OHR restructures organization

The Office of Human Resources (OHR) has begun a restructuring process to improve their efficiency and to develop a better understanding about the ways to serve Tech's employee base. The restructuring will focus on adding critical talents and skills to OHR that will allow them to implement the professional level services under their strategic plan.

"We needed to change our focus from a transactional organization to one that is a proactive organization," said Chuck Donbaugh, associate vice-president of human resources.

As part of a series of retreats over the last three to four years, OHR, with the Division of Administration and Finance, identified the areas where OHR performed well and the areas where improvement was warranted. The context under which these conversations were held focused on transforming OHR from a "good" organization to a "great" organization said Donbaugh.

"The realization was that [OHR] did a really good job with the transactional, everyday human resources [duties]. We got people on the payroll. We got people promoted. We got them paid... In terms of looking at the broader ramifications of an employment relationship, there were a number of things we needed to do much better," Donbaugh said.

A more aggressive stance toward recruitment and the creation of metrics to determine whether Tech was attracting and retaining the right people were areas identified as needing improvement. These needs extended both domestically and internationally as a better understanding of the international employment issues was also an important highlighted topic.

"As part of becoming a more proactive organization, we needed to recognize that foreign nationals, both employees and students, were a desirable and important part of our workforce. We needed to be more experienced and more efficient in how we assist those people," Donbaugh said.

One of the visible changes to come out of the restructuring that intends to improve services for all employees will be the creation of a customer service center to become the one-stop-shop to handle all work related problems.

"If the student has a problem with payroll, if [foreign national employees] have issues with a tax treaty or any other work related problem, they can come to the customer service center and someone will be there to assist them. They won't have to go from place to place to find out an answer," Donbaugh said.

A big part of this process was to make sure OHR became a more professional and efficient human resource organization said Donbaugh. OHR is raising questions about how to recruit in the 21st century, how to maintain a presence in China, South Korea, Singapore, Ireland, etc. Understanding different employment rules and conditions become vitally importance as the need to work with these countries increases.

"In a very generic sense, what we are trying to do is to find better ways to deliver top notch human resource services. We are looking a technology to make us more efficient... We are also trying to look at all of the work-life issues that affect how well people can do their jobs. For example, these can include dealing with the issue of childcare," Donbaugh said.

In the new model being adapted by OHR, they looked at corporate models and also the model being used by Duke. The use of an industrial model is unique said Donbaugh. The only other university with a similar basis for human resources was the aforementioned Duke.

Students can find out more information by contacting Donbaugh and OHR.