University of Idaho Vice President of Finance Brian Foisy presented recommendations that outlined new training programs for university employees and supervisors at a Faculty Senate meeting earlier this month.
Foisy said the proposed initiatives would improve the university”s hiring process, which would address flaws he has seen from the information he received from Greg Walters, executive director of Human Resources.
“It”s beginning to collapse under its own weight,” Foisy said. “And if we don”t do something eventually we”re going to be under a pile of rubble.”
The recommendation form handed out to the members of Faculty Senate listed two new training programs.
University of Idaho employees were required to complete an online training program last year called “Our Inclusive Workplace” addressing discrimination and sexual harassment prevention.
One of the recommended programs – entitled “Stewardship of Resources” – would cover topics ranging from conflicts of interest to ethics and resource stewardship.
There are two other training programs that are currently in development and were recommended to be completed by university employees by the next academic year.
Under the recommendation, Foisy said current employees would have the entire academic year to complete the required courses, which he calculated to be about an hour and 45 minutes overall. New employees would have less time, 90 days, to complete the training as they need to be familiar of the specific and essential aspects of the university, he said.
The recommendation form also listed multiple other training programs that would apply to supervisors and managers at UI.
Foisy said the information in the training modules would likely be getting updated regularly, so the form recommended supervisors and managers refresh their knowledge and retake the same core training courses every three years.
Although all UI employees have the option of taking the training courses meant for supervisors, Foisy said it was prudent to set a definition for supervisors and managers since they would be required to complete the new trainings if the recommendations are passed.
“We”re proposing to define supervisor pretty widely,” he said. “If you supervise any employee, even including student employees, we want to make sure you”re appropriately trained.”
Many members of Faculty Senate were pleased with the presentation and James Foster from the College of Science said it was refreshing to see an administrator acknowledge the flaws in UI”s hiring process.
Vice Chair of Faculty Senate Liz Brandt was also pleased with the presentation.
“It”s just really great to see this back on the table and with some momentum behind it,” Brandt said.
Yet, some members raised concerns with what they saw as a few gray areas in the proposed modules.
Wendy Couture from UI”s Boise campus asked if student employees were also required to take the training programs.
Brian Mahoney from the Student Recreation Center works with about 40 student employees, and asked if it was possible to do the training in a group environment all at once instead of keeping track of all of their progress individually.
Foisy said students would be treated like other employees and would be required to complete the training modules that are mandatory for other employees.
“Our intention was to define employee as anyone receiving compensation,” he said. “So that would include temporary help, that would include student workers, and so again it is a pretty broad brush.”
Mahoney proposed a different strategy for the training – instead of supervisors retaking the courses every three years they would take a regular test on the appropriate knowledge and would only need to retake the course if they failed the test.
Sharon Stoll from the College of Education brought up the point of grading and asked if the employees would be graded.
Elissa Keim, director of Professional Development and Learning, said the training programs would not be graded.
Stoll said without a system for grading the employees on their performance, there is not a way to know if the employee learned anything.
Foisy said every employee learns differently – some people will already know everything going into the program while others maybe won”t know anything at all.
“It”s going to grow as we grow,” Foisy said.
Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ErinBamer