Contact person: Merrie McElreath, Business Manager (merrie@uwyo.edu)
Each department’s main office staff is critical to the effective operation of the department. Office support staff is/are the front-line respondent to inquiries from students, staff, and faculty and the general public. Four primary areas of concern are discussed in this section: Office Management (meetings, employee benefits, office hours, salary adjustments); Hiring (vacancies, interviewing, offers); Evaluations (appraisals); and Disputes (Unireg 174, Unireg 5, and Employment Practices Office).
Good management practices include open communication with staff, and heads are strongly urged to meet on a daily basis with the head secretary and make themselves accessible to other staff. The head support staff should have access to the head’s calendar for scheduling appointments. The college maintains an e-mail heads’ distribution list, which includes all head support staff, and the dean’s office uses e-mail to distribute various messages and documents. Monthly college staff meetings hosted by the Dean’s Office are held throughout the academic year, and each academic and support unit is to be represented at each meeting.
A staff handbook is available on the web, and heads should become familiar with this document. Please note that employees enjoy a number of benefits, including various types of leave, insurance, retirement, training opportunities through the training office on campus, as well as free tuition for one class (six credit hours maximum) each semester for UW credit classes.
All benefited staff earn vacation and sick leave and may be eligible to take bereavement leave, leave with pay, and leave without pay. Sick leave and vacation leaves are recorded on the university’s computer system. Vacation leave accrues up to a maximum of twice the employee’s annual accrual rate. Heads/directors are responsible for monitoring and assuring ethical and accurate records are kept. Employees who leave the institution with unused vacation leave are paid for that leave, and ordinarily departments will not be able to replace an employee until the unused vacation leave is paid out. In many cases, this unused vacation leave can mean that a department may be required to hold a position vacant for a month or more. Heads must monitor the vacation accumulation to avoid excessive accruals by staff.
All department offices with full-time staffing are expected to be open during regular university hours, i.e., 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. during the academic year, and 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during the summer. Offices with more than one staff member should be open during the noon hour. When offices are closed during regular university hours, post a sign outside the department office indicating when the office is open and who should be contacted if immediate assistance is desired. (The Dean’s Office always can be listed.) Additionally, a recorded telephone message should include hours and alternative contacts (again, the Dean’s Office may be listed).
Salary adjustments for staff generally fall into three categories: promotion/upgrade; job transfer/hire; and UW merit salary pool adjustments. A promotion/upgrade usually occurs when a position’s duties change considerably. To determine if a position can be upgraded/promoted, the employee completes a Position Description Questionnaire (PDQ—available from http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/hr/HRformslist.htm) , the supervisor approves the PDQ, and the PDQ is reviewed in the Dean’s Office then forwarded to Human Resources. The Human Resources office then conducts an audit with the employee, supervisor, and head. If the position is upgraded (the position moves up in the salary matrix), the new salary is negotiated between the Dean’s Office and the department. In most cases, the department is responsible for funding the increase for the balance of the current year. Human Resources is committed to reviewing each PDQ every five years and the Human Resources office contacts the employee and supervisor for these five-year reviews. Although there is no signature line for the dean on the form, the form must be reviewed by the Dean’s Office. The final form is submitted to Human Resources by the Dean's Office.
The university occasionally has funds to award merit salary increases. The university administration determines the general process, and individual colleges determine the awards and precise process for determining merit adjustments. Historically, A&S heads rank staff and provide this ranking to the Dean’s Office.
Filling any staff vacancy requires the dean's approval. Additionally, for benefited staff positions, the hiring department must have Dean’s Office approval before: 1) submitting the Staff Personnel Request; 2) Interviewing; and 3) Making an offer. The department completes the Staff Personnel Request Form available at http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/hr/HRformslist.htm; this form is submitted to the Dean’s Office for review and original signature by the appointing authority. Following approval by the Dean’s Office, the form is forwarded to Human Resources for advertisement. A complete listing of job titles and descriptions is available at University of Wyoming Classification and Compensation, a current salary matrix is available at http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/HRClassComp/Matrix-FY08-FINAL.htm.
Departments receive applications directly from Human Resources (HR). Prior to arranging interviews, the department screens for minimum qualifications. HR must approve the list of those applicants you wish to interview and for identification by HR of protected status. The hiring department always should review all candidates’ official personnel file, located in HR. Remember that the Dean is the appointing authority and must approve all hires.
Prior to hiring a staff person, it is essential that you know as much about the candidate’s past performance as possible. Because the Dean’s Office staff has dealt with many staff employees, please discuss the candidates with Merrie McElreath before making a final choice.
References for the final candidates must be checked prior to making an offer. In order to contact any person as a reference whose name was not provided by the candidate, permission from the candidate must be obtained. Current supervisors cannot be contacted without the candidate’s permission (permission is granted/denied on the application form).
Human Resources must approve the selection before a department may make an offer to the preferred candidate. Once the interview process is complete, the hiring department completes a Personnel Activity Summary available from http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/hr/HRformslist.htm; Human Resources can assist in completing this form, which requires an original signature from the Dean’s Office. Contact the business manager for salary approval.
All classified staff employees are evaluated annually by their supervisors, and performance evaluation forms http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/staffperformance1/ are due in Human Resources by mid-March. Human Resources requires the active input of the employee and his/her supervisor, and review by the supervisor’s supervisor, and each employee is given a copy of the entire signed document. It is highly recommended that this be a cooperative exercise between the employee and supervisor.
Annual evaluations provide the opportunity to recognize the merits of each employee. Keep in mind that various staff awards are available through Staff Senate, and heads should take the initiative in nominating deserving staff for awards.
Heads and supervisors should not ignore substandard performance by writing an appraisal that appears to show satisfactory performance. At any time during the year, heads are strongly urged to address problems of performance and/or behavior without delay.
The university adheres to a progressive discipline policy, and a variety of approaches may be used when working with performance problems. Unireg 174 http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/legal/Uniregs/ur174rev7.htm covers staff disputes, including staff discipline, dispute resolution, and disciplinary or termination appeals. It is critical that department heads contact the business manager immediately when employment issues arise with a classified staff employee.
Employees have the option of filing formal complaints with the Human Resources Office, and such complaints may result in a hearing conducted by an outside arbitrator. The arbitrator hears each side and, within a specified time period, makes a ruling that is binding to the university. These hearings are time-consuming and emotionally draining. It is far better to try to resolve issues and improve performance before reaching the arbitration stage.
Please see Section II. L. concerning Retirement. In particular, Board Retirement and Recall include staff. Persons interested in retirement should consult the Human Resources Department (X6-2437).
Please see Section II. E. concerning Disputes, Complaints, Civil Rights Violations and Violence in the Workplace.
Please see Section II. H. concerning Consulting.
Please see Section II. I. concerning Conflict of Commitment.