Human Resources (HR) spent much of the last year securing the financial and working conditions of the Concordia community. It successfully implemented pension reform. It pushed forward a benefits review that will protect the longterm health of Concordia insurance plans. It reached milestones in the modernization of Concordia’s payroll system. And, it signed new collective agreements with many of the university’s 13 unions. All the while, the HR team continued to support hiring, training and retirement across the university.
“Concordia is an employer that truly values its faculty, staff and student employees. We serve our community with a holistic view, providing great working conditions and negotiating collective agreements that are in the best interests of all,” says Carolina Willsher, Associate Vice-President of Human Resources.
Securing the golden years
Though the Quebec Government obliged universities to undertake a reform of their pension plans, Concordia offered employees the most generous plan allowed under new legislation. It also provided members with options to reduce the impact of the change.
“On January 1, 2018, pension reform came into effect. All of the planning, communication and implementation of that change went very smoothly. We found that people were able to make informed decisions about the revised plan, thanks to all the tools and information we provided to them,” says Willsher.
Over a nine-month period, HR ran an extensive information campaign – in both official languages. It included 64 information sessions, revamped web pages, an explanatory video, home mailings, news bulletin articles, telephone calls and emails.
Simplifying and streamlining benefits
Concordia used to divide its insurance offerings between a few different providers. Aside from added complexity behind the scenes, plan members did not have access to simplified claims tools. As a result, Concordia put out a call for submissions and undertook a selection process for revised insurance offerings.
“Our goal was to enhance service to the community, respecting ambitious timelines. We partnered with the Office of the Treasury, which also helped us evaluate the advantages of working with a single provider.”
By May 1, 2018, thousands of faculty and staff members had been transferred over to Sun Life for various forms of insurance available to them. Part-time and continuing education instructors made the switch later, with a further review of insurance coverage to take place during the 2018-2019 period.
Paying it forward
In February of 2018, HR produced approximately 17,000 tax statements. Each of those differed depending on an employee’s job, status, union, deductibles, tenure, etc. In order to cut down on the use of paper, this year, all employee tax slips were issued electronically. However, one factor that continues to complicate the work is the old HR information system, known as Empath.
Replacing the old information system is priority. Stakeholders helped advance that process by determining requirements and evaluating software options.
“Work in 2017-2018 got us to the Fit-Gap stage. We focused on planning, evaluation with the community and decision-making. Thanks to the help we got from members across the university, we chose new software and are working with an integrator.”
As the process of changing to new software continues, HR has also brought in new team members to ensure that other services continue to run smoothly during implementation and testing. When the project is completed, in 2020, the pay system will be more secure and units will have access to better data when they need it.
“This project also demonstrates how well university units work together. We really benefited from our partnership with Finance and Instructional and Information Technology Services (IITS).”
Continual learning
HR’s Employment and Organizational Development unit is also working on the needs of the future. It continued to offer a Change Resilience program, expanded its peer coaching efforts and began to update other courses and workshops.
“We did a survey this year, asking the community for feedback about our Learning and Development offerings. We were pleased to see that we are continuing to meet their needs. We also took note of suggestions that will help us bring in new courses in the months ahead.”
For those looking to bring their working careers to a close at Concordia, HR continued to offer retirement workshops. Many celebrated their successful transition during the 2017 Long Service and Retirement Luncheon alongside those continuing to work at Concordia for many years to come.
