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“It is a big idea. It’s about creating a better world by creating better workplaces.”
- Jen Wethrow, director, Great Place to Work Institute, Globe and Mail, April 12, 2011
The essential elements contained in this draft framework are based on U of M community consultations and key elements in the literature. In the pages that follow, you will find five proposed strategies. Each strategy consists of a theme and corresponding indicators. These were identified as important for enhancing our outstanding workplace.
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We invite you to provide your feedback to this draft framework. We want to hear from you. Your feedback will further guide us in designing a detailed employee experience survey. Please respond to these two questions in our web-survey.
1. Do the themes and indicators for each identified theme ring true to your experience in your workplace?Please explain.
2. Are there any other questions that need to be raised? Please elaborate with suggested questions.
Thank you.
DRAFT FRAMEWORK
STRATEGY ONE: Foster exemplary leadership and management practices
Leadership and management are both important and distributed across the organization. According to Mintzberg (2004), “Management without leadership is sterile; leadership without management is disconnected and encourages hubris” (p. 6). Sound leadership and management practices are grounded in strong values that enable the leadership potential of all. From our consultations, the following five indicators capture the strengths and identified areas of improvement for this emerging theme.
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b. Equity/Diversity: There are calls for equitable treatment for non-tenure track instructors and researchers, equitable treatment of employees, pay equity, equitable hiring practices, and celebrating differences.
c. Flexibility: While many acknowledge and are appreciative of flexible work arrangements, others call for greater attention to options for flexibility.
d. Service Focused Culture: Many call for greater efficiency through ‘less administrative red tape’ and practices that are aligned with better serving our students and community.
e. Infrastructure: Integrated Systems, Technology, Space: Many people reference a desire for greater integration and transformation of existing systems and technology. Some people want to see their space issues prioritized and addressed.
General Questions
How can we foster practices that enable exemplary leadership to occur in the University?
How can we continue to develop our current and future leaders and managers, and provide the tools to do their jobs well?
How do we foster both leader and unit member accountability?
What can we do to reduce bureaucracy?
What can we do to enable a more satisfying infrastructure of systems, technology, and space?
How do we build more collaborative union/management relationships?
How can we continue to celebrate differences at the U of M?
What other options for flexible working conditions might we consider?
How can I contribute most productively?
STRATEGY TWO: Nurture our people and community to deliver results
A positive and supportive workplace nurtures a culture where people’s creativity and capacity to initiate are fully engaged, enabling extraordinary contribution and satisfaction. It is a place where people feel respected, are responsible, work as a team, and are recognized for the work they do. Our initial conversations uncovered four critical indicators for employee engagement.
a. Respectful Workplace: Some people noted that the University treats its employees fairly and with respect while others say that they need to see more effort to provide an atmosphere of respect, honour, equality, and community among all staff, faculty, and students.
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b. Recognition: While some identified feeling appreciated, many ideas about how this could be more satisfying were shared. Responses focused on both formal mechanisms, e.g. for exceptionally productive faculty members, for retirees, for exceptional effort as well as on informal appreciative interactions.
c. Collegiality: While many celebrate the experience of collegiality in this work environment others call for less division between staff and faculty.
d. Team Environment: While some celebrate the opportunity to work as part of a team, others call for greater efforts to see harmony, fairness, and team work as a priority in a group setting.
General Questions
How can we increase the experience of working in a respectful environment?
How can the U of M tap into the creativity and commitment of its people to deliver results?
What practices can we employ to recognize the contributions of all?
What more can we do to increase collegiality and collaboration within and between units and departments?
What more can we do to increase collaboration between support staff and faculty?
How can I contribute most productively?
STRATEGY THREE: Sustain and enhance quality of contributions
More than salary, benefits, work environment, or status, a critical determinant of whether we enjoy going to work each day is whether we believe the work we do makes some sort of meaningful contribution. Do we consider the work we do important? Our initial consultations surfaced a great sense of pride in the work that both faculty and staff do at the University of Manitoba. These are expressed in three key areas as outlined below.
a. Service to Students: Feedback received in this regard is overwhelmingly celebratory. Both staff and faculty take pride in serving students.
b. Scholarship, Teaching, & Research: Comments received are overwhelmingly positive including staff celebrating their assistance to faculty members in this work.
c. Service to Society: The celebration of service and contribution also extends to the capacity to serve society at large.
General Questions
How can we continue to enhance the quality of service and thereby add to our employees’ contributions to our students, university and society?
How can we create more conditions for meaningful work?
How can we enable deeper connections to include the community from outside the university?
How can I contribute most productively?
STRATEGY FOUR: Expand services for professional and career development
“Professional development” refers to formal processes such as attending a course, conference, seminar, or workshop, or participating in specific focused work assignments. It also occurs in informal contexts such as discussions among work colleagues, independent reading and research, observations of a colleague’s work, or other learning with a peer. It contributes to career development, which also includes career paths and plans, learning plans, mentoring, and internships.
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b.Formalized Career Paths: There are many requests for increased career path identification and support and corresponding professional development opportunities.
c. Mentoring: There is an acknowledgment of semi-formalized and ad hoc mentoring processes for faculty members. There is also a call to establish more formalized and standardized mentoring processes, targeted for mid-career faulty members.
General Questions
What can we do to enhance career path opportunities for support staff?
What can we do to encourage equitable professional development practices for all?
What can we do to further the interest in a mentoring process for mid-career faculty?
How can I contribute most productively?
STRATEGY FIVE: Celebrate, communicate, and augment university-wide benefits
The “benefits” offered by an employer are extrinsic factors influencing employee motivation and engagement. Generally, U of M compares very well with other organizations of our size and location and appreciation was expressed for these benefits.
a. Health Insurance, Pension, Vacation, Christmas shutdown, and Compensation: Employees overwhelmingly identified these as strong supports.
b. Tuition Reimbursement: This benefit was frequently identified as greatly appreciated.
c. Family Benefits: There was an appreciation of family benefits; there was also a call to improve benefits for single parents, and increased access for day care.
General Questions
What actions can we continue and initiate to celebrate and communicate university-wide benefits?
What can we reasonably do to improve service to family related benefits?
What other options for flexible working conditions might we consider?
How can I contribute most productively?