posted May 22: Working at McMaster

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/WAMribboncutting.jpg” caption=”Working at McMaster Team launches website”]More than 200 members of the University gathered in the foyer of the University Centre on Tuesday to celebrate the ways in which the University and staff are improving the workplace at McMaster.

The Working at McMaster Achievement Fair was sponsored and organized by staff, mentors and facilitators who have been involved in implementing many of the recommendations that resulted from a staff survey and follow-up project.

The event provided an opportunity for all involved in the process over the last two years to share and celebrate their experiences and inform other members of the community, including representatives from campus employee groups, supervisors and senior administrators, of the progress on the recommendations made by staff following the 1998 survey.

In 2000, the University took up the challenge of responding to the survey by instituting the Staff Survey Follow-up Project, a plan to develop and implement recommendations flowing from the study results.

In 2001, the concept of Working at McMaster was developed by an employee team as a vehicle to carry forward the spirit of the staff survey, for the long term. At the Achievement Fair, five active Working at McMaster task teams informed the community of what the follow-up has accomplished.

Along with a general information table entitled “Staff Survey: Progress”, displays set up featured specific projects that are under way as a result of the survey: employee lounges, Perspectives (an electronic, by employees-for-employees newsletter), career planning and development, and core competencies for McMaster's managers and leaders.

The main feature of the Achievement Fair was the launch of the Working At McMaster Web site. The brainchild of the career planning and development task team, the site is service-driven and employee-oriented. Team members include Tina Horton (chair), Grazyna Ziolkowski, Delia Hutchinson, Barb MacDonald, Janet Walsh, Marvin Gunderman, David Lawson, and Cate Walker-Hammond.

Horton explained how the project evolved. “While working on our mandate respecting career planning and development, our committee happened upon the Working at Berkeley Web site. We loved the idea and that it was a non-traditional HR Web site. It was comprehensive and had a strong sense of employee-employer partnering in its structure and content.”

“It's not a common approach, but one that we think works,” she adds. “We are gathering all of the career-oriented information the university has — degree studies, Centre for Leadership and Learning, learning skills — and enabling employees to go to one location.

Peter Turner, lead consultant for human resources, has worked with the teams on the implementation of the survey recommendations. He says the career planning and development team's goal is to increase the degree to which McMaster models a culture of career planning and development for all its employees. The committee plans to launch a first annual Working At McMaster conference for staff this fall.

Along with bringing information together, Horton hopes to bring employees together through the new Web site. “We are developing a Web-based community, a larger community. The new site will be a connection for all of us.”

This Web site will also replace the Human Resources Web site over the next few months and will feature what users would typically need to find on an HR Web site, but offer more and fresher information, eventually with more self service capability. This had been a recommendation from the staff survey process.

Jason Cole, a project facilitator with Human Resources Services, explains that the new Web site, “offers a more contemporary medium to communicate with employees and prospective employees. The site is a partnership, with HR and employee teams rolling it (information) out to the community, which is a different approach and direction than what has been done in the past.”

Just as the creation of the Web site resulted from employee involvement, the content for it was developed by the employee teams as well. Quick tips, feedback, and monthly poll sections allow users to participate in developing parts of the Web site.

The goal of the 1998 staff survey was to better understand the factors that affect employees' experiences in their workplaces, and to try to address concerns.

At the Achievement Fair, University President Peter George noted, “For me Working at McMaster is not just about the little juggler or the core of synergy concept, although those are fun and useful images. For me, Working at McMaster is a promise. It is a promise to continue to articulate the excellence we seek as an employer. It is the promise to continue to value highly the relationship we have with our employees, prospective employees and past employees. Working at McMaster is the promise to continuously try to improve the quality of work life in this University and improve the ways in which we communicate and do our jobs so that our reward is great and our performance as an organization is second to none.”

PHOTO: (left to right)Barb MacDonald, Delia Hutchinson, Marvin Gunderman, Janet Walsh, Cate Walker-Hammond, Ray Procwat, Grazyna Ziolkowski, David Lawson, Tina Horton, President Peter George

Photo by Sheryl Nadler