2021 HROE Spring Forum

The 2021 Human Resources and Organizational Effectiveness Forum was held April 28, 2021. Panelists for the forum were:

  • Dr. Jeff Risinger, Vice President for Human Resources and Organizational Effectiveness
  • Elizabeth Schwartz, Director of Total Rewards
  • Andrew Barna, Jr., Director of Employee Relations

Follow-Up Questions

The following questions and answers are remaining topics that were not addressed directly in the forum.

I am employed part time (60%) at TAMU. Is there an option based on my TAMU employment to receive a discounted fee at any local/private fitness programs?
Texas A&M employees are eligible to participate in the PerksConnect Discount Program. Visit our dedicated webpage to learn more about the discounts that are available to you. Additionally, Flourish, the University’s employee wellness and engagement program, offers a variety of fitness opportunities and other wellness programming. Learn more by visiting their website at https://flourish.tamu.edu

Which benefits are available to all system members versus those that may be available only at TAMU, etc.?
All members of the Texas A&M University System share the same generous benefits package. Specific information about these benefits can be found in the TAMUS Employee Benefits Guide. Employees of Texas A&M University are particularly eligible for voluntary benefits offered through the PerksConnect Discount Program. Visit our PerksConnect dedicated webpage to learn more about the voluntary programs that you are able to opt into. 

Will the University ever offer short-term disability benefits?
The A&M System benefits do not include a short-term disability plan. However, the sick leave pool offers a process to access paid time off for medical reasons. The sick leave pool can serve as a bridge of paid time until Long-Term Disability benefits are available, if applicable to the employee’s situation. More about the sick leave pool can be found at https://employees.tamu.edu/benefits/leave/paid/sick-pool.html online. 

For years I have been advised that a staff member cannot be promoted without clearly establishing an increase to their duties or their responsibilities which frequently involves (or expands) supervising. As we work toward expanding the currently limited career ladder track documentation could we consider a “Dual Career Ladder” program with one path for supervisor/management-focused employees and the other for professional/technical-focused individuals? This would allow managers to promote skilled and talented employees who may not have the interest or ability to manage or supervise.
Career ladders and titles on campus usually do involve a certain point in the ladder that adds supervision or a transition to management duties. There are also a large number of individual contributor roles among staff titles as well. HROE would certainly be willing to entertain the idea of additional individual contributor tracks in a particular job family or ladder. We would need to gather additional information about where there is a need for this approach and how it would fit into the current pay grades and job families. 

How will the new Aggie One Stop Advisers, under the Division of Enrollment and Academic Services, be able to get promoted within the new division-wide career ladder? As a manager, what can I do to help guide my future employees up this new career ladder and retain them?
This is a newly developed career ladder, and we would be glad to provide additional resources and information to supervisors about how it can be used for employee development and career planning.

Will the idea of a career ladder for staff be revisited? It was mentioned years back, but I have not heard anything recent on the status.
Many career ladders exist for staff positions, so we are interested in hearing more about what the individual means by career ladder from their perspective. HROE has several endeavors in progress that may impact the ability to further guide career movement through staff positions on campus. For example, Organization Development is in the process of identifying competency maps for staff success. We believe this work will eventually be applicable to career growth and will provide a closer tie to the process of moving from one title to another.

In the past, Jeff mentioned several things that I'd like to hear an update about:
a. HROE centralizing the administration of FMLA within their department for all of campus.

b. HROE handling all new employee onboarding, to include faculty, staff, and students.
Both items, A and B, are things that HR has considered at the request of our internal customers. There are staff and budget implications and we have made requests to be funded to handle these activities. If those resources are made available, we will work to centralize these activities. HROE hosting a talent pool of employees who can flex in when our department has a temporary vacancy. We are especially interested in knowing if this will include HR Liaisons as we have a need for help in this area due to some upcoming FMLA events over the summer. We started to design a program to accomplish this item just prior to COVID changing the nature of our work. As we return to work on campus, we will likely revisit our planning on this and work to implement it.

I've experienced a history of bullying in the workplace and have not found many resources in dealing with these experiences. Traditionally, I would inform my supervisor of the situation, but ultimately nothing would be addressed. I'd like to see a more defined avenue to report office bullying, and more training opportunities to handle bullying and techniques to address these kinds of issues.
There are several ways to report bullying:

What steps are being taken now to improve communication during the pandemic response by the administration (including HR administration) with regard to staff guidance on COVID-19 remote/AWL approvals / return to office plans?
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Texas A&M’s administration has provided guidance from the University through multiple campus-wide communications and through a dedicated coronavirus website. Additionally, HROE has distributed campus-wide employee communications outlining employee protocols, including a multi-phase return-to-campus plan informed by guidance from state and federal officials. Additionally, a variety of resources have been developed and made available online to assist employees in navigating their employment-related concerns resulting from COVID-19.


FMLA - There is literally no one I can ask questions to. I am so afraid I will lose my job because I haven't provided the proper documentation. The only thing I can do is leave messages and send emails that don't get responded to. I know I am being paranoid but HELP!!!!!
The Employee Relations department in HROE can address any and all questions with regards to FMLA. Our website has a lot of helpful information and resources to help navigate the FMLA process. Contact us at employee-relations@tamu.edu or 979.862.4027. 

How does HROE encourage diversity (e.g., diversity question included among interview questions, requiring minimum interviewing of at least one diverse candidate for all roles, encouraging use of pronouns in signatures, etc.)?
Talent Management is working with existing vendors and creating other partnerships to allow more outreach to underrepresented minorities (URM) and females. We are seeing an increase in URMs in our applicant pools which improves the likelihood that URMs and females will be selected for positions. Additionally, we have recently opened up capabilities in Workday that allow recruiting coordinators insight into the demographics of their applicant pools. If the applicant pool needs better representation of URMs and/or females, Talent Specialists assist recruiting coordinators and their hiring managers with additional outreach to encourage URMs and females to apply. There are also educational opportunities available within TAMU that create awareness of biases and how to reduce or eliminate them from the recruiting and selection process.  

What does an employee have to do to know they won’t miss a job that could be their perfect next step? At TAMU they have to log onto Workday and check the posted positions every day. How does a hiring supervisor know that all TAMU employees who might be perfect for their open position knows of that posting? They can’t. Why don’t we use Workday to fix these issues? Workday allows staff to upload resumes and all sorts of career information. If we can compare key variables from all posted positions to our database of employees a notice can be generated to potential candidates that an opening is out for their consideration. It is sad when TAMU loses a good employee because they didn’t get wind of a great opportunity. Why are we not doing more to show current employees another reason TAMU is a great place to work is because they have TONS of opportunities. Even if they are not the right fit, maybe they know of another perfect candidate. Why do hiring managers who have a great position have to be limited to only a small fraction of potential candidates because not everyone conducts a daily review of posted positions?
We have been working with Workday to update the functionality for our internal employees that allows them to set up job alerts about positions fitting their filters. There is current functionality in Workday that allows all employees to complete their employee profile with previous work experience, education, certifications, skills and more. New employees hired since the implementation of Workday HCM, using the Workday Recruiting process, have a job history that followed them from the recruiting process. Existing employees can add or update this information within their Workday profile. Step-by-step instructions for managing your work experience are available online. 

How can supervisors mentor their employees for upper-level positions?
HROE is currently working on a number of tools that will help provide guidance on mentoring employees for promotions. One example is the creation of competency maps so that it is clearly understood what is needed for higher level positions. In addition, our leadership development programs teach leaders how to engage in this kind of work. Finally, we have recently made a budget request for a mentoring system that will help facilitate the mentoring process both from supervisors and others.

If job requisitions have mandatory & preferred qualifications, why do hiring managers always interview those with the preferred instead of the mandatory qualifications? If you want someone with the preferred qualifications, then shouldn't those qualifications be in the mandatory qualifications? Why not at least give someone an interview who has the mandatory qualifications and maybe do not have the preferred qualifications?
Positions contain minimum qualifications and preferred qualifications. Every applicant who meets the minimum qualifications for the position moves into the pool and evaluated for the next steps in the process. The preferred qualifications are a way to further refine the pool to determine who should be interviewed to gather additional information. Those who only meet the minimum qualifications are still considered and can be interviewed, however, if there are a large number of candidates in the pool, it can become time-consuming to interview everyone in the pool. There are other attributes to consider when filling positions, qualifications being one of them. If you would like to reach out to us with additional questions, please contact Talent Management at jobs@tamu.edu or 979.845.5154. 

How is this leadership ensuring that hiring managers are hiring with as little bias as possible? Does this leadership see the demographic of upper leadership? What is the leadership doing to ensure it isn't a White-man's (or White-woman's) club moving forward? Not to say there needs to be more diversity hires but - upper leadership can't consistently be full of privileged individuals."
HROE provides training and guidance for all managers involved in the hiring process. We also work to make sure our job opportunities are broadly visible and we constantly monitor applicant activity to make sure that we are attracting as broad a pool of applicants as possible. We are beginning work on succession planning that will help us in the long-term to achieve a more representative staff.

How can we receive information discussed in the System Benefits Administration monthly meetings? Is this only for Benefit Partners Only? It would be informative, productive, and proactive for certain departments, or staff to be in the loop on certain agenda items if not all agenda items how it impacts the employee.
The target audience for System Benefits Administration monthly meetings are Benefit Partners (in central HR offices). Most of the information being shared involves actions that need to be taken by Benefit Partners, not the HR contacts at the department level. While the topics discussed may be related to employee benefits, the information is not presented in a manner that is intended for employees or retirees. All relevant information that requires further communication to specific audiences is done either through the Liaison Network News (LNN) or direct employee communications. 

Speaking of inclusion and equality, the remote campuses are almost always left out of committees, councils, etc. It’d be nice that we also be invited to be a part of the different groups/areas and give our input. One of the positives of covid and this pandemic is that technology was impacted and forced the university to expand the virtual options. This will help eliminate the barrier between the main and the remote campuses.
As stated in the question, the technology that we have learned to effectively leverage as a result of COVID should help us to stay more connected even after the pandemic. We can also do our best to remember to reach out and include all voices in the various groups that meet. Also please don’t hesitate to make it known if there is a group you would like to be a part of, but have not been asked.

Is there any talk about Early Retirement?
If by early retirement, you mean the staff or faculty Voluntary Separation Programs from previous years, we can confirm there are not any plans to offer another formal Voluntary Separation Program at this time. 

I am very concerned by current legislation pending (it is out of Committee and they say there will be action) regarding an overhaul to the Texas State Employee Pension Plan -https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/19/texas-senate-pension-overhaul/. ""Senate Bill 321 by state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, would enroll new employees eligible for the Texas Employees Retirement System in a cash balance plan — similar to a common 401(k) retirement account — instead of the traditional, defined benefit pension plan. The Senate Finance Committee approved the measure by a vote of 13-0, with Democratic state Sen. Royce West of Dallas voting present.""
Does Texas A&M have a voice in these discussions in Austin? How will the changes impact us as we move forward?
This legislation does not impact Texas A&M.  Texas A&M System employees participate in the Teachers Retirement System of Texas (TRS) whereas this bill is related to the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS). 

No specific questions but would like it addressed what staff returning to campus full time might look like. Distancing, protections for staff who sit in open high traffic areas/cubicles. (such as plexiglass/sneeze guards etc.)
A number of the protections that were put in place to reduce the spread of COVID will still be available going forward. In addition, as employees return to work on campus, if specific concerns arise every employee should feel comfortable raising the issue with their immediate supervisor to see what unique accommodations can be made. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Texas A&M’s administration has provided guidance from the University through multiple campus-wide communications and through a dedicated coronavirus website. Additionally, HROE has distributed campus-wide employee communications outlining employee protocols, including a multi-phase phase return-to-campus plan informed by guidance from state and federal officials. Additionally, a variety of resources have been developed and made available online to assist employees in navigating their employment-related concerns resulting from COVID-19.

Why are we having to come back on campus in June when it was mentioned that we do not have to come back until August?
We have continued to monitor the effectiveness of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as our need to support internal customers and students.  In March 2021, we announced plans to return 75% of our staff to campus on June 1 and to 100% by August.  As conditions changed, we felt comfortable making an adjustment on that 25% that would have been returning over the summer and setting the 100% return to June 1.

As an employee who has recently been notified an unemployment claim had been filed under my identity, can the university give us any information on how our personal information has been compromised? The process an employee must go through to secure their identity is not a simple task. Can HROE provide an update concerning these activities?
The Texas A&M System, University, State of Texas, and federal government are keenly aware of the situation. The FBI has several investigations currently ongoing with regards to fraudulent unemployment claims. The University and System have received several dozen fraudulent unemployment claims in the last few months. The University and System have safeguards in place to ensure fraudulent claims are not paid. HROE is working very closely with Chief Information Officer, Office of Cybersecurity, and Internal Audit to monitor and track these fraudulent claims. HROE has been reassured that there have been NO BREACHES of the University and/or systems databases, nor have any employees’ personally identifiable information (PII) been comprised.  Americans from every state have been victimized by criminals impersonating the victims and using the victims’ stolen identities to submit fraudulent unemployment insurance claims online. The criminals will employ several methods to obtain victims’ identities, including online purchase of stolen PII, previous data breaches, computer intrusions, cold-calling victims while using impersonation scams, email phishing schemes, physical theft of data from individuals or third parties, and social media accounts.

Status of tuition assistance for staff …
The Texas A&M Employee Tuition Assistance Program offers tuition assistance benefits to eligible employees. Texas A&M University pays up to $1,000 per class as follows for eligible employees:
  • Fall and/or spring semesters (maximum of 2 classes):1-5 credit hours = $1,000
  • 6+ credit hours = $2,000
  • Summer semester (maximum of 1 class):1-6 credit hours = $1,000 
  • Eligibility criteria is available online
What activities conducted in Workday can be seen by your direct chain of command (e.g. leave requests) and which cannot (e.g. application to other internal postings)?

The direct manager can see the Contact Information and Worker History for their employee and anyone under that employee.  The Worker History categories that are available to the direct manager include:

  • Staffing (not internal applications)
  • Organization
  •  Personal Data
  • Compensation
  •  Time Off and Leave
  • Goals and Reviews
  • Career and Talent
  • Payroll

Will any HROE services be available to TAMUQ employees?
HROE supports all University employees including TAMUQ employees. If there are specific needs that are not being met, please contact us with additional information at hr-feedback@tamu.edu. 

What is the response moving forward in the summer and fall if a staff member "does not feel comfortable"?
If employees are uncomfortable working in the office because of an underlying medical condition/issue, they may seek an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and/or leave under the Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA).  These individuals should talk to their HR Liaison and/or the Employee Relations department

Will departments have the authority to allow a day to work remotely if sick or other needs to work from home on a case by case basis? I.e. working this one day from home and get approvals through the supervisor and dept. Head.
Pre-pandemic AWL practices are still applicable.  If Department Heads allowed supervisors the discretion to permit employees to work remotely while sick (but well enough to work from home) or if a service person was expected at the employee's home and he/she needed to be there, that is still appropriate.

Is there a web page that provides information on minimum requirements for titles such as Assistant Director?
Information regarding System-wide Pay Plan Titles and Career Ladders is available on Classification & Compensation’s website. If you are unable to locate the information that you are seeking, contact hrcomp@tamu.edu for additional assistance.

Is there somewhere that explains how to understand what it means to be within the different bands in pay grades?
Salary pay grades are divided into three bands, allowing for greater flexibility for determining hire rates at the department level. The Lower Band may be used with Department Head Authorization. The Middle Band will require authorization at the level of VP/Dean or Designee. And use of the Upper Band will require authorization by both the VP and the VP of Human Resources and Organizational Effectiveness (may not be delegated). Contact hrcomp@tamu.edu for additional assistance regarding pay bands.

In the fall the University and System announced the roll-out of some recommendations from the President's Commission on DEI.  The total that was allocated for the support of staff was only 0.4% of the funding identified.  Less than 1%.  Since the announcement I do not believe any information has been released to staff about this topic.  Why was this allocation acceptable by members of the administration to support staff?
There have been a number of teams that have been working to address the key themes that came out of the Commission report. There are many, many activities that can be accomplished without significant budget requirements. In addition, as we have worked on action plans, additional budget requests have been made.

Why are we asking to bring people back if work from home is working?
Texas A&M University is a higher education institution whose missions include providing the highest quality undergraduate and graduate programs and developing new understandings through research and creativity. To achieve these missions and better support our students who are now returning to in-person instruction, the University is returning to normal (pre-pandemic) operations as of June 1, 2021. Most, if not all jobs/positions at Texas A&M require some presence in the office. 

I have a question concerning an update for staff and other members that have had their personal information and social security numbers compromised.  There have been a significant number of TAMU employees that have had their personal information compromised and have worked very hard to protect our personal information and credit.
The Texas A&M System, University, State of Texas, and federal government are keenly aware of a current situation involving fraudulent unemployment complaints being submitted on behalf of some System employees. The FBI has several investigations currently ongoing with regards to fraudulent unemployment claims. The University and System have received several dozen fraudulent unemployment claims in the last few months. The University and System have safeguards in place to ensure fraudulent claims are not paid. HROE is working very closely with Chief Information Officer, Office of Cybersecurity, and Internal Audit to monitor and track these fraudulent claims. HROE has been reassured that there have been NO BREACHES of the University and/or systems databases, nor have any employees’ personally identifiable information (PII) been comprised.  Americans from every state have been victimized by criminals impersonating the victims and using the victims’ stolen identities to submit fraudulent unemployment insurance claims online. The criminals will employ several methods to obtain victims’ identities, including online purchase of stolen PII, previous data breaches, computer intrusions, cold-calling victims while using impersonation scams, email phishing schemes, physical theft of data from individuals or third parties, and social media accounts.