Committee Drafts Report for Personnel System

Staff Writer

In August 2001, Chancellor James Moeser challenged the Personnel Flexibility Committee to come up with the perfect personnel system for the University, regardless of money and state legislation.

After a year of meetings, surveys and mass e-mails, the committee drafted a 163-page report, which it presented to Moeser in September.

"It's the beginning of opening a dialogue for the administration of the University to understand its employees," said Elmira Mangum, associate provost for finance and co-chairwoman of the committee.

Committee members determined that there are five major categories of concern expressed by UNC employees: compensation and pay; benefits; employee relations and working conditions; recruitment and selection; and career development.

"The primary concern was about pay and job security ... and to look at it, I'd say job security most of all," Mangum said.

Various employee groups on campus selected and nominated members of the committee. Officials emphasized variety when forming the committee, which had representatives from all parts of the University, Mangum said.

"I think that the representation (on the committee) is thorough and that it reflects the views of the University community," Mangum said.

For further campus representation, committee members created electronic surveys, formed focus groups, had town and departmental meetings, met with individual contacts and sent e-mails. They received input from more than 3,400 members of the University.

According to the report, there is overwhelming support among campus employees for a system that is competitive and market-based.

But, as some committee members pointed out, these concerns can't be addressed by the University.

"The major peer institutions have collective bargaining, but North Carolina inhibits the unionization of public employees," said Steve Hutton, one of the two committee members to formulate a Minority Report on Personnel Flexibility.

"North Carolina's labor laws need a major overhaul, and the legislature should give public employees the right to collectively bargain."

But Hutton said this is unlikely to happen immediately.

"We spent a lot of time looking into retirement benefits and health plan benefits. ... They're very unlikely to move on those," he said. "The legislature just reduced the state's contribution to our retirement to zero. ... For the University, flexibility for people to believe that the legislature will move on these issues is misguided at this time."

Implementation was the biggest concern for committee members, Mangum said, but the purpose of the committee was not to work on specific delivery mechanisms.

"The report is being provided to the chancellor as an advisory document," Mangum said. "It's a chance to move ahead and make the University of North Carolina the employer that we all want it to be."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.