Operating Staff Council Meeting – Sept 9, 2004
Minutes
Members in attendance: Stephanie Higgs, Jennifer Dube, Patrice MacNevin, Jim Layne, Gerri Sanders, Charlene Hill, Mark Ernst, Lori Parent, Jason Brodeur, Doreen Palmer
Guests: Lori Wright-Campus Journal, Allan Braun- Facilities, Candace Corvey- Finance & Admin, and Linda Leavitt, Dave Capalbo, and Jim Malo- Facilities employees
Reminders:
Next regular meeting: MONDAY, October 4th, 8:30-10:30am, Board of Trustees Room, T-Hall
Facilities Reorganization Update:
Allan Braun and Candace Corvey were present to provide an
update on the reorganization/privatization of Facility’s operations.
Candace opened by remarking that the promise to achieve this
reorganization through employee attrition is being upheld, and that no
employees have lost their jobs as a result. She acknowledged that reassignments
have occurred and that these changes prove difficult for some employees. She
also acknowledged that communication breakdowns had occurred and apologized for
those. She stated that a plan has been put in place to keep this from happening
in the future.
Allan then provided an update on the status of the reorg by first
providing some of the history of it. He stated that 2.5 years ago found
Facilities in a bad position financially. Facilities is
an “RCM” operation, responsible for its own bottom-line. With the goal of
creating reserves to help endure the fluctuations in costs (primarily heating
and other operational costs), Facilities looked at several different options,
privatization being one. When selected as the option to take, it was decided
that it would only be done in a manner which protected employees from job loss
by using a plan that allowed for privatization of positions only through
attrition. Because of this, the process is much slower than a one-time
outsourcing initiative that would have resulted in job loss. As a result,
shifts in assignment are necessary as remaining employees are moved to
different buildings as buildings become “privatized.” Allan noted that the
combination of the process being slow and continued rising costs have continued
to put a lot of financial pressure on Facilities. Facilities services are paid for out of the
customer departments’ budgets and therefore it is difficult to raise the cost
of those services since many departments are struggling financially also. Candace added, in response to a Council Rep’s
comment about the effectiveness of the RCM model, that a 5-year review of the
pros and cons of the RCM model will begin, as scheduled, this Fall.
Allan stated that an RFP (request for proposal) will soon be
sent out to vendors for the transition services of Housekeeping. The selected vendor
will take over these responsibilities in July ’05.
Allan added that the zone management concept implemented in
Maintenance has proven to be very well received by customers and has also been
successful financially. He stated that the transition to this model took a very
short time.
Regarding communication to affected staff, Allan stated that
he has met with “99%” of all staff, in groups of 10-12, over the past year. He
stated that he continues to be regularly asked if staff will be laid off and
that he continues to reiterate the promise to achieve this reorganization
through attrition. Allan stated that he is going to reinitiate this Fall the quarterly meetings that used to be held (to be
announced in the Campus Journal) and will consider a newsletter as a forum to
keep staff updated. He stated that his only hesitation re the newsletter was
the burden it would put on staff to create it.
If created, it was suggested that it could be linked to from the OS
Council website. In addition, consideration will be given to the idea of having
a central person (Susan Bradley of HR?) serve as the point of contact for
employees who have questions/concerns.
Candace provided the bigger budgetary picture by stating
that the overall UNH budget deficit was $700,000 and that this year’s budget
was balanced only by using reserves. Reasons for the deficit include a poor
economy which has resulted in increased demands for financial aid for students,
continued low state funding, dramatic increases in utilities costs, and
dramatic increases in fringe benefits costs with our insurance carriers. She stated that re the state funding, the
Board of Trustees are attempting to push for a
significant increase for the next fiscal cycle. She stated that UNH is
attempting to keep tuition costs “reasonable” in the meantime. The “good news”
stated Candace is the increase in research grants which not only fund the
research itself but also help pay that particular college’s bills. Also, donations
to UNH are strong.
In response to a Council Rep’s question about cost savings
thus far as a result of the privatization, Allan stated that Facilities has
achieved $1.75 million in cost cuts over the past 2 years. He also stated that
Facilities will be re-doing the zones this year which will continue staff
movement, “the pot continues to stir.” In
response to a Council Rep’s question about specific efforts to improve
communication, Allan informed the group of Michelle Hayes’s role of directly
addressing communication issues. He stated that the initial goal was to “get us
there,” and that now attention needs to be focused on
addressing the inherent problems of this, especially communication- both
internal and external.
In response to a Council’s Rep’s concern about the staff’s uncertainty
about where they’ll be working and who they’ll be working for day-to-day, Allan
stated that the “list” for buildings to be privatized in ’05 is being
formulated, however he added the caveat that this ultimately is driven by
employee attrition and is therefore subject to change. Candace added that their hope is to get this
plan out to affected employees so last minute switches can be minimized.
In response to another Rep’s concern about employees having
more of a “say” in decision-making and asking how much money has been saved in Housekeeping
thus far, Allan stated that he had met with one of his managers recently and
requested that this manager meet with his staff to get input on upcoming
issues/changes, and that $200,00o to $250,000 will be saved in Housekeeping in ’05.
The Council Rep confirmed that this meeting had taken place, however the presentation
of the request may have been different than Allan intended.
Candace stated that when decisions are made about saving
costs, there is a desire to choose the “lesser of all
available bad situations.” As a result, the back areas on campus are the ones
not as actively maintained. She added that, though open to input from Grounds
and Roads re other ideas on cost cuts, they may have “wrung that [approach] dry”
and there aren’t any more cuts to make in this way.
The meeting ended with the hope that the above steps will go
a long way toward improving the communication to and morale of Facilities
employees. Employees are encouraged to contact their Council Reps with any
questions or concerns.
For more information about the Council, please visit: http://www.unh.edu/os-council/.