Referencing the message below from Mike Clune and Corey Jackson to UCSF leaders announcing the lift of the hiring freeze, effective July 1, 2021, the exceptional hire Senior Vice Chancellor (SVC) signature approval is no longer required for new hires.
While there has not been a formal UC communication announcing the end of the salary freeze, UCSF HR infers the end of the freeze based on the approved FY22 salary program for policy-covered staff. As such, effective July 1, 2021, the exceptional salary FAS Executive Team (FET) member signature approval is no longer required for policy-covered stipends, equities or reclassifications.
Going forward, control points (direct reports to the Chancellor) are encouraged to maintain a disciplined approach to position review and hiring. We will be expected to provide a quarterly update on our hiring practices and include a summary of our position review process and outcomes as part of the ongoing budget submissions next year.
To that end, the Finance Service Center (FSC) and SVC Office will work with all of you to review best practices and recommend a process and reporting procedure. A start to this thinking is below.
In the meantime, we ask you to continue to do the following:
- Continue to work with your FSC business partner to ensure the full cost of all new hires and salary actions are funded and captured in your budget
- Consider alternatives to immediately filling vacant positions:
- Compare requests across teams and units to allocate resources to the greatest need
- Consider how the position might serve to increase revenue, address growth and/or quality of essential services, or be required for safety or compliance
- Validate the full cost of positions against alternative strategies to hiring where possible
- Verify funding is available for the position within existing budgets
Linda Moran and Becky Daro
What we have learned during the current hiring freeze (April ’20 to June ’21)
- Discussions most valuable at department level (direct reports of SVC), where the work and consideration of alternatives is best understood
- Value of FET member (w/their leadership) position review:
- Not immediately fill the exact same role - shift discussions from replacing people to how to best cover the work and desired outcomes
- Opportunity to compare requests across teams and units, versus evaluating in isolation, to allocate resources to the greatest need (increase revenue, growth/quality of essential service, safety/compliance, new initiative, development position, other)
- Check full cost of position against actual financial results, plan and forecast (especially during uncertainty) to verify sustainable funding
- Value of SVC/control point oversight:
- Ensure that position review discussions occur using explicit and consistent criteria
- Ensure full cost of position is captured in the budget
- Provide reporting of outcomes and decision transparency
- Areas for improvement to save time and provide actionable insights into FAS hiring practices
- Eliminate signature pr
- ocess to save time-to-recruitment
- Utilize existing reporting systems more effectively
- Improve and streamline data elements collected to better understand savings and reallocation decisions; possibly assign FSC business partners to ensure consistent tracking and reporting within FAS
- Consider use of collaborative tools (Teams or Smartsheet) to capture requests and decisions
- Provide templates to reinforce best practices, e.g. task-by-task job redesign, position request form with standard criteria, organization planning framework
- Include reclassifications to make explicit impact on cost, span of control, duties
Dear Colleagues,
As the pandemic recedes and our financial position becomes more stable, effective July 1, 2021, UCSF is lifting the hiring freeze that has been in place since April 2020. The hiring freeze helped reduce the impact of budget cuts and revenue losses on our existing employees.
The processes developed to approve exceptions to the hiring freeze enabled UCSF to carefully and effectively evaluate the need to fill critical positions.
As we lift the hiring freeze, we encourage all control points to maintain this disciplined approach to position review and hiring. Consistent with the Chancellor’s goal to develop long-term financial resiliency, UCSF must ensure that financial resources are applied to the most critical needs and that hiring decisions align with UCSF strategy, goals, and PRIDE Values.
Position review best practice considerations include:
- A holistic approach to evaluating the full cost of a position and its impact on the unit’s organizational structure
- Opportunities to eliminate waste in processes and reduce the needed effort
- Options for partnering or sharing positions with other units and whether effort and resources more appropriately belong with another unit
For the last year, each control point has managed its own review/approval process. For now, control points should continue those efforts as they see fit to ensure discipline and adopt best practices. Documentation of exceptional hiring approval will no longer be required by HR as of 7/1/21.
The Chancellor’s Executive Team (CET) will monitor hiring activity across UCSF via HR’s workforce reporting dashboard on a quarterly or semi-annual basis to identify patterns across the enterprise. Based on trends observed, the CET may consider future policy changes to encourage a more disciplined approach to hiring.
In addition, control points will be asked about their position review processes and outcomes as part of the annual budget narrative submission.
Mike Clune and Corey Jackson
Mike Clune
Senior Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer
UCSF
Corey Jackson
Senior Vice President and Associate Vice Chancellor, Human Resources
UCSF Health/UCSF