Let me start by once again thanking the members of the Employee Engagement Tiger Team. (Please see the members below). Their hard work resulted in the identification of three priority areas and seven specific actions that the President’s Council in turn committed to putting into action.

I am also extremely appreciative of the over 1,000 employees who took the time to complete the original Employee Engagement Survey and to Gerry Barker, our Vice President, Human Resources for his commitment to seeing this effort through and belief that we get better as an organization by continuously asking how we can improve.

Below is a brief update of the progress that the President’s Council has made to date on each of the seven action items. It is our expectation that all of the items will be completed by the end of 2014.

Priority #1 - Communications

• Action #1 - A Single Virtual Portal (In-Progress)
  Advancement has taken the lead and struck an Employee Portal Advisory Committee made up of members of the Tiger Team and Town Hall participants. Phil Gaudreau has been appointed the Project Owner and Tissy O’Connor the Project Coordinator. The current plan is to go live with a prototype in April.
• Action #2 – Regular Collaboration Time (In-progress)
  Student Services has taken the lead and is in the process of reviewing the College calendar for opportunities. A formal list of options will be presented to the College Leadership Council for feedback in Spring 2014.

Priority #2 - Celebrate Success and Deal with Low Performance

• Action #3 – Count Part-time Hours Towards Lifetime Service Awards (In-progress)
  Human Resources are reviewing various formulas for attributing part-time hours towards lifetime service. A process will be in place in the fall of 2014. In fact, I just viewed designs for long-service recognition pins for part-time and full-time employees created by our HR team and they look great.
• Action #4 – Open Nominations for College Awards Year-round (Completed)
  Advancement has simplified the process for nominating employees for all College awards, including opening nominations year-round and increasing recognition of both recipients and nominators. To nominate an employee for any number of College awards visit http://www3.algonquincollege.com/employee-awards/.
• Action #5 – Accountability for Low Performance (In-progress)
  To ensure administrators with supervisory responsibilities have the skills and tools they need to be successful, Human Resources has designed and launched 3 workshops covering the critical areas of communications and performance management. To date over 50 administrators have participated in workshops covering;
  1. Managing in a Unionized Environment,
  2. Having Difficult Conversations, and
  3. Employee Performance Management: A Step-by-Step Guide to Best Practices.
  These workshops are set to serve as foundational courses in a broader “Management Academy” under development by Human Resources and the Centre for Organizational Learning. In December, a “Management Academy Needs Assessment Survey” was conducted to elicit input from the administrative group. The survey response was excellent and the results are now being used to design a relevant and dynamic learning program for administrators to explore, develop, enhance and align skills related to the management function. The “Management Academy” will be formally launched in the fall of 2014.

Priority #3 - Streamline Internal Processes

• Action #6 – Grade Reporting Process (In-progress)
  The Academic Area is leading this effort, supported by ITS. The Academic Area is currently collecting input on the specific grade reporting and review process used in each of the academic areas. This input is being consolidated to identify the process and requirements to automate. Once this scoping phase is complete, this work has been identified as one of the top priorities for upcoming Genesis/ACSIS development.
• Action #7 – Student Course Feedback (In-progress)
  An Academic Area working group, led by Robyn Heaton and Pat Lychak, has been formed and is meeting regularly to examine this important process and provide recommendations by end of April 2014. We believe this will lead to improvements to the response rate, as well as provide a reporting mechanism to ensure accountability on action items collected from the feedback process.

For those new to the College, you can view a full summary of the College’s Employee Engagement efforts at http://www3.algonquincollege.com/engagementsurvey/. This will provide you with a good overview of how we are all committed to increase employee engagement and in doing so, our students become the ultimate benefactors.

Thanks to your Tiger Team Members!