Human Resources

Committee Information: Annual Report

2007-2008 Annual Report

There was a significant turnover of membership to the committee this year, with three new members representing the Atlantic region and one new member from Ontario.

I thank all committee members for their input, commitment and support throughout this year. A number of projects would not have evolved without them.

There were a number of goals and objectives set for the last year that committee members felt should be developed and brought to fruition. Accordingly, the following are point-form summaries of accomplishments for the past year:

• with the technical and logistical support of the CAUBO office, a pilot benchmarking survey was developed through the year and is being tested in time for an initial presentation and discussions at the Pre-conference workshop. If successful, it will serve as the start of a data exchange amongst Canadian universities on HR matters.

• the ability to provide members with links to information that will facilitate their work throughout the year was also identified as a priority this year. To that end, a number of useful links were identified and form part of the information that CAUBO will highlight on their Web site.

• participation in the Training and development initiative developed by CAUBO this year, was supported by committee members through discussions and the identification of an inventory of resources available and offering comments on the framework to potential training programs. The next steps will be a focus group exchange with participants from four universities to identify needs and opportunities for a comprehensive program.

Of course, as is the tradition, the HR Committee spent a number of meetings and discussions developing the themes and contents for the pre-conference workshop and track sessions for the 2008 conference.

Branding and Employee engagement, and the development of strategies to continue to foster engagement in our universities is a major theme for the conference, as a natural continuation of the student engagement focus at last year’s conference.

Again this year, I send my heartfelt thanks to the members of the HR Committee who have devoted their already limited time to participate in numerous teleconferences and meetings throughout the year. Our thanks as well to the CAUBO staff for their support for the work of the committee.

Budget requirements for 2008-2009

Upon successful completion of the pilot project for the benchmarking survey in the next weeks, continued support and development costs would need to be set aside to continue to advance this project.

The actual amounts are difficult to define before the 2008 conference, but place marker amounts could be set for this purpose.

Chair
Louise Pagé-Valin, University of Ottawa

Members
André Dorion, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi

Lisa Hollett, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Don MacDonald, The University of Lethbridge

Gabrielle Morrison, Saint Mary's University
Kim Squires, Saint Mary's University

Terry Voss, University of Manitoba