A picnic without bottled water . . . a picnic where visitors could pick up reusable canvas bags and energy-saver kits . . . a picnic with fresh local fruit: that was the event a week ago today that celebrated the new name of UW's Faculty of Environment, as well as the launch of its 40th anniversary year. Staff members Patti Cook and Anne Grant were among those enjoying the flavinoids.

Back to top

‘Unpredictability’ seen facing UW staff

A report that calls for “tweaking” of communications and infrastructure for UW staff members was made public this week along with the provost’s summary of what’s going to be done about its proposals. Both documents are available online.

“There are indicators that staff engagement can be improved,” says the report, which was written by four senior officials: university secretary Lois Claxton, vice-president (university research) George Dixon, vice-president (administration and finance) Dennis Huber, and associate provost (human resources and student services) Catharine Scott.

“The report of the Task Force confirms that UW staff are indeed engaged,” provost Amit Chakma writes, “and its recommendations are intended to strengthen this already remarkable engagement.”

Some of its 16 recommendations are being sent to specific administrators for action — including the office of Organizational and Human Development, which is to plan a campus-wide survey of staff “to discern the degree and quality of their engagement at UW . . . what would increase their level of engagement and what UW could do to effect changes”.

Other recommendations are the job of individual managers and supervisors, says the provost: “provide opportunities for their staff to develop professionally . . . recognize good work both formally and informally . . . foster responsibility for continuous improvement”.

Some excerpts from the five-page report:

“The 6th Decade Plan contemplates an engaged staff and sets out four areas to which staff can contribute and make a difference: experiential education, student engagement, student support services and administrative excellence. Staff, too, have stated their desire to be engaged by being kept fully informed of decisions and by participating in processes to best effect the execution of those decisions.

“With 3,000 faculty and staff, and 25,000 students, UW is a big institution. Three campuses, with a potential fourth and fifth, stretch the bonds of cohesiveness. New strategic initiatives have been launched in rapid succession, giving rise to different expectations and creating greater complexities in execution. Staff now operate in an environment of unpredictability. While there has been some infusion to staff resources, most departments have been unable to keep pace with additional work generated by new initiatives. Managers are faced with challenges of effectively deploying limited resources and reducing differential workloads across their units. Timely resolution of issues becomes more difficult with the risk that small problems grow larger before they are addressed.

“New faculty and staff contribute to an invigorating environment but can also challenge the culture in which we operate. Increasingly there is a separation between faculty and staff, and between Faculty support staff and staff in other units — exacerbated by funding differentials. Change and growth are constants in an environment where we aspire to global excellence but where there are financial constraints.”

Back to top

More from the staff engagement report

“Staff need to know the what, why and how, along with perceived risks, before new directions are taken. They need to hear this from the President and from the Provost. Staff also need to hear this from their department heads and chairs. With breaking news, staff need to hear it, if not before, then at least concurrent with its publication in external media. Various mechanisms can be used to effect Presidential/ Provostial communication.” (The report suggests annual town-hall meetings, quarterly question-and-answer breakfasts, and a column by the president or provost in the Daily Bulletin.)

“With the President and the Provost taking these kinds of initiatives, it is incumbent on members of Executive Council to ensure that they, likewise, assume responsibility for ‘pushing down’ communication to their reports in a timely way and for encouraging their department heads/chairs to do likewise. But communication also needs to be ‘pulled up,’ as flow in both directions is needed to improve dialogue and to foster participation in planning and problem-solving.

“Ease of access to published information is important in effecting good communication and is facilitated by having one source rather than multiple sources of current information. While the Daily Bulletin is seen as the appropriate vehicle to serve this one-source need, it is suggested that some retooling may be necessary if it is to become the principal instrument in effecting a broader array of communications.

“Courtesy and respect should inform all interactions, and it is incumbent on all in supervisory authority to set this standard and to ensure adherence.

“Managers are expected to provide opportunities for people to grow and develop, giving them ‘limelight’ time and supporting them in taking chances. Part of “growing our own” extends to growing managers and supervisors. There is recognition that the experience and knowledge of both groups is uneven across campus, a reality that leads to inconsistent execution of their duties. It is therefore incumbent upon the institution to put in place mandatory training programs, as appropriate, for both managers and supervisors.

“[UW should] encourage and support managers and staff to participate in decision-making processes and on decision-making bodies.

“It will, of course, be for managers to exercise leadership in forging and growing staff partnerships in the academic mission. Hiring co-op students creates a symbiotic partnership that managers should be encouraged to continue developing. Another source to mine, especially as it relates to students, is UW's growing focus on experiential, out-of-the-classroom learning. Both of these initiatives engage staff directly with the broad educational mission of the university and, more particularly, with students. And, as anecdotal evidence suggests, those engaged with students often experience the greatest sense of making a difference.

“Each staff member should feel empowered to focus on what improvements can be made in his/her sphere of influence and to be diligent in effecting those improvements to the best of his/her ability. On a departmental basis, customer service reviews should be carried out routinely, particularly in those departments whose primary clientele are students. Department self-studies, similar to academic program reviews, with external participants where appropriate, should be initiated so that UW can measure its academic support units against best practices/best institutions and set a strategic direction toward excellence.

“Most of these recommendations can be instituted immediately. Many of them can be instituted by managers. The role of managers in staff engagement cannot be over-emphasized because, in the end, staff engagement is a management issue: if management does its job effectively, staff will be engaged.”

Back to top

A few millimetres of other news

Frank Seglenieks, the coordinator of the UW weather station, is wondering what kind of summer it was. Oh, he knows the quantitative answer — 416.2 millimetres of precipitation over the three months, compared to an average of 272.1 mm in past years — but what did you think, really? On the weather station's blog, he's taking a poll, offering five choices, from "It was a great summer, not too hot and the air was mostly clean, wouldn't have changed a thing" to "It was a total washout, too much rain and it never felt like beach weather." So far, he says, 75 per cent of the votes are running in the "great" or "good" categories. "Although we had 46 days with some precipitation," he records, "compared to an average of about 33 days for a typical summer, most of these storms were intense, short storms that quickly made way to sunny skies. That's why one could call it the Summer of Rainbows, as there seemed to be a lot of them this year as evidenced by lots of people sending me their pictures. . . . For only the second time in UW Weather Station history, we did not see a single temperature above 30 degrees during the entire summer (the only other time this happened was in 2004). However, that didn't mean it was a cold summer as the overall average was 0.5 degrees C warmer than average for the season."

A survey of a different kind is being taken this Friday, as staff from Waterloo Region will be polling some of the students who board Greyhound or Fed Bus coaches from campus heading home to Toronto and other points. They're seeking information about "origin and destination patterns for intercity transportation" as part of the planning of the Region's future rapid transit system. The university, the Federation of Students (which runs the Fed Buses) and Greyhound Canada have all given approval for the study. "Approximately 1,400 students depart the University of Waterloo each Friday on intercity buses, which is a large portion of the total intercity transportation riders that leave the Region each week," says Mark Vidler of the regional transportation planning office. "As the students' demographics are markedly different from those of the majority of the riders that depart from Kitchener, it is crucial that we account for their travel patterns."

Current cards for the University Health Insurance Program — offered to international students and others who don’t get Ontario health insurance — have arrived for this term, says a memo from the office of Waterloo International. “We have also received cards for some students who before September 1, 2008 filled out an application form or made adjustments to their coverage such as adding dependents. In order to pick up your UHIP card you must be ‘fees arranged’ on Quest and present your student ID card (WatCard). Student Accounts Office is located in Needles Hall room 1110. In order to reduce waiting time, the Student Accounts Office will provide an express line for UHIP card pick-up only from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. This line will be at the second door to the Student Accounts Office weekdays until Tuesday, September 30. Students coming at other times or having other concerns and questions will have to use the regular line at the first door to the office.”

The latest new offering from the English Language Institute at Renison University College is "ESL Writing for the Workplace", a 20-hur non-credit course for "employees who work in English as their second language". The course, a flyer says, "will develop employees' writing skills in key types of business communication while reviewing the elements of grammar, punctuation, and style that help writers produce documents that get results." Course instructor is Ron Champion, senior language instructor at the ELI. The course will be offered Tuesday evenings starting October 7, for a tuition fee of $350. Information: ext. 28616.

Finally, a correction to yesterday's Daily Bulletin, and to the UW media relations release that it reproduced. Senator Michael Kirby, who was speaking last night at an event sponsored by the new Social Innovation Generation unit, is not, repeat not, going to be heading "the new Canadian Mental Health Association". A reader explains that in fact Kirby will head the Mental Health Commission of Canada: "The Canadian Mental Health Association is one of the oldest continuing voluntary health organizations in Canada, beginning in 1918 as the Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene and taking its current name in 1950. The Mental Health Commission of Canada was incorporated in March 2007 after being formally proposed in November 2005."

CAR

Back to top