Recent Posts

Hiring Announcement: Executive Director for the new University Initiatives Office (UIO)

Rob Munro is the Executive Director for the new University Initiatives Office (UIO), effective April 1, 2022.

Recap of Ask SET Anything: Looking Ahead edition

On March 29, the Service Excellence Transformation (SET) team hosted a final edition of our Ask SET Anything event series to close out the SET program (which officially concluded on March 31) and focus on the future of the university's transformation.

HR benefits, services and support available to employees

How do you complete HR and finance activities related to your employment with the U of A? Dozens of self-service actions are available to you 24/7, allowing you to problem solve immediately, and providing you with the fastest way to obtain answers and results. Learn about them and where to find answers to questions about your pay, benefits and pension, or managing life event changes such as maternity leave or retirement in this article.

Impacts to position opportunities and recruitment as SET comes to an end

As the SET program concludes on March 31 the SET EOI process and SET-related hiring statements will no longer apply; as well, the Position Opportunities Page (POP) will be retired. Anyone interested in pursuing a new role after April 1 should watch the Careers page for all available postings. For managers, if you wish to post a position that is restricted to internal applicants, please indicate that when you Request a Job Posting. For more details, read on.

Invitation to final Ask SET Anything event

Join the SET team for the final edition of our Ask SET Anything series on Tuesday, March 29, from 2 - 3 p.m. While the SET program will officially stand down on March 31, we know there is still significant work that needs to be done to implement, sustain, and enhance the operating model. Learn more about what comes next and have the opportunity to ask questions about this transition period.

Hiring announcement: Director, HR Service Partnerships

Ravi Narine has accepted the position of Director, HR Service Partnerships effective February 22, 2022.

New steps for recruitment

The HR teams have made it easier to understand how to recruit new team members! A new step-by-step process in the Recruitment section of the website guides hiring managers, initiators and HR Service Partners through the requirements, approvals and forms required to hire faculty, staff and foreign nationals. Navigating will be more intuitive and the process will be more clear and transparent.

Introducing the new process redesign methodology

While the SET process redesign team has been diligently working to redesign and streamline processes across the university's administrative functions, the team has also been working to revise and improve their methodology following several lessons learned during work completed so far.

University pilots simplified employee appointment process

When the university hires a new employee, the process for selecting a candidate, generating an offer letter and adding them to our employee database is called employee appointment. As part of the HR discovery work in the Service Excellence Transformation (SET) program, this process was identified as a high priority area for improvement. In November, Shared Services and SET piloted a redesigned employee appointment process that will roll out to the university in January.

HR completes several process improvements

Over the past 16 months, the HR workstream and several teams within the Human Resources, Health, Safety and Environment unit have collaborated to reorganize HR services.

HRHSE has a full complement of Service Partners

HRHSE now has the planned complement of HR Service Partners with all scheduled to begin by November 22.

Looking ahead at the administrative functional streams

In this four-part weekly series, Vice-President (University Services and Finance), Todd Gilchrist, provides an overview of the upcoming activities and milestones for key initiatives of the SET program as well as case studies to demonstrate recent successes. This first article in this series takes a look at what's ahead for each of the university’s administrative functional areas.

HR looking at service governance

HR is beginning to look at service governance to determine how services will be managed on an ongoing basis.

Training and onboarding work continues

Training and onboarding continues to be refined as work in the HR stream progresses.

More HR stream services are now operational

Several partners have been onboarded and improved services are now operational.

HR service improvements

As of July 26, the first phase of the Job Evaluation redesign has been deployed.

HR stream updates

The HR stream has transitioned all existing HR Service Partners to HRHSE and continues to actively hire and interview for remaining roles.

HR stream updates

Process redesigns continue as work on onboarding progresses.

Hiring Announcement: Senior HR Service Partners

Human Resources, Health, Safety and Environment (HRHSE) and the SET HR functional workstream are pleased to announce the appointment of the Senior HR Service Partners (Sr. HRSPs).

HR stream update

A 30-60-90 day plan has been developed for Senior HR Service Partners and a training plan is being created for HR Service Partners. In addition, redesign workshops for processes related to job evaluation, recruitment, and timesheets have begun.

Senior HRSP and HRSP update

Senior HR Service Partners (Senior HRSPs) have been confirmed and are currently being onboarded.

Hiring announcement: Director of Well-being, Culture and Rewards

Melissa Murphy has been appointed in the inaugural role of Director of Well-being, Culture and Rewards, starting May 31.

Hiring announcement: AVP, Human Resources, Health, Safety and Environment

Charleen Schmidt has accepted the role of Chief of Staff, Vice-President University Services and Finance, starting June 7.

Hiring announcement: Chief of Staff, Vice-President, University Services and Finance

Charleen Schmidt has accepted the role of Chief of Staff, Vice-President University Services and Finance, starting June 7.

Process redesign: optimizing for the new model

A large portion of the work that is conducted before transitioning staff and services to the new administrative operating model is known as process redesign.

Prepare phase update

The SET team outlines the processes and milestones for the second phase of the functional review: the prepare phase.

Discovery Update: IT & HR Streams

As we continue down the path of transitioning into the new administrative operating model, we want to outline the processes and milestones for the first phase of the functional review: the discovery phase.

Recap of Ask SET Anything: HR Edition

A recap of the January 19 event, including the questions asked and answered, further discussion on transitioning and career opportunities, as well as details on the upcoming HR workstream web page.