VOICES program articulates staff interests

The Voices of the Staff, to be launched Feb. 9, is a program that will give staff members a formal mechanism to help define the most widely shared concerns and put them on the agendas of top University leadership. Staff volunteers will be the backbone of the VOICES program. The move has been embraced by the University's executive officers.

President Mary Sue Coleman stressed her commitment to a structured mechanism for staff to have a voice with the administration during her March 16, 2004, letter to Diversity Summit participants.

"I want to recognize the importance of staff in our community—the work of staff supports every learning activity of this campus. We are looking forward to beginning work on a means by which staff interests can and will be more fully considered," Coleman said.

Laurita Thomas, associate vice president and chief human resource officer, says the Voices of the Staff program can be a vehicle for tangible and dynamic progress toward Coleman's goal.

"Staff can establish a much more direct line of communication with top University leaders," Thomas says. "And we expect that the communication will become a valuable two-way dialogue. The executive officers have been extremely interested in the opportunity for such conversations, and their collective support for this program has been unwavering."

According to Provost Paul N. Courant, "One of the most appealing aspects of the program is its inclusion of members from all areas of the staff community—many fields of practice, staff from academic and administrative units, and staff both represented and not represented in collective bargaining."

The members of the VOICES network groups will be chosen from the overall pool of applicants to represent a microcosm of the staff community when it comes to demographics, including work areas, gender, ethnicity and union representation.

"Programs like VOICES can have an impressive effect on communication, business processes and job satisfaction," says Timothy P. Slottow, executive vice president and chief financial officer. "But, the program also gives the University's leadership a group that approximates the demographics of U-M staff, so we have a structured sounding board when we consider issues that have broad impact on staff."

A majority of the staff community is employed in the U-M Health System (UMHS); therefore, the network groups that are established will be reflective of that fact.

"The issues perceived as most important to staff can vary by work unit and physical work location," says Dr. Robert P. Kelch, executive vice president for medical affairs. "The program is designed to reflect these differences in the composition of the working groups, and we anticipate strong interest in the program from Health System staff."

Because of the round-the-clock nature of health care and other careers at the University, as well as the geographic spread of the University's three campuses, the program also will work to create additional opportunities for staff input into the VOICES networks. This could include focus groups, surveys and e-mails, Thomas says.

Human Resources and Affirmative Action will host a kickoff event Feb. 9 where staff members who were self-nominated or nominated by human resources professionals in units throughout the Ann Arbor campus and UMHS will help identify the issues that hold the greatest interest among a broad spectrum of staff.

While the topics to surface will be unknown until after the event, Thomas expects issues like career development and health and wellness may rank high among the participants. The issues that emerge will be brought forth to the executive officers, and 5-7 topics will be selected as the focus areas of the VOICES program for 2005.

Selection criteria have been established to ensure that the topics chosen are of concern to a great number of staff, have significant impact on the objectives and goals of the VOICES project, advance the work of the University and do not duplicate the efforts of other teams or departments. Consideration also will be given to the impact on the University if a topic is not addressed. Once the focus areas are identified and announced, a network group of volunteers devoted to each issue will be formed through an application process open to all Ann Arbor regular staff with at least one year of service.

While the participants of the launch event will gather only once to help determine the topic areas, the members of each of the topic-specific network groups will serve terms of 1-2 years.

Once the topic areas are announced in March, staff with at least one year of service on the Ann Arbor campus or at UMHS can volunteer or be nominated to serve on the network group of their choice based on the topic of greatest interest. Application forms will be available on the VOICES Web site, and members will be chosen from the pool of applicants, in order to create a microcosm of the larger U-M staff community in terms of career families, academic and administrative units, race and gender.

Network group members will devote time to the issue of their group, and two members of each group will form a core team. The Flint and Dearborn regional campuses also will each designate two members to the core team, which will come together periodically to represent the network in meetings with the president, executive officers and the chief human resource officer.

For more information, visit the Voices of the Staff Web site at http://www.voices.umich.edu or send e-mail to staff.voices@umich.edu.