STAFF
GOALS GOAL 1: B uild and foster a positive work environment for staff in Dietrich College. GOAL 2: Recruit, retain and cultivate diversity with our staff.
STRATEGIES GOAL 1: B uild and foster a positive work environment for staff in Dietrich College. The following strategies align with recommendations made by Deloitte on how to drive engagement in your organization ( See Figure 1 in Appendix: Staff ). STRATEGY A: GATHER DATA TO CONTEXTUALIZE AND MAP THE ENVIRONMENT. Dietrich College strives to be a place where all members of the community feel valued and appreciated. Unfortunately, there is no information available on the experiences of staff in the Dietrich College. While we can make some general recommendations based on the information presented, we feel it is critical to develop a survey to ascertain the climate within Dietrich College. CMU Human Resources has developed new resources for on-boarding new employees to make the transition to the University seamless, easy and helpful. HR has also established a working group to develop training programs to expand new hires’ understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion as well as racism and bias. In addition, we need to know how long staff members have been in their roles, their understanding of opportunities for advancement as well as their experiences with inclusivity and equity in their department and the college. We also want to know why staff members leave Dietrich College. For this reason, the University has developed a process to follow when an employee separates from Carnegie Mellon University. In addition, In addition, HR plans to establish a process of exit interviews that include a survey and guidance documents to better understand the reasons why employees separate from the university. STRATEGY B: INCREASE THE VISIBILITY AND RECOGNITION OF STAFF CONTRIBUTIONS INCLUDING EFFORTS MADE BY STAFF TO FOSTER A POSITIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT We would like to see an increase in recognizing the work staff members do in Dietrich College to support the mission of the college and university. Many staff members feel that they are not valued by the department and college and are often an afterthought. There are many occasions when we have heard speeches referencing the talented faculty and the increasingly brilliant student body. Quite often, the work of staff members in the college is never mentioned. There are also departmental meetings for faculty and not many for staff, or for faculty and staff. This creates a divide and a perceived lack of value for staff. We would encourage departments to have more opportunities where faculty and staff can come together and to find ways to recognize the role all members play in the success of the department (Brown, Jennifer. Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace & the Will to Change. Publish Your Purpose Press, 2017). Our hope is to also establish the Dietrich Staff Awards and have a celebration to recognize the award recipients, which is attended by the college leadership and department heads. The college already has awards recognizing excellent graduate students and excellence in teaching. We suggest hosting one event at the end of each year that has awards recognizes both faculty and staff. Categories for the staff awards might include: Faculty & Staff Collaboration Award (American University), Excellence in Customer Service (American University), Dietrich Spirit Award, Leadership Award (Francis Marion University), Commitment to Service in the Pittsburgh Community and Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. We would also like to see staff figures represented on the websites for both the college and university. Currently, both of these pages omit staff data, which contributes to a perceived lack of value or importance (https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/about/facts-figures.html and https://www.cmu. edu/about/index.html).
46
DIETRICH COLLEGE DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION PLAN
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online