CASE-STUDY OF THE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN

IMPLEMENTING THE UNIVERSITY MISSION

Svetlana Togoeva, Tver State University

The following case-study is aimed to analyze the human resource (HR) management
at the University of Wyoming (UW), its policies and procedures. The data for the study
was collected in October-November 2002 during the fellowship period in University
Administration Support Program organized by IREX and funded by the Carnegie
Corporation of New York. The starting point for the analysis was to find out how the
general goals of the University of Wyoming to educate its students, conduct research,
provide service and outreach interwoven in its mission are reflected in the human
resource management.
The basic unit which is considered to be responsible for HR management is the
HR Department at the UW, but actually there are also several units whose duties are to
monitor HR management in terms of all the categories of UW employees. They are:
Academic Affairs offices, Emp loyment practices office, Teaching and Learning center.
The practicalities of UW personnel management are also manifested through structures
which are not formal organizational units. Thus, the staff are encouraged to provide
meaningful input in the development and operation of a progressive human resource
system, they are involved in this process. And this is accomplished in several ways. First
of all, there is a Staff Senate and Faculty Senate which are elected representative bodies
to be recognized equally with faculty and student bodies as participants in advising the
University administration; to be an active two-ways communication link for information
exchange between staff, faculty and administration. My experience of attending the
Senate meetings shows that open meetings are provided to express, debate and
recommend actions on various issues including working and employment conditions and
practices: compensation, benefits and grievances.
There is also S.A.Y., which was created as the University of Wyoming s new
Employee Suggestion Program that awards individuals or teams whose implemented
innovations that benefit UW personnel management and community in general. General
characteristics HR Department of UW in its strategy, policies and procedures is directly
linked to practically all university departments and units, and this predetermines the
main functions of the HR Department and its uniqueness as a unit which perhaps in the
most visual way demonstrates the Wyoming culture . The analysis of the whole network
of relationships HR Department has reveals the fact that HR management is not exactly
concentrated in HR Department, though this is the unit absolutely responsible for HR
management functions. In fact, all University administration structure and supervisor-
subordinate work relationships in various ways reflect HR management practices at UW.
Generally speaking the key function of the HR Department is staffing the University, that
means to attract, retain and enhance the number one resource its human resources, and
thus helping the University to implement its mission, particular goals and carry on all its
activities. That determines HR management and the HR Department as strategically
important for the University of Wyoming. The same should be considered as necessary
approach to HR in Tver State University as well as any other educational institution.
First of all, it is worth mentioning that HR Department at UW administers approved by
the Board of Trustees and the University Administration policies and procedures relating
to staff employees. The analysis showed that these policies and procedures are structured
and carried out so as to be consistent with University Regulations and satisfy the needs of
all the staff. HR Department is also responsible for advertising, creating job positions,
working out job descriptions, keeping track of salary and benefits for all the UW
employees, faculty, administrators, academic professionals, students.
The HR Department is headed by the Director who directly reports to the Vice-
President for Administration and Finance. The work of the Department is evaluated
through annual reports to: President, Vice-President for Administration, Vice-President
for Budget and Planning and it is also open to the staff.
In its daily activities HR Department has the closest links with:
1) Vice-President for Administration and Finance office,
2) Controller s office
3) Payroll office
4) Employment practices office,
5) Information Technology Division

In certain periods HR Department works very closely with Budget and Planning
Division, especially when salary and benefits decisions are made or new positions are
created. The broad policies for the HR Department are to be approved by the Board of
Trustees, such as new pay metrics which were changed in 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2002.
Particular procedures and new policies are normally produced by the HR Department
and presented for debating at the administration and finance meetings. The important
thing about the HR Departme nt practices is weekly meetings of the managers and
monthly meetings of all the staff, where are issues concerning daily activities and
upcoming changes are discussed with Director of the HR Department, that is unusual for
the HR Department in my home University.
The budget of the HR Department consists mostly of Section 1 money state
appropriated money (90%), of 18 job positions in the HR Department 15 are Section 1
funded, and 3 Section 2. We can see that the total budget of HR Department grew
insignificantly for the last 6 years, but the department managed to improve its
performance and that is pointed out in the annual reports and audit reports as well. There
is an increase in budget for personnel, but some decrease in the budget for support
services. The personnel budget rise went parallel with overall UW salary increases and in
the equivalent proportion.

Table 1. HR Department annual budget

Fiscal year Personnel Budget Support Budget Total Budget

2003 574,189.00 34,784.00 608,983.00

2002 510,914.00 34,784.00 545,689.00
2001 510,914.00 34,784.00 545,689.00
1996 391,888.00 37,098.00 428,978.00
 HR Turnover Rates in HR Department by Calendar Year are:

2002 - 44.4%
2001 - 11.1%
2000 - 22.0%
1999 - 38.9%
1998 - 33.9%
1997 - 27.8%
1996 - 33.3%

The turnover figures are higher than the average for UW, and that can be
explained first of all by the discrepancy between the workload and salary paid. At the
same time though the turnover was substantially high, HR Department achieved
considerable success in the face of severe personnel, equipment and budget limitations.
And the most important success of HR Department is its staff, an attitude of teamwork,
good internal as well as external communication are the main characteristics of work
processes; people working in the unit are competent and helpful. It is very much resulted
from the management style of HR Director Jim Pew. He is recognized within the
university community as practical and flexible while maintaining standards, he is
characterized as participant- manager .
Structure and functions. The HR Department has several offices the
responsibilities of which are related to assisting the University staff in solving work-
related issues, supplying information and promoting good employee-employee relations.
The internal structure was changed in 1995 and 1996 to meet the new objectives and
work plans, so now there are 5 offices: Record-keeping, Training and Professional
Development, Employment, Classification/Compensation office, Benefits, Computer
Analyst office, and 5 positions which act as Managers over these five major areas.
Record-keeping office keeps and updates an official record of employment for all the
UW employees including demographic, employment, salary, leave and other related
information, in the form of a personnel file, Director of HR Department is the custodian
of these files and is responsible for their safety and confidentiality. All new or rehired
University staff employees are required to work for a probation period of 12 months,
which is a period of learning, the employee and his/her immediate supervisor meet to
evaluate his/her performance. Each year in January and February supervisors hold
performance planning and performance appraisal meeting with each employee, and will
establish qualitative and/or quantitative objectives for the coming year. Completed
documentation is sent to the HR Department.
Supervisors are evaluated by their administrative superiors, in part, on their
performance appraisal and performance planning. The University of Wyoming has
designed a personnel activity reporting system to comply with the Federal A-21
Guidelines. In conjunction with meeting the Federal and State audit requirements, all
information is accumulated on a Fiscal Year basis to provide the president, Vice
Presidents, Deans, and Department Heads detail for use in management of their units.
The data is also being used by the University for its Management Information Data
Bases, Space Allocation Studies, Sponsored Programs Reporting, and Indirect Cost
Study.
This is different from the University of Tver, where only the Faculty have 12 month
period after which the person is either fired or is elected to have 5 year work contract.
There are no systematic appraisal meetings and staff management, in general, lacks
effectiveness in planning and controlling the results.
The offices and HR people at UW are involved very much into staff instructing
and educating process and that is completely different from the HR Department at Tver
University. As a rule, HR departments at Russian universities perform only record-
keeping, handle some of the compensation information. No training for staff actually is
being carried out, the learning period for staff and managers goes mostly on their own. So
the most interesting thing was to analyze the work of the HR Department of UW in this
direction. These activities are organized by the Training and Professional Development
office, but HR managers of other offices teach in the workshops.

Table 2. Dynamics of training activities

Year # of workshops # of people attended # of staff attended # of faculty attended

1996 67 2449 1635 33

1997 53 1878 1344 24
1998 45 2986 2484 33
1999 42 2655 1919 203
2000 40 3964 2624 388
2001 32 3759 2279 425
2002 26 2645 1520 306

In the last few years the topics changed according to the changing laws and needs of the
UW community, the shifts are presented in the table below. The range of issues is very
wide, there are: general topic workshops, such as Defensive driving, Drug- free
workplace, Environmental health and safety; connected to labor laws; management issues
oriented; work evaluation workshops.

Table 3. Dynamics of major topics of HR Department workshops

Topics 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

PC technology ++ ++ ++ ++ + + +
Internet ++ ++ ++ ++ + + +
Sexual harassment ----- + + + ++ + +
General + + + + + + +
Compensation + + + ++ ++ + +
Benefits ----- + + + + + +
Management issues + + ++ + ++ + +
Performance appraisal + + + + + + +
New employee orientation + + + + + + +
Retirement ----- + + + + + +
The Employment office performs centralized automated selection process functions
supporting teaching, research and service functions of the UW and performs employment
verification process for UW employees. It also provides centralized automated selection
process for student employment. All employees of the University appointed to staff
positions are designated as exempt or non-exempt employees, according to the criteria
established by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Employment office is also responsible
for advertising, creating job positions, working out job descriptions, keeping track of
salary and benefits for all the UW employees, faculty, administrators, academic
professionals, students.

The dynamics of changes in each category of the UW employees is presented in Table 4.

Table 4 Employment dynamics

Fiscal yr Administrators Faculty Academic Professionals Staff Admin.Professionals

1998 99 641 390 1519 -----------

1999 99 632 395 1513 -----------
2000 103 622 392 1500 -----------
2001 105 616 389 1489 ----------
2002 99 608 428 1482 4

The HR Computer Analyst office is responsible for controlling and managing the
automated data processing functions of the HR Department including the design,
implementation and maintenance of computer systems. In fact, this office supports all
other offices of HR Department as it handles all the information and data bases. It works
in close collaboration with Information Technology Division.
Total compensation is understood as salary + overtime + bonus (that kind of
incentive compensation they don t have it at the UW now) + bene fits. The starting rate
of pay for staff employees is based on the position s classification and grade in the UW
Classification/Compensation Plans, as well as other factors such as experience and
special skills and abilities. All staff performing satisfactory level or above and being
employed for at least 6 months and not on disciplinary action may be eligible for salary
increases pursuant to Trustees actions. In Russian universities too much still depends on
supervisors at-will actions and decisions as to the salary raises and one-time money
bonuses.
Table 5 presents data for 1999-2003 fiscal years as to the salary and benefits
dynamics in UW budget in general (in millions $). It shows a perspective considerable
increase for the coming year. We can also see that benefits constitute about one fourth of
the salary figure, and the percentage of benefits in the total budget is about 20%, which
makes it a substantially big incentive for attracting and retaining UW employees.
Table 5 Salary and benefits dynamics in UW budget

Fiscal Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Full- time salaries 74.7 77.4 83.5 82.6 92.7

Part-time salaries 8.4 9.3 9.2 9.4 11.4
Benefits 23 22.5 23.4 22.6 28.0

There are average salary figures for 6 categories of UW employees in Table 6, which
give view of the dynamics through 4 years and also a comparison in-between the
categories, this gives us a picture of 1) a definite stability in terms of the categories ratio,
2) a difference between categories which comprises from about $15000 (between A and
B), to $53000 (between A and D). A new category of UW employees was created
through the year 2002 administrative professional which resulted from a certain shift in
responsibilities and job descriptions respectively.

Table 5. Salary dynamics

Fiscal yr Administrators Faculty Academic Professionals Staff Admin. Professionals

1998 67183.84 58286.52 34528.96 22947.94 -----

1999 69692.72 60180.52 35484.04 23982.71 -----
2000 73276.62 61876.92 36931.45 25202.35 -----
2001 78245.71 67348.26 40173.42 27253.54 -----
2002 81715.71 67756.44 40526.49 27486.18 54690.60

Other offices involved directly in HR management include the Academic Affairs office
and Employment Practices office.
The Employment Practices office, which is to control employment UW practices
consistency with the laws. The Employment Practices Office is part of the Office of the
President. This office is responsible for ensuring institutional compliance with federal
and state regulations and policies concerning equal opportunity and affirmative action. It
also administers the university s complaint process, including staff emplo yment disputes
and staff appeals of discipline and/or termination, as well as coordinating the civil rights
complaint procedure. The Employment Practices office in collaboration with HR
Department provides seminars on a variety of topics, including discrimination, sexual
harassment, affirmative action and conflict resolution. In cooperation with the Human
Resources Office, it provides specialized workshops to the university community, such as
preventing sexual harassment, civil rights protections, conflict resolution, complaint
processes, EEO/AA policies and principles.
The Academic affairs offices provide record-keeping, evaluation and promotion
for the faculty members. Full- time Faculty Appointments Faculty members are appointed
by the Trustees. Recommendations for such appointments are initiated by the head of the
unit in which the appointment occurs, and then forwarded through the appropriate
academic officers, and after that forwarded to the President of UW who in his turn
forwards the papers to the Trustees. Probationary period of tenure track faculty filling a
budgeted vacancy normally is for one academic year. Administrative and academic
officers do not have tenure in their administrative positions and serve in such capacity at
the pleasure of the President or the Trustees

The conclusions that can be made as a result of the research carried out are as follows:
State universities in both the USA and Russia are confronted with tighter budgets brought
about by shifts in government (federal, state and local levels) funding priorities and by
tax levy limits. This occurs simultaneously with increasing demands for efficiency and
changing demographic situation.
At the University of Wyoming the HR Department is really considered to be a strategic
partner in the university administration, but not as record-keepers and it acts accordingly,
its range of responsibilities and functions is very wide.
The key characteristics of the personnel management in the University of Wyoming
is to trust the subordinates and delegate the authority depending on their skills and
knowledge and clear understanding that the management practices must satisfy the
University mission. As a result of the analysis carried out we may say that the key to the
viability of a higher educational institution in a very changeable market conditions is
well-trained and flexible employees.
It is necessary for my home University to start changing management practices based on
negative stereotypes and adopt new positive and efficiency-oriented lines. It seems to be
the most important things that should be done at my home university are:
1. with the help of American experts to work out a permanent in-plant management
training system for administrators, faculty and staff
2. to use the US University experience to elaborate an new compensation system,
including benefits for the University employees, to motivate administrators, faculty and
staff to work effectively and to participate in fund-raising activities.
3. to set up alumni association to grow loyalty to the University and to be a partner
in fund-raising for educational purposes
4. to work out a fund-raising activities plan to support the University mission
implementation involving the University employees, students and alumni.