Group is preparing to complete its work after analyzing feedback from employees on issues surrounding workplace flexibility, employee value and experience, and overall employee well-being.
The University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) Future of Work Task Force has been busy over the past six months collecting feedback and hearing from faculty and staff about workplace issues such as remote work, schedule flexibility, employee well-being, equity and diversity, benefits, training, technology, and much more.
The task force had a kickoff meeting in August and conducted an online survey in October that generated 1,900 responses. Its three committees — Work Flexibility, Employee Value Proposition, and Employee Well-Being — held two virtual listening sessions apiece in October, November, and January, respectively, to hear suggestions on how UMB can respond to changing workplace needs, support employees, and plan for the future.
On Jan. 19, the task force met in the President’s Boardroom at the Saratoga Building to discuss the feedback it has received and prepare for the group’s ultimate goal: making formal recommendations to UMB senior leaders including the task force’s executive sponsors, Dawn Rhodes, DBA, senior vice president and chief business and finance officer, and Roger Ward, EdD, JD, MSL, MPA, provost, executive vice president, and dean of the Graduate School.
The task force’s three chairs also were in attendance: Malika Monger, MPA, PHR, associate vice president and chief human resources officer, UMB; Flavius Lilly, PhD, MA, MPH, vice dean, Graduate School, and vice provost, academic and student affairs, UMB; and Diane Forbes Berthoud, PhD, MA, chief equity, diversity, and inclusion officer and vice president, UMB, and professor, Graduate School.
“We truly appreciate the energy that is driving the Future of Work Task Force,” Rhodes told the group. “I know that your work will have a lasting impact on our campus and assure that UMB continues to be a place where people want to work. To have representation from all across campus is critically important, and I’m happy to hear all of the diverse voices in this room.”
Updates from the Co-Chairs
At the Jan. 19 meeting, the six committee co-chairs provided updates about their group’s work, discussed next steps, and summarized some of the feedback they had received from the listening sessions and their accompanying Zoom chat boxes, as well as an anonymous online response form promoted during the six videoconferences.
The co-chairs mentioned that some of the common themes emerging from employee feedback included the need to train managers on how to supervise teleworking employees, providing training on the technology required to work remotely, and reimagining the way UMB thinks about workplace flexibility to support employees who have to work exclusively on-site rather than remotely.
Laura Kozak, MA, senior associate vice president, Office of Communications and Public Affairs, and co-chair of the Employee Value Proposition Committee, said she was looking forward to analyzing the feedback with her group, which is focused on identifying and examining UMB differentiators; proposing changes to the employee experience; assessing branding and marketing efforts; and incorporating technology, training and development needs, and resources to strengthen efforts to attract, retain, and engage faculty and staff.
“In addition to the initial survey, we’ve sent out a survey to employees who have started at the University within the past six months to gauge their brand perception, asking questions like ‘Why did you come to work at UMB?’ ” Kozak said. “Gathering information from the two surveys as well as employee comments from the listening sessions, we’re eager to look at that data so we can move forward as a group.”
The Work Flexibility Committee is targeting how, where, and when UMB employees work and how to incorporate the training, skills development, and technology requirements and resources needed to support flexible work arrangements and empower staff and faculty to do their best work.
“We’ve had lots of conversations about reimagining how we think about the word ‘flexibility’ and expanding that definition,” said Neijma Celestine-Donnor, MSW, assistant dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, School of Social Work, and co-chair of the Work Flexibility Committee. “We spend a lot of time talking about flexibility in terms of the ability to work from home, but that’s not realistic for everyone given their job duties. Are there other ways to think about flexibility for those who cannot work from home?”
The Employee Well-Being Committee is looking at how UMB can optimize mental, physical, and financial health through programs, resources, benefits, and training, while maintaining employee engagement, building social and emotional connections, and enhancing work-life balance for faculty and staff.
Jill Hamilton, MSW, contracts and grants specialist, School of Pharmacy, and co-chair of the Well-Being Committee, said that meetings had been scheduled to get further feedback from front-line workers whose jobs preclude the ability to telework. She also noted that a lot of employees had asked about UMB providing more resources to support adult care.
“We’ve heard, ‘UMB has a child care grant, which is awesome, but what is the University doing about employees who also have to care for an adult?’ How can we help people who can do their jobs well but want flexibility for adult care, who have to sort of juggle both generations?”
Kozak, meanwhile, pointed out that much of the feedback from employees has been positive.
“We’ve learned that UMB is doing a lot of really great things,” she said. “The feedback isn’t just about things that we aren’t doing. People love our benefits, they love tuition remission, and they appreciate that many of us have the opportunity to telework. The sessions have been like one giant focus group, with a lot of idea generation. They’ve been very productive and constructive, with many employees offering results-oriented suggestions.”
Next Steps
Moving forward, the co-chairs will be meeting each week with task force project managers Elisa Medina, MSW, manager, career development, and Patricia Hoffmann, MA, MSL, director, benefits, work/life strategies, and compensation, both from Human Resource Services, to discuss each group’s progress and assure there is no overlap among the committees’ recommendations.
Medina said UMB leaders have asked the committees to finalize their recommendations with these questions in mind: How was it selected (research, listening sessions, surveys, etc.)? How does it align with UMB’s strategic goals and core values? How will it benefit UMB? Is it a short-term or long-term recommendation? She said the task force hopes to send its recommendations to leadership in the spring.
To close the meeting, Ward thanked the committee members for “helping the University think through what the future of work will look like,” adding that the task force also should keep in mind the reasons why employees want to remain working at UMB.
“The School of Nursing now does not only exit interviews, but also has done some ‘Why Do You Stay’ interviews, because they want to find out from employees why they continue to work at the school,” he said. “So as the task force moves forward, we of course want recommendations on things that UMB could be doing to make our institution better, but they should be framed in the context of what we already are doing really well.”
In photo: From left, Future of Work Task Force members Aaron Graham, Jill Hamilton, and Chanise Reese-Queen take part in the group’s meeting Jan. 19 in the President’s Boardroom.