Staff Advisory Council to address pay, parking, respect

The Staff Advisory Council said yesterday that a recent survey on satisfaction in the workplace correctly showed that parking, pay and employee-supervisor relations are sometimes problematic at the UA, and that members of SAC feel their work is viewed as less important than the work of faculty members.

Nearly 4,000 appointed personnel responded to the Millennium II survey that was released two weeks ago by Diane Perreira, director of the SALT Learning Center and Kathleen Miller, an employee development coordinator in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

The perception of the UA as not being a caring institution, lack of access to and affordability of parking, insufficient salaries and wages, and lack of opportunities for promotion and lateral transfer were the most problematic issues that classified staffers and appointed personnel named on the survey.

Perreira and Miller have come up with recommendations on how to fix these problems, although they said it is going to take time to make changes.

"It's going to be a long process trying to get the word out, and we are only 10 days into it; but we are hopeful," said Perreira.

The question, however, was what the UA can afford to change given the current budget circumstances.

Access to parking and the affordability of parking is frustrating for employees and not easy to solve, Miller said.

Miller and Perreira recommended that a special task force to be formed that can come up with viable solutions to the many issues raised in the survey.

Supervisor training was another problem SAC members referred to. Some of the staff members want to be able to have a voice in their supervisors' evaluations.

One of the larger questions raised in yesterday's meeting was whether strained employee-supervisor relationships are the result of a lack of supervisor training.

Cathy Nicholson, director of institutional relations and information for human resources, gave an example of disrespect toward a staff member, citing an instance when a department head had to apologize for how a supervisor spoke to a staff member.

Sometimes good management is not a matter of training, Nicholson said.

"It really comes down to something simple," she said. "There are mean people and there are nice people."

There are other problems, like low salaries and wages, that the UA doesn't have the money to fix right now, Perreira said.

Perreira said she would like to see local businesses donate small gifts to the university to reward hard workers.

SAC President Lisa Wakefield would like to begin an award for staff members whereby a department could contact SAC when it wants to reward a staff member and SAC would then present the member with a certificate at an SAC meeting.

Now that the issues have been identified, implementing them is the next phase, Perreira and Miller said.

They plan on speaking to as many groups as possible about the results and what can be done to address the problems.

Perreira and Miller are asking UA President Pete Likins to put together an action committee to see that their recommendations are implemented.

A follow-up survey is planned for 2007 in order to identify any changes the staff may feel.

Wakefield supported the ideas to address the problems raised by the survey.

"It may be baby steps right now, but it is something," she said.