On Oct. 22, All Staff Council and Human Resources teamed up to host the first of its kind virtual town hall. We estimate approximately 200 employees caught some or all of the event. Thank you to everyone who attended. For anyone who missed it, you can access the recording here.

The agenda and speaking points were built around the questions submitted to ASC in the weeks preceding the event. If you submitted one or more questions, thank you! ASC was thrilled to receive dozens of questions addressing a range of subjects. Unsurprisingly, we received the most questions about staff compensation. Consequently, the bulk of the town hall time was spent on this topic. There was also keen interest in paid leave practices; remote work; performance management; employee morale, engagement, and retention; benefits; and diversity, equity, and inclusion. None of these is an easy topic to discuss. We are very appreciative of the thoughtful and respectful questions, ideas, and suggestions offered throughout the event.

We continue discussing how to best follow-up on the insight both HR and ASC walked away with after the town hall. That is arguably a mark of a successful discussion: those facilitating were left with a lot of new ideas, a more informed perspective, and a clearer appreciation of what employees are wanting and needing from them. We thank you for that.

One of the questions we have is whether we should facilitate such an event again? If you attended all or part of the town hall, or watched the recording, please offer event feedback here. This short, three-question survey will only take you a minute to complete, but it will provide us with important information going forward.

Please know that you do not need to wait for an event to engage All Staff Council or Drake Human Resources. If you have an idea or concern you would like to share with ASC, simply use this link to reach us. Drake HR is also here for you. You can reach HR any time at drakehr@drake.edu.

Thank you again for your time, generosity of spirit, and tremendous commitment to our Drake community.

— All Staff Council–Executive Council and Human Resources

Human Resources wants to thank everyone who took time to respond to this year’s Survey of Administrative Services (SAS). We wanted to share some of the feedback received. Generally, your responses inform us as we look at our customer service standards and the list of projects and priorities we are compiling. Your feedback is insightful and helpful in both regards.

Regarding the quantitative aspects of the survey, here are some of the core data responses—with items listed by high to low:

Please rate your level of agreement with the following statements:

Field	Mean (out of 5)
HR staff are professional.	4.91 (most agreed)
HR staff are courteous.	4.90
HR staff are knowledgeable.	4.73
HR staff respond to my inquiries in a timely manner.	4.11 (least agreed)

Please rate your level of satisfaction with the following services provided by Human Resources staff.

Field	Mean (out of 5)
Benefits enrollment and open enrollment	4.46 (most satisfied)
Wellness Programs	4.40
Staff Professional Development Programs	4.19
Hiring process (job creation, posting, offer)	4.13
HR Partner Services	4.08
Manager Professional Development Programs	3.70
Performance Evaluations	3.53 (least satisfied)

We earned respectable marks on living Drake’s Core Values—though there is certainly additional work to be done there. Overall, we received a 4.29 on how satisfied responders were with Human Resources. We think we can do better! Interesting data, but the comments are really where the gold can be found. Over forty people took the time to provide feedback. Here’s a graphic to help illustrate what was top of mind:

Some important take-aways from the written responses:

With Gratitude: Campus has shown us tremendous Generosity of Spirit as we have worked through extended vacancies. We are now fully staffed—though three of us are new and very much still learning. We received many comments where people offered constructive feedback but recognized we have been working with less than a full team. We are tremendously thankful for your patience and understanding.

Up Our Customer Service Game: The longer-term members of the HR team all took on more work when we had vacant positions. We know this sometimes resulted in delayed responses when employees and managers sought HR assistance. Additionally, we have not historically had one person who “owned” the main phone line or HR email address. We do now. Improving response time, establishing customer-service expectations, and creating more efficient and effective processes were already top-of-mind for us. Your responses just further illustrate the need to prioritize these topics. We hear you! In fact, we will be sharing with campus an updated customer service model in late November, once we are on the other side of the Open Enrollment rush.

Space for Better Performance Management/Professional Development: It is clear both managers and employees want better processes and tools relating to performance management and professional development. Performance management was something we already identified as an opportunity and a priority. We want to be sure we are training managers, offering paths to staff for professional growth, and facilitating continuous learning and improvement. We will start working on these in early 2022.

Enhance Recruitment/Onboarding Processes: It appears that HireTouch is perhaps the least popular member of our team. It has some quirks, which makes an already lengthy process even clunkier. We will look to see how we can make improvements and provide additional training and resources to trouble-shoot HireTouch quirks. We will definitely spend concentrated time on the entire talent acquisition process.

In fact, HR applied for a True Blue Micro-Internship to have a student help us benchmark onboarding processes with higher education and private industries, as we know this is an area with opportunities for improvement. As luck would have it, our application was accepted and that project starts in early November! Additionally, with our vacant positions now filled, we are shifting Anthony Leto into a role where he can focus on talent acquisition and we’ll be building up a whole new set of tools, resources, trainings, and templates to help us rethink recruitment at Drake.

There were informative comments on several other topics as well, but we wanted to share some of the pronounced themes. Collectively, the SAS results will help us identify top priorities for the rest of the academic year and beyond. Again, we are very thankful for your honesty, ideas, and suggestions. As we further develop a plan of action for HR, we will share and there will also be times when we invite additional feedback to dive deeper into many of these specific topics. We hope you will continue to be willing to help us help you!

— Maureen De Armond, Human Resources

Every Tuesday in OnCampus the Deputy Provost shares two articles with a read time of 10 minutes.

In collaboration with Drake’s Office of Sponsored Projects and Research, the Deputy Provost’s office is hosting a conversation on Funding Your Research and Creative Activity Friday, Nov. 19, from 1–3 p.m. in Howard Hall, Room 210. Please register here. We will use our time together to discuss both intramural and extramural grantspersonship—specifically thinking through how to grow external grant capacity from internal awards, how to position your work as related to institutional and professional priorities, and how to collaborate across the University.

Professor Dian Nostakasari (ENSS) is a terrific example of a scholar doing excellent work at the intersections of several disciplinary areas.  She will be presenting in Howard Hall, Room 210, on her project, “Inhabiting Digital Spaces as a Right to the City” on Friday, Nov. 5, from 11:30–12:15. Registration has closed to facilitate ordering lunch for participants—but feel free to email renee.cramer@drake.edu if you plan to show up, but haven’t yet registered—we can add to our order and have food for all who attend.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

Every Tuesday in OnCampus the Deputy Provost shares two articles with a read time of 10 minutes.

There is no doubt that we have changed, as an institution and as a faculty, from our experiences in the past 18 months. While the pandemic is not over, and the “return to normal” is something I am suspicious of, it does seem a good time to begin to reflect on what we’ve learned. Who is “in” for this exploration? I’m seeking nominations for people to form a loose working group—meeting pretty regularly from December to May—to understand the impact that COVID-19 has had on the way we approach our students, our classrooms, our profession. Please email renee.cramer@drake.edu to volunteer yourself and nominate your colleagues. We’ll meet in ways that are generative, not onerous; and we’ll develop an institutionally-useful report on what we learn about how our approaches have grown and changed.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

Now accepting proposals for FY23 Global Partnership Grants
Drake University has established formal partnerships with multiple institutions abroad. Joint faculty and staff projects with our global partner institutions may be eligible for financial support through the Global Partnership Grants. Contact Hannah Sappenfield for more information or to get connected with a global partner institution.

Eligibility and criteria
Full-time faculty and staff are eligible to apply for Global Partnership Grants for activities taking place during FY23. Preference will be given to proposals that:

• identify a specific set of activities with distinct outcomes with one (or more) of our partner institutions
• demonstrate specific impact on Drake curriculum, students and current global partnerships
• advance Drake’s global engagement with existing partners in new ways
• support involvement by individuals who have not previously been globally engaged
• are financially supported by the school, college, or department of the individual submitting the proposal
• align with internationally or globally focused unit objectives and/or the University’s Continuous Improvement Plan

Application process

1. Discuss the proposed activity with your unit director or dean prior to submission to help determine its strategic value and if it aligns with the unit’s global engagement priorities. The discussion will help determine the unit’s interest and ability to support the proposal with financial resources.
2. Submit the online application via Qualtrix, which includes a description and budget (*see note) for the proposed activity. Deadline: Jan. 7, 2022
3. Deans/directors will review all proposals for their unit with the Global Partnerships Coordinator and the Executive Director of Global Engagement for prioritization and to make collaborative funding decisions. Final award decisions are expected to be announced in February 2022.

*Note, Global Engagement grant funds are not typically awarded for stipends for Drake faculty and staff; however, stipend requests may be considered for funding by your unit’s Dean/Director on a case-by-case basis. The College of Arts & Sciences will not fund stipends.

Learn more about Drake’s global partner institutions and other opportunities for funding global projects at drake.edu/global.

— Hannah Sappenfield, Global Engagement