Photo by Jeanylyn Lopez.
STORY BY ROBERT MOODIE
This week, Sheridan President Jeff Zabudsky is touring each of the college’s campuses promoting a faculty-focused initiative dubbed the People Plan.
The People Plan began as a survey of more than 400 members of the college to answer one simple question: what can we do better for staff?
Zabudsky said 11 topics were identified as areas to improve, five of which were identified as needing action as quickly as possible.
First, though, he said the college needed to improve its Human Resources department with a strategic plan. This meant ensuring that the college offers high-quality programs, creating an ideal learning environment with improved infrastructure and cultivating a reputation as a desirable destination for faculty.
The initiative, therefore, focused on development of staff and staff retention. How would Sheridan hold on to its staff and promote excellence?
“What we wanted to see was an HR department that had much more to do with . . . advancing people within the organization,” Zabudsky said. “How can they become better? How can they move into new roles in leadership?”
Leadership indeed was one of the main points of the presentation along with giving staff the skills for management. Zabudsky said the opportunity is now there for staff members who are interested in learning those skills to do so even if they aren’t in one of those positions.
The next part of the initiative was focused on rewards for staff. “There’s a lot that we have done and a lot that we will do to create a value proposition for our employees that speaks to the total rewards, not just the salary,” Zabudsky said.
Professional development is a large part of this, specifically that the amount of money offered to staff to help cover their own education is going up from $800 to $1,000. Part-time staff may also become eligible for this kind of reimbursement in the future if given the go-ahead from the administration.
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