been designated as fully remote eligible. These eligibilities will be revisited from time to time, but not likely to change in the near term as much of the campus is just beginning to consider these designations and that has implications for how our services can be delivered.

Are you feeling positive about recruiting within ITS?
I think we’re in a better position than most of the university because most IT positions have continued to be posted throughout the pandemic, and this was not the case for most of the university. We experienced a modest uptick in turnover last fall, but it’s settled to a fairly normal range. We took the lead on clarifying expectations around remote work, and this was helpful. Overall, I feel good about the way it’s going right now. As we progress in our efforts around remote work, entitlements, and supporting younger employees, we will continue to strengthen our recruitment efforts.

The next IT Leadership Team meeting will take place on May 25.