IT Leadership Team March 2024 recap

The February IT Leadership Team meeting covered the IT Manager’s Series, the Recruiting Strategic Initiative (RSI), and an Ask SLT live discussion.

Manager’s Series

Kaila Carroll introduced attendees to the new IT Manager’s Series, a collaborative effort between IT Learning and Development and IT’s Human Resources partners. The series aims to equip managers with tools, resources, and opportunities to connect with peers and colleagues from other teams. The program was initiated based on feedback from managers and began in January with a presentation from Katie Cullen on managing early-career staff and programs. In February, a three-part series on managing early career professionals led by Sheena Marcus Coaching, LLC, kicked off with its first session. Upcoming sessions include two more virtual sessions on managing early career staff led by Sheena Marcus and monthly meetings where topics will relate to managing and align with learning and development and HR goals and needs for those months.

Recruiting Strategic Initiative

Janet Gipson gave an overview of the Recruiting Strategic Initiative (RSI), designed to create an efficient and intuitive institutional process for staffing roles across Yale. The multi-year initiative aims to recruit diverse and highly talented candidates. This talent acquisition strategy, instituted in early February, includes a new functional organization design and will evolve over several phases.

She shared an overview of expectations, key things to know, and planned changes for each pilot phase. Managers can expect consistent and scalable recruitment support tailored to their units during the first phase. Resources such as a Power BI scorecard and dashboard will provide greater visibility to candidates and access to requisitions. In phase 2, to simplify the recruitment process, managers and recruiting staff will align on job description development before announcing job postings. The initiative also includes considerations for adopting job family redesign, and a best practices toolkit will be available to managers to assist them throughout the process. Invitations to prepare managers for the pilot are underway and could continue through April. The team also discussed a rationale for internal career pathing.

John Barden encouraged managers to have open conversations with their staff about the next best moves for them, which should include opportunities elsewhere at Yale. These growth opportunities to move across teams ensure key talents remain at the university. Hiring managers should have a conversation with an internal candidate’s current manager as both a courtesy and to work with them to ensure a smooth transition process for internal hires.

Ask SLT live

Attendees were given the opportunity to engage with all SLT members in a live version of what is now “Ask IT Leadership.”

The question of IT’s core competencies was raised, and examples of how this applied to different roles were requested. In response, the SLT shared that this framework, inspired by a peer institution, was introduced when gaps were identified in the current performance model. They acknowledged further clarity would benefit staff and there are likely ways to improve this. It was noted that the planned Business System Analyst training, which identified soft skills for each IT job level, is an example of training that can help develop these core competencies for those working in this type of role.

A question was asked about providing a centralized location for IT staff to see current ITS job openings. A number of internal postings reside on the IT at Yale web page and within the Careers articles in the IT Update newsletter. The leadership acknowledged that more consistency is needed to notify the IT community of these opportunities.

An attendee asked the SLT to provide recommendations to facilitate fewer meetings, more focused time, and a deeper connection between staff. The SLT shared that they had also faced the same challenges and discussed the recent changes to their meeting structure to inspire staff to do the same. Meeting frequencies and time frames were evaluated for efficiencies, which led to shorter, more focused SLT meetings. Adopting meeting objectives and advancing pre-read materials also helped the SLT to narrow in and focus on getting things done. Managers were encouraged to think creatively about their guiding principles for meeting design and how to keep them flexible to accommodate shortened meeting times. A plan to incorporate a mentorship program for additional support is also in the works for the spring.

The next IT Leadership Team meeting is on Wednesday, March 27, from 9 - 10:30 a.m.