Subject: HR Organizational Redesign
From: Campus Broadcast <[email-masked]>
To: Campus Broadcast <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 18:02:05 +0000

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“The Department of Human Resources is committed to upholding Georgetown University’s reputation as a global leader in academics and research.  We take a proactive role in creating an environment that respects the whole person.  As a strategic partner with the University community, we offer exemplary service and implement innovative solutions that enable the University to attract, retain, develop and reward a diverse, world-class workforce and empower employees to maximize their potential.”       -- HR Mission

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Dear Georgetown University Community:

Over the course of the past several months, the Department of Human Resources (HR) has been engaged in a comprehensive effort to redesign the HR organization to enhance the delivery of HR services to the University.  We have listened to the needs and interests of the University community and have used that information to inform and guide our work.  I am excited to announce that we expect to implement a new organizational structure within the next few months.  I write at this time to share with you the details of the new service delivery model and the benefits it will afford.

 Under our current structure, HR Generalists are assigned to a campus or department and provide a broad array of HR services – many of which are routine and transactional.  We believe that a new approach will enable us to provide more focused and consistent service to all campuses and departments, while at the same time maintaining close relationships with departmental leadership and adding more strategic value.

 The new structure will create functional areas of expertise -- staffed with subject matter experts -- that will serve the entire University. Under this structure, we will also maintain experienced and dedicated HR Client Services Partners (formerly called Generalists) for each of the campuses. We have modified existing positions to include new or expanded duties and have engaged in appropriate internal processes to appoint staff to new roles.  A copy of the new HR Organization Chart can be found at the following link: https://georgetown.box.com/s/98q9utv60hzeehvv9unaqni5bcps4aen<http://links.georgetown.mkt6170.com/ctt?kn=1&ms=MjIwMDg1NDAS1&r=ODM2OTMzODM5MjgS1&b=0&j=NDgyNDQ4MDI3S0&mt=1&rt=0>

The newly created functional areas are as follows:

•        Employee Relations -

The Employee Relations team will be led by Roberta Kelley Paul as University Director of Employee Relations and Engagement.  This team will be responsible for all aspects of employee and labor relations for University managers and employees, including investigating complaints, assisting with performance and disciplinary matters, handling bargaining unit issues and grievances, and providing related assistance and guidance to employees and their supervisors.

•        Recruitment and Employment -

The Recruitment and Employment team will be led by Laura Bryant as University Director of Recruitment and Employment.  This team will support all aspects of the recruitment and employment process, including Compensation and Classification, I-9 processing, Hoya Staffing and the completion of GMS HCM processes.  We will soon hire two new HR Coordinators into this unit, who will be dedicated to ensuring prompt and accurate completion of HR processes and transactions.  These functions are interrelated, and the creation of this unit will allow for increased consistency and specialization. We are particularly excited about the opportunities this will create to provide significantly more robust recruiting assistance to departments.

•        HR Client Services -

The HR Client Services team will be led by Vicki Browne-Moore as University Director of HR Client Services.  This team will serve as the primary point of contact on all campus HR matters and issues between the department, school or division, and the areas of subject matter expertise described above.  They will focus on developing strong relationships with our customers in an effort to serve as strategic HR business partners on all Staff/AAP people-related matters.  As issues arise, the Client Services Partners will assist in identifying the nature and scope of the issue(s), and involve the appropriate HR functional areas to resolve them in a timely, responsive and comprehensive manner. Unlike the current Generalist structure, responsibility for completing most of the day-to-day process approvals and transactions will be undertaken by the Recruitment and Employment team. This new structure will allow the Client Services Partners – together with the contributions of Deborah Bassard who will continue as HR Director at the GU Medical Center – to make significant investments of time and effort in higher level problem solving and strategic analysis in support of their campus clients. Further, it will allow the development of a deeper understanding of the unit’s mission and goals, enhance HR’s ability to assist with long term human capital planning, and allow for more meaningful assistance with the implementation of HR policies and other initiatives.

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We firmly believe that this new focus and organizational design will provide a more effective, responsive and consistent approach to the delivery of HR services.  We believe it will add value and benefit the University community  in meaningful and important ways – whether with workforce planning tools, targeted development programs, performance management or other aspects of human resources management.  Our goal is to provide a new level of support and strategic service to the University.

Without question, this is a significant change to our existing way of doing business. We have worked diligently to anticipate needs and identify aspects of current processes and procedures, including those in GMS, which will need to be adjusted to fit new work flows. We are confident that this is a necessary change and we will soon announce the effective date of this transition.  As with any change of this magnitude, we are likely to experience some growing pains and we ask for your support, patience, and honest feedback as we implement this new service delivery model.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

All the best,

Brenda Richardson Malone
Vice President for Human Resources and CHRO
[http://links.georgetown.mkt6170.com/open/log/22008540/ODM2OTMzODM5MjgS1/0/NDgyNDQ4MDI3S0/1/0]