Where is HR?
For many higher education institutions, the percentage of budget allocated to employee compensation and benefits can be upwards of 70 to 80 percent of an institution’s entire budget, says Andy Brantley, chief executive officer, College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR), Knoxville, Tennessee. “If leaders are not focusing on workforce issues as key to their success, they are missing critical opportunities for ensuring institutional and financial health. Especially as colleges and universities continue feeling the pinch of cost pressures and increased regulations leveled from federal and state governments along with increased scrutiny from the public and media, a true key to long-term institutional success will be better alignment of people assets with the business of the institution,” says Brantley.
The strategic role of human resources is well understood at some institutions. Mary George Opperman, vice president for human resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, has served as a key organizational strategist and policy maker for the university for the past decade. She reports directly to the president and works with the president, provost, and board of trustees on developing compensation strategies and defining how those fit with the broader strategic goals of the institution.
Peter Martel, former associate vice president of human resources, Bridgewater State College, Massachusetts, and immediate past president of CUPA-HR, calls the closer working relationship between human resource and chief academic officers that has emerged in recent years nothing short of a breakthrough. When he first arrived three years ago there was little expectation that his office could serve as more than a clearinghouse for faculty resumes and applications. Since then the college’s human resource function has developed a reputation as key consultant in the search and hiring process, says Martel. “We have a clear understanding about how to build better searches and where to focus spending for specific positions to achieve a better applicant pool.” He believes providing viable data and metrics help instill an understanding of the value of a human resource perspective in institutional decision making.
That has proven true for Barbara Beck, associate vice president for finance and administration and director of human resources at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York. One of the first actions she proposed when she arrived at Skidmore 10 years ago was to revise benefits and compensation packages. Whereas employees were largely underpaid according to marketplace averages, the institution offered an overly rich benefits plan, says Beck. Reams of spreadsheets later, the numbers she produced convinced leaders that by increasing compensation and realigning benefits to better match employee needs, the institution could avoid implementing across-the-board cuts. “What you don’t want is to implement a quick fix that results in your best faculty and staff jumping ship. In a small institution, that could decimate an entire academic department and cause your institution to plummet in the very rankings it has worked so hard to achieve over the years,” says Beck.
While human resources staff are less likely these days to be viewed purely as resume and application processors, the strategic importance of human resources still eludes some institutional leaders, believes Beck. “I think some institutions are still unsure about when to bring HR into decision making, since historically human resources hasn’t been viewed as critical to strategic planning,” she says. “By bringing HR professionals into strategic planning discussions early and often, business officers and college leaders will learn that they can save their institutions time and valuable resources.”
Karla Hignite, principal of KH Communication, Tacoma, Washington, is editor of NACUBO’s HR Horizons; e-mail: karlahignite@msn.com.
