Finance Advance Team Spotlight: Madonna Monette

This spotlight is on Finance Advance Team member Madonna Monette, Chief Financial Manager for U of M Extension. Advance Team members are unit-specific people who have volunteered to receive advance materials and information to help their colleagues during The Upgrade transition.

Is The Extension ready for The Upgrade?

With regard to Finance, I would say we are “near-ready.” MN Extension has more than 500 employees, many of whom wear a lot of different hats, so getting our organization prepared for The Upgrade is a daunting task. There’s a lot of information to absorb, and people just want what is specific for them. This is why The Upgrade website has been so helpful – it’s organized so you can find useful information relevant to you. I believe many folks are informed on what The Upgrade is and entails but they still need time to take their training.

How are you helping the Extension prepare?

I feel privileged to be part of the Advance Team, a role I take very seriously. There’s a real benefit to being on the front line of discovery and preparation. I can give voice to ideas and concerns on behalf of my community.

We have focused on keeping things as easy as possible. We aim for clear, streamlined organizational processes with local implementation and individual accountability.

It’s important for us to be knowledgeable about how The Upgrade will impact the people we serve. I’ve been a human sponge (in addition to my regular job), soaking up information, figuring out how it applies to our area, and then making sure we know how to help people when the time comes.

How has the process been going?

The partnerships with the Extension Human Resources and The Upgrade have been great. We couldn’t be successful without people like Carrie Meyer in EFS. We process about 800 travel reimbursements every month and manage PCard activities. We’ve worked specifically with Purchasing and HR to deliver a great webinar with targeted, applicable information, on PCard, My Wallet and MyU. Extension Finance, HR and Communications are teaming together to continue to provide targeted communication to our community.

Any advice?

We think we know how it will all work but going live can bring new challenges. People are going to have different needs. We need to be prepared to be flexible and patient as we will likely experience difficulties. For myself, I try to have a calm demeanor, convey a sense of urgency without panic, and share a lot in translating what is applicable to our Extension community.

Faculty Go-To Spotlight: Lisa Hubinger

This spotlight is on Faculty Go-To Advance Team member Lisa Hubinger, Graduate Program Coordinator for the College of Veterinary Medicine. Advance Team members are unit-specific people who have volunteered to receive advance materials and information to help their colleagues during The Upgrade transition.

Why did you volunteer to be an advance team member?
I realized early on that I better pay a lot of attention to The Upgrade. In the College of Veterinary Medicine, all graduate students are handled out of our office, so I became very aware of how much the systems changes will impact our staff, students and faculty.

How are you preparing?
I read everything. I participate in meetings. I have taken all the training and watched all the sneak peek videos, which are great. They are short and informative. I really like that the information is all online so I can go back to it whenever I need.

What are some of the biggest challenges?
There are several. Faculty are always busy, so many of them don’t have time to fully prepare in advance. This is why it’s good that educational information is available just-in-time and online. That’s also why it’s good to have Advance Team members ready to provide live help.

Another challenge is that we don’t really know exactly what the upgraded systems will be like until they go live. There’s only so much planning we can do, so let’s just get The Upgrade implemented!

Finally, most people don’t really like change, so we will probably hear about that. For me, I just want to be knowledgeable, helpful and provide a sense of calm to people who have trouble adjusting to change. We will get through this by working together!

Readiness Survey Help Units Prepare for The Upgrade

A new readiness survey will help University communities prepare for The Upgrade. Piloted by the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) and the Office of Human Resources (OHR), the survey is an easy-to-use checklist for preparation, and delivers helpful data on unit readiness.

The survey can be used as-is with data recorded into Qualtrics for analysis, or units can customize the survey and conduct their own assessments. The survey will be distributed to units in mid-February.

Readiness Surveys Show Progress and Gaps

The pilot surveys achieved very strong participation, with a 90% response rate in CLA, and a 55% response rate in OHR, despite the latter pilot being conducted over the two weeks that included the holiday break. Responses showed that University employees are making steady progress in preparing for The Upgrade, but more preparation is needed.

Here are a few of the findings from the OHR pilot, which was sent to HR Leads, HR Stars, and OHR Employee Relation Consultants:

Pilot Survey Findings: Strengths

• Respondents are aware of training and how to prepare
• Respondents are comfortable with time and absence management changes
• Respondents are aware of changes to payroll accounting

Pilot Survey Findings: Opportunities

• Supervising faculty need training on how to approve and delegate time and absences in the upgraded system
• Faculty need to be ready to handle student registration questions

If you have questions about the survey, contact Norm Schultz at schu3371@umn.edu.

How are Advance Team members preparing for The Upgrade?

An HR Operations Leader for the Academic Health Center (AHC), Shannon Luloff is also on one of The Upgrade’s Advance Teams, the HR Stars, where she is supporting her colleagues in preparing for The Upgrade. This interview reveals how an exemplary performer does her thing! 



How are Advance Team members preparing for The Upgrade?

I am absorbing all of the information I can: completing trainings, reading The Upgrade Newsletter, checking The Upgrade website for changes, participating in meetings, and reading the minutes and slides.

I treat my role on the advance team as a project, tracking all to-dos, and working with self-assigned goals and deadlines. I view it as my responsibility to be available for and promote idea sharing among the AHC HR leadership group and the HR STARs. This role and project viewpoint has helped me focus on getting our area ready for the systems upgrade, which will also affect many of our business processes.

Also, I found a smaller group of SMEs that were actively involved from the beginning and can quickly answer questions. They are really helpful, especially given how swamped the project teams are right now.

How will you help people during the Upgrade process?

I’m developing an internal structure for AHC for pre and post Go Live support. My team is serving as centralized support for AHC because many of them were SMEs who worked on user acceptance testing. In addition, we work with HR STARs in other areas and in AHC colleges (Medical School, School of Dentistry, School of Public Health, College of Pharmacy, School of Nursing, and College of Veterinary Medicine).

We are supplementing The Upgrade communications and change management aspects by leveraging resources, such as the posters, trainings and monthly HR STARs homework, and adding our own personal touch and face-to-face support.

How are your supervisors supporting you?

I really appreciate that my supervisor, Dorothy Cottrell, allotted time for me to focus on the Upgrade (this has meant an increased workload for her as well as our whole team - thank you!). Having this dedicated time to directly support the AHC Shared Units and to provide indirect support to other AHC colleges has helped immensely. I also have a great deal of support from fellow AHC representatives on the HRMS Functional Steering Committee, especially in raising concerns and identifying priorities.

Any final tips for people preparing for The Upgrade?

I think people need pay attention to the information shared by their Advance Teams, and on The Upgrade website, and get training. And it’s important to be supportive and flexible because technology can sometimes be unpredictable.

What's Changing?

• U Catalogs will remain 

• Course descriptions will be able to include URLs 

• The Course Guide will be retired 

After The Upgrade, students will have many ways of finding course and class information when they search for classes. Course descriptions from University catalogs--the public source for all academic offerings--will appear in class search results. 

Additionally, faculty, instructors, and their proxies will be able to add a website address with additional course or syllabus information to appear in the class notes section of class search results. This ability to include a website address is the replacement option for the Course Guide, which will be retired after The Upgrade.

Faculty and student groups, collegiate and department administrators, and technology staff were consulted at length about the technical limitations of the Course Guide, and the significant resources needed to maintain it. Ultimately, the Student Team made the decision to retire the Course Guide with the support of those consulted. All academic offerings will still be publicly available in University catalogs at http://www.catalogs.umn.edu/.

Read about ending the Course Guide, and adding URLs to course descriptions.

Training will be delivered online, accessible at Upgrade Training & Education. You can also reach out to your area's Advance Team members for additional information.

How to Prepare for The Upgrade

Training & education

As The Upgrade nears, you will receive emails about training relevant to your role. Most training emails will be sent in January. You are encouraged to take training close to when you receive the emails.

All training information is accessible via the Upgrade Education page, some of which is available now. Since most training will be online, you can revisit it and retake it as many times as you want. (Training could not be developed until after the system was built and tested, so courses are still in development, prioritized by need and timing.)

Here are two trainings that many people will need to take:

• Time and absence training will be available in early January. Employees who submit or approve hours or absences on paper must learn how to do these activities online.
• People who use student systems (Campus Solutions) should take the Student Systems Upgrade Overview course, available now.

If you want to take additional training, consider your primary job responsibilities and, if needed, talk to your supervisor.

Know your support network

During The Upgrade, additional support will be provided to call centers/help desks. Plus, you can reach out to your Advance Team, “voice on the ground” personnel with advance tools and information who have graciously offered to support their areas during The Upgrade. 

Embrace change

Big systems implementations like these usually face technical issues and natural human resistance. Prepare for changes, be flexible, and exercise patience with your colleagues and the system. (See this TED Talk video on change.)

Enhanced Support for The Upgrade

To support staff, faculty, and students through the PeopleSoft systems upgrade, we are developing easy-to-use Enhanced Support for existing structures and processes. So, the help contacts you use today are the same ones you will use after The Upgrade.

Here are some essential support groups:

• Advance Teams are “voice on the ground” teams comprised of workplace personnel supporting colleagues throughout The Upgrade.
• The Call Centers / Help Desks team prepares all centers with training and resources for a consistent user experience, ensuring issue tracking and resolution.
• The Training Teams provide educational resources and learning opportunities to support university-wide understanding of how to use the new systems.
• The Communication Teams share information with the University community through an array of channels before, during, and after The Upgrade.
• The Command Center will provide internal support to the call centers and help desks, analyze themes and trends, and will help prioritize issues across the Program.

Since upgrades this big usually have hiccups along the way, these teams are essential as we work through technical glitches, process confusion, and user dissatisfaction. Everyone will need to leverage their skills in flexibility, empathy, and patience!

Changes Coming to Payroll and Payroll Accounting

Important changes coming to Payroll and Payroll Accounting were key topics of the October meeting of HR Stars. According to Heather Kidd of the Office of Human Resources, the key points to remember and share with employees about Payroll are:

• Payroll information, including past pay stubs and balances, will be easily accessed from the new MyU portal, under the  “My Pay” tab.

• Pay statements will look somewhat different. They will show greater detail, including specifying regular pay, paid absences or overtime pay.
  
• University employees will not see any changes to how and when they are paid.

Key changes coming to Payroll Accounting include:

• Distribution entry will be separate from appointment entry to help ensure the timely entry of appointments, as well as timeliness of paying employees.

• The new distribution entry process introduces four funding options: Appointment Level, Position Level, Pool Level, and Department Level. 
• Units/departments need to decide how to handle distribution levels according to their business needs.

At the meeting, HR Star Shannon Luloff of the Academic Health Center shared some of the ways she is helping her unit prepare for The Upgrade. She emphasized the important role of the HR Stars, an advance team of more than 100 HR professionals throughout the five system campuses who provide advice and disseminate information about The Upgrade.

View presentation slides from the meeting or watch the video. For more information about the HR Stars, please contact Nicole Salm in the Office of Human Resources at (612) 626-2286 or salm0078@umn.edu.

Position Management and Reporting Center Key Topics of August HR Stars’ Meeting

More than 80 people participated in-person and online at the HR Stars meeting on Aug. 26 on the Twin Cities campus. The Stars are a key advance team of more than 100 HR professionals throughout the five system campuses that was organized by the Office of Human Resources to provide valuable leadership, insight, and advice regarding the upgrade of the Human Resources Management System, as well as the larger Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program. The Stars convene monthly and serve as important resources within their units.

During its meeting, the group heard a presentation about the new Position Management capability that will be part of the HRMS upgrade to PeopleSoft 9.2, which plans to go live in April 2015*. Among the data collected in Position Management will be position number, job title, salary plan, supervisor, supervisees, and other information. According to Lori Mein, business process owner in the Office of Human Resources, Position Management is the “heart” of the HRMS.

“Everything starts with, and follows, Position, and it is essential to many HRMS functions,” Mein said. “Position management makes automated approvals, workflows, and data updates possible.”

Carrie Meyer, co-facilitator of the HR Stars, addressed the group at its August meeting.

The Stars also benefited from a demonstration of the new Reporting Center that will be part of the Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program. University faculty and staff will access the center through the new MyU portal and be a catalog of reports from multiple sources like UM Reports, UM Analytics, and PeopleSoft in one location. Amy Winkel and Amy Schult, from the Reporting and Data Management team, led the discussion and answered questions.

The Stars’ meeting was led by the group’s new co-facilitators, Teri Spillers, from the Office of Human Resources, and Carrie Meyer of the Controller’s Office. Kathy Brown, Vice President for Human Resources, kicked off the meeting and thanked the group for sharing information about the upgrade within their units.

To see a video recording of the meeting, please click here. For more information about the HR Stars, or the group’s upcoming meetings, please contact Nicole Salm in the Office of Human Resources at (612) 626-2286 or salm0078@umn.edu.

*This article was updated on 02/04/2015 to reflect the most recent timing information.

Supporting faculty during technology upgrade

The Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program (ESUP) will change the way students, faculty, and staff take care of business with the University. The Faculty Go­-To advance team is a group of system users who will serve as resources for faculty in their units throughout the upgrade of the University’s PeopleSoft system. The Go­-To advance team represents the concerns and needs of their units with regard to supporting faculty during the system transition and may serve as a communications contact after the planned launch in April 2015*.

Kick-off meetings will be held:

• Wednesday, August 13, 10-11 a.m. - Biological Sciences Center, room 64 (St. Paul)
• Thursday, August 14, 2:30-3:30 p.m. - STSS, room 114 (East Bank)
• Friday, August 15, 10-11 a.m. - Hanson Hall, room 1-106 (West Bank)

Most colleges have nominated representatives for this Faculty Go-To role. If you wish to join or want further information about who from your college is part of this group, please email vollu004@umn.edu.

You can find more information about the Faculty Go-To team here.

*This article was updated on 02/04/2015 to reflect the most recent timing information.

Navigating by Stars: HRMS kicks off advance team strategy

Visual notes from the HR Stars kickoff meeting, courtesy of Jen Mein.

The HRMS Upgrade Project took the next big step in its change management and communications plan last week by launching the HR Stars, an advance team strategy to provide local system support in all academic and administrative units system-wide.

 More than 90 Stars have been nominated to date, including at least one representative for every unit and campus, and the vast majority attended the kickoff meeting on May 21, either in person or online. They received additional information and context about the project and their new role, and offered their thoughts about what units will need for successful implementation of the new HRMS system and business processes. The thoughts ranged from the real and personal (what do we do when a co-worker is falling apart because they can’t figure out how to get their work done?) to the fanciful (a chip to implant all the right answers directly into people brains) -- but all with the goal of enabling Stars and their unit colleagues to hit the ground running with the new system.

“Every department has someone that people go to for answers,” said one Star following the meeting. “It makes good sense to invite those people into the upgrade effort earlier and get them trained so they can help others be effective more quickly after the upgrade. Meeting the people who fill this role at the kickoff was encouraging -- the group seemed excited and ready to learn. It bodes well for the overall success of the upgrade.”

Stars will receive advance training and early information from the HRMS project, but the expectation is for two-way communication -- the project team hopes to hear about challenges or concerns early so they can be addressed quickly and systematically, before they become major problems. In fact, even before the kickoff meeting, most of the Stars responded to a brief survey that provided a first look into the expertise of the group and the experience of the units to date. Out of 70 responses to our survey:

• 66 Stars have hands-on HRMS experience (including 22 with HRMS and Finance, and 7 with HRMS, Finance, and Student).
• 56% have already completed HRMS High-Level Functions and Processes Training. 
• The biggest perceived area of strength is Position Management: 
• On a scale of 1 to 5 (newbie to expert), our average is 3.24. 
• 29 Stars rated themselves a 4 or a 5. 
• The biggest challenge is Recruiting Solutions: 
• On a scale of 1 to 5 (newbie to expert), our average is 2.16.
• Only 4 Stars rated themselves a 4 or a 5.

These results, along with answers to open-ended survey questions, feedback from the kickoff meeting, and ongoing interactions via the HR Stars Google Group will be used to shape the agendas of future Stars meetings. The group will reconvene on June 25 and will meet regularly through early next spring. A listing of all Stars by unit will be made available soon.