Staff Forum Holds Winter Meetings
The Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM) Staff Forum held three meetings—two on Tuesday, February 22, 2016, and one on Tuesday, March 2, 2016—for staff on the both the Medical Campus and staff at the BU Dental Health Center at 930 Commonwealth Avenue. At the meetings, both Assistant Director for Academic Affairs Ms. Grace Elson and Executive Director of Finance & Operations Mr. Tim McDonough gave presentations.
At the meetings, which included a catered lunch for the staff in attendance, Infection Control Manager and Staff Forum Representative Ms. Pamela Simmons welcomed the staff and introduced the two presenters: Ms. Grace Elson and Mr. Tim McDonough.
In his presentation, Mr. McDonough talked about the various staff honors and awards that GSDM offers (such as the Henry M. Goldman and Kristen Donovan Awards for Distinguished Service) and the methods with which GSDM determines who receives them.
Mr. McDonough said that one major complication in the process of determining who receives honors and awards is the fact that the current voting committees for the awards are comprised of past award winners. He said this has led some people to feel that both too few nominations are received and that the committee doesn’t offer a broad enough sample of the entire GSDM community.
It was noted during Mr. McDonough’s presentation that changing to a simple vote of the entire GSDM faculty and staff may also not be the best means of determination since many GSDM staff are dispersed in different departments and offices, and sometimes in different buildings, making it challenging for staff members to vote for anyone other than their own coworkers. The possibility of staff in the larger departments and offices always getting the higher percentage of votes would be likely.
Several staff members made suggestions at the meeting. One such suggestion was to split up the awards between administrative staff, clinical staff, and research staff.
“In all our staff honors and awards we strive to ensure that every part of the GSDM community is considered,” said Mr. McDonough. “I would like to thank all the staff members at the Staff Forum Winter Meeting who provided me with valuable insight into how we can work to further this goal, and I encourage all staff members to continue to contact me with any ideas they may have about improving GSDM’s honors and awards.”
The next step in the process will be for Mr. McDonough to deliver to the Staff Forum Representatives a survey that will be distributed to all of the staff. The survey will seek to receive further feedback from all staff as it relates to these distinguished awards in the hopes of eventually being able to adjust the current process so that it can become even more equitable.
“These are staff awards and therefore we feel it is important to have the staff be part of the process of developing how the awards are administered so that all of our staff who are showing exemplarily service are appropriately recognized,” said Mr. McDonough.
After Mr. McDonough answered several questions from various staff members, Ms. Simmons welcomed Ms. Elson to deliver her presentation.
Ms. Elson spoke about the 2015 biennial GSDM Professional Development Survey, which was emailed to staff in March of 2015. Ms. Elson is Co-Champion for Goal eight of GSDM’s Applied Strategic Plan: “Recruit, develop, & retain excellent and diverse faculty and staff.”
The 2015 GSDM Professional Development Survey was completed by 104 of the 275 GSDM staff members that it was sent to—a response rate of 38 percent. Ms. Elson says she hopes to increase this rate with the 2017 GSDM Professional Development Survey.
Ms. Elson presented many positive results from the survey: 85 percent of the staff members thought GSDM’s hiring process was professional; 70 percent thought that their immediate supervisor helps them improve job performance with feedback; many staff members appreciated the orientation program; and many staff members spoke positively about the benefits offered by GSDM, especially regarding the tuition remission program.
There were also some results that Ms. Elson said GSDM can work to improve upon: 20 percent of staff members thought the hiring process was not timely, some staff members said the performance evaluation process at GSDM could be improved, and some staff members said they could use more working space.
“I am pleased that the 2015 GSDM Professional Development Survey has allowed us to review our strong points and the areas that we need to improve,” said Ms. Elson. “And I would like to encourage all staff members to complete the survey. We take your feedback very seriously, and we use the results to work on improving employee satisfaction.”
The complete results of the 2015 GSDM Professional Development Survey can be found here. For the 2013 survey click here. For the 2011 survey click here.
After Ms. Elson’s presentation, staff were encouraged to provide feedback to their Staff Forum Representatives by writing their concerns anonymously on index cards that were collected at the end of the meeting.
“The GSDM Staff Forum had another successful kick off for 2016,” said Ms. Simmons. “Both speakers provided a wealth of information and willingly answered staffs’ questions.”
Aside from Ms. Simmons, the Staff Forum Representatives and Alternates who helped plan the meetings are Continuing Education Coordinator Ms. Janine Lipsky, Development Program Officer Ms. Leslie Caiola, Dental Assistant Ms. Roberta Flynn, and Group Practice Administrator Ms. Alexa Styrczula.
“I am happy to hear that our staff forum continues to work towards improving all aspects of the environment for staff members at GSDM,” said Dean Jeffrey W. Hutter. “Thank you to all those who attended the 2016 Staff Forum Winter Meetings.”