The HR Excellence Initiative focuses on the development of a five-year human resources strategy. This project is one of several key strategic initiatives aimed to transform the culture of Finance and Administration with an emphasis on trust, transparency, operational excellence, and customer service. To that end, HR Excellence will focus on four areas within the HR ecosystem: Total Rewards (Compensation & Benefits), Training and Development, Performance Management, and Parental Leave.
A comprehensive staff compensation and benefits study has been launched to assess and implement necessary changes that will ensure pay and benefits are competitive to the market. It will also enable Rice to offer more robust and competitive benefits to staff and faculty. The timeline for this initiative is still under development, and more information will be coming soon.
This project is one of several key strategic initiatives aimed to transform the culture of Finance and Administration with an emphasis on trust, transparency, operational excellence, and customer service.
As part of improving Rice’s training and development programs, a training needs assessment is underway. Through this effort, training and leadership development offerings will be expanded to better meet the needs of employees and the university.
Further expanding on staff development, effective July 1, 2023, Rice will introduce a new standardized performance management program. For this effort, all staff will be required to work with their supervisors to set goals in alignment with the University's mission, vision, and values. This will be the first critical step of the new performance appraisal process. To learn more about this new process and register for a SMART goal training session, please visit the Performance Management website.
Finally, the Rice University Benefits Committee, in partnership with Human Resources, has proposed a new staff parental leave policy that will allow six weeks of paid leave for eligible staff. The policy is to be reviewed and voted on by the Executive Compliance Committee soon. The request is to make the policy effective July 1, 2023.
Stay tuned for additional updates on the HR Excellence Initiative as these projects are all in progress!