In a recent edition of Panorama, UC Merced's online newsletter for faculty and staff, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Human Resources Brian Powell shared a message about the important role employees play in fulfilling the vision of the 2020 Project.
With the 2020 Project, our campus stands at the threshold of maturity and self-sufficiency.
Many components are involved: faculty enhancements; student-services delivery; research and marketplace ideation and incubation; development and alumni relations; financial resource management; and design, construction and administrative support servicing.
The common threads that tie together these diverse organizational units are the staff members who will propel the campus over the finish line in the next five years.
Last fall, we began Strategic Workforce Planning, a major initiative to align our staffing model with this future, self-sufficient state. Simply put, workforce planning asks the question “How can your department most efficiently organize to achieve the academic goals of the 2020 Project?”
While Strategic Workforce Planning efforts continue, phase one illustrated the myriad complex functions needed for us to perform if UC Merced is to achieve self-sufficiency. Phase one — and its accompanying budget reconciliation process — also illustrated the financial prudence we must exercise in order to be successful.
A proliferation of hundreds of additional staff full-time equivalents (FTEs) is not feasible under current financial forecasts. Coordination between strategic growth in additional staff members and professional development of existing staff are essential as we move forward.
Therefore, from a human resources perspective, ongoing performance management becomes foundational, binding the core functions/deliverables identified in workforce planning with the self-sufficiency goals of the 2020 Project.
