C. T. Bauer College of Business Administrator Handbook

Staff Matters

Major Sections :
	Staff Hiring
	Training
	Work Stations and Supplies
	Staff Incentives
	Staff Committees
	Supervision

BCB has a strong staff of well educated and professional employees who take an active role in shaping their work environments. From PeopleSoft skills to committee participation to customer service initiatives, our staff members consistently show their dedication and pride to Bauer. The college's investment of resources and time to both continue and further the growth of staff is evidenced in several of the sections in this chapter.
Staff Hiring
	Process Regular staff positions must be posted online and accept applications for a minimum of five working days. We can chose to restrict the applicant pool to only internal applicants, or both internal and external. All applicants must apply through the UH website at https://jobs.uh.edu in order to be considered for employment. The Dean's business office is happy to handle all or some of the following services to assist with staff vacancies (depending on the preference of the department): Obtaining approvals to post a vacant position or create a new position Creating a posting with specific duties and supplemental questions unique to the position Conducting phone screenings Attending interviews and assisting through selection process Coordinating security clearance and offer letters Facilitating the on-boarding process including all hiring documents and orientations. Sample Interview Questions Behavioral Interview Questions [doc] Standard Interview Questions [doc] Interviewing Guidelines and Laws EEOC website Interview Toolbox Interviewing Tips 1) Call people on the phone and ask them qualifying questions before you bring them in for an interview 2) Have a set of phone interview questions already ready. Tell me about your experience. Why did you leave your last job? What has been your most difficult accomplishment? What would you like to have more training in? What are your best qualities? Why would you be good at this job? 3) Do lots of interviews. Bringing people back for 3rd and 4th interviews is fine. Let many people get the chance to meet them. Candidates are usually much more relaxed on follow up interviews so you’re more likely to see the real person. 4) Get all the staff they’ll be working with involved in the interview process (or at least representatives of each area.) 5) Be smart about what you say about the company and position. Don’t do a negative sell. Sometimes interviewers list all the bad things about a position because they want to see if the person still wants the job after hearing all the negatives. More often, it just brings them in with a negative perception. Sell the company for all of the good points and be sure to bring up things that all applicants want to know, but may be too timid to ask about, like benefits. 6) Be aware of what you can’t say or ask! 70% of lawsuits filed for hiring discrimination are won by the plaintiffs. 1964 – Civil Rights Act made illegal any kind of comment or discrimination regarding race, religion, color, gender, or national origin. 1967 – Age Discrimination Act protects people aged 40 years and older 1978 – Pregnancy Discrimination Act protects all individuals from being discriminated based on current pregnancy, past pregnancies or plans for pregnancy 1990 – Disabilities Act protects qualified individuals with disabilities (anyone who is unable to perform the essential duties of the job due to his/her disability is not protected by this act.) NOTE: Smokers are not protected by this law. It is okay to disallow smoke breaks. It is also okay to ask if people are smokers in the interview, if that has bearing on the job they’ve applied for. Sample Reference Check A sample reference check created by UH HR is here. Other questions can be added, as long as they are consistent with EEOC guidelines. UH Degree Verification This website provides verification of UH degrees completed. Other universities may have the same feature, if you visit their websites. It is good practice to verify degrees that applicants have claimed on their resumes or applications. Moving and Relocation The full regulations concerning moving and relocation expenses are detailed in MAPP 02.02.05. Authorized moving expenses include the reasonable costs resulting from the moving of a faculty or staff member’s household goods and personal possessions. Allowable moving and relocation expenses are restricted to the following: 1. Cost of one trip of up to one week in length for the employee and spouse to select new housing, referred to as house-hunting (taxable) 2. Transportation costs associated with moving the employee and all of the members of the employee’s household as follows: Lodging (non-taxable) Public transportation, such as airplane, train, bus, or rental car (nontaxable) Personal car mileage up to $.20 per mile (non-taxable) Personal car mileage over $.20 per mile and up to $.44.5 per mile (taxable) Rental car gasoline (non-taxable) Meals (taxable) 3. Expenses for packing and moving of household goods and personal effects by an approved moving company (non-taxable) 4. Cost of employee and household members living in temporary quarters for a short period of time when required by the university to move to a new location before permanent housing can be found (taxable) 5. Cost of storing personal effects during the move to a new location (storage costs for the first 30 consecutive days following their removal from the former home are not taxable; storage costs beyond that period are taxable) The following represents a sample of moving and relocation expenses that are not allowable. Other expenses may be disallowed, subject to independent evaluation. 1. Costs for shipping a boat 2. Costs of more than one moving trip 3. Costs associated with breaking a lease, selling a house, or purchasing a new house 4. Baby-sitting, house-sitting, or pet-sitting costs while on househunting trip to Houston 5. Purchases of household items in lieu of moving possessions from former residence 6. Expenses for any extraordinary insurance beyond the limits of that included under the moving vendor’s contract Staff Offer Letter Official UH Offer Letter for External Hires Other formats of offer letters are used for internal transfers or contigency offers. Typically, the dean's business office generates staff offer letters for all applicable positions in the college. New Staff Processes The dean's business office will take care of everything on this hiring checklist in order to ensure that new employees join our team with the training and resources they'll need to perform their jobs. During the Bauer Orientation, dean's office staff will help familiarize new team members with initiatives geared towards staff retention and growth in our college. Tips to Increase Organizational Growth and Employee Retention Make sure the person you select fits the culture of your office, even if they have the skills. An important variable in keeping the right employees after you hire them is having a good management team. Offer broad direction, don’t micromanage. Promote a family workplace culture. Stay involved, show concern and be there for employees personally (in appropriate amounts.) Common Hiring Mistakes Not having a good job description Failure to test skills during the interview process www.skillcheck.com offers over 800 skills and behavior tests for measuring knowledge, skills and aptitudes. Includes specialized areas such as Finance/Accounting or IT, as well as general clerical and personality tests. Hiring out of desperation (being too quick) Not being dedicated to the whole hiring process (cutting corners) Letting appearance or chemistry affect decision Most interviewers decide within 12 minutes whether they want to hire the applicant Chemistry is a different issue than someone fitting into the corporate culture. Hiring for chemistry is simply “I, as the interviewer, have great chemistry with the person, so I will hire them regardless of cultural fit or skill level.” Letting personal biases/beliefs get in the way For example, “Women can’t drive forklifts.” Orchestras used to be comprised of 99% men. Then the industry started conducting blind auditions where applicants tried out from behind a curtain. After that point, women were hired at twice the rate that men were hired. Diversity is an essential asset in today’s environment. Hiring referrals from staff or friends without putting the person through the whole rigorous interview process. Blindly promoting from within. Sometimes people’s skills don’t match the next higher position in the company. Also, sometimes people don’t want to move up. What happens in those situations is that the person does not work out in the new position, but you’ve already filled their old position, so you end up having to let a good employee go. Failure to do extensive history and referral check 40% of resumes contain some kind of falsification, usually with education level and dates of employment. Verify educational degrees – www.studentclearinghouse.org and www.degreecheck.com charge about $7 to verify someone’s degrees Call the previous supervisor yourself – It’s getting harder to get an honest referral, but you may be able to tell a lot by the tone of voice. Verify dates of employment and job title If discrepancies are found, it’s advisable to ask the applicant about it. Most commonly, people stretch their job dates to cover gaps in employment. Ask the applicant what they were doing between those gaps. When this happens, require them to resubmit a corrected resume. Failure to see that you’ve made a bad hiring decision It’s common to erroneously say that the employee just needs more time or that it’s something the manager has/hasn’t done that can be fixed. Continuing an assignment that isn't working out has a negative impact on team morale and productivity as a whole. Termination Checklist UH Termination Checklist Termination Checklist Procedure Departments preparing a termination ePAR will submit a filled out a termination clearance form signed by the supervisor and employee. Employees scheduled to terminate must be instructed to return items and visit areas across campus (Benefits, Human Resources for Exit Survey) on given due dates. They are also advised to return any university items, such as library books and any audio/visual/computing equipment. They should also settle any financial matters and/or any indebtedness to the university that may apply (such as parking tickets, library fines, tuition, etc.) They take the form to clear for the following in person: keys, parking, Exit Survey (to HR), Benefits. The remaining items are cleared by the college (through the various departments across campus.) For the Payroll Coordinator: The Payroll Coordinator emails payroll to request a vacation check if it is applicable. He/she must also notify Bauer IT, Front Desk, and Dean's Executive Asst by email that the employee is terminating. This will allow them to update the online phone directory and email list serve. For Department Business Administrator The dean's business office will be responsible to ensure that the termination check list is cleared by all the various UH units. This includes making copies of all the sheets that were sent from the various departments and compiling them together to send originals to HR. One copy will be scanned into the employee folder and then the folder will move to Terminating files for permanent storage.