UC ANR has new online orientation guide
UC ANR has a new online orientation guide for new employees. It begins with a welcome video from VP Glenda Humiston and continues to a table of contents where new employees will find topics such as the ANR Mission and Vision, ANR Core Messages, History of ANR, ANR programs and unit overview videos, as well as personal responsibility, employee resources, and more. UC ANR continues to explore ways to orient our new employees beyond the annual New Employee Administrative and Programmatic Orientations.
UC Learning Center upgrade
Between July 7 and 14, the UC Learning Center website (lms.ucdavis.edu) will be down for an upgrade. Therefore, plan your compliance and other training with that schedule in mind. As new information is available from UCOP, we will send out a reminder announcement.
ANR employees still have access to Lynda.com. Therefore, disregard any messages you may have received stating that our subscription is over. If you have not already created a personal account, please go the ANR Portal and under “My Links” click on Lynda.com Learning. This month's learning module recommendations are “Delivering Employee Feedback” with Todd Dewett and “The Benefits of Project management” with Richard Harrington. Check them out!
MSAP provides people managers new awareness
During the four-day program, Jordan and Macias participated in simulated UC management scenarios, received behavioral feedback from assessors, attended a career development workshop, and connected with UC systemwide colleagues. Before they arrived, they participated in pre-assessment components and will be involved post-program activities to continue their professional development.
Macias remarked, “MSAP was an insightful experience. I have become more confident in my strengths and more self-aware of my development areas. I look forward to using the skills and information I learned, in my continued professional growth.”
Become an assessor and help ANR serve this UC systemwide initiative for upward mobility. Academics can add the assessor service to their merit and promotion package. For information on how to become an assessor, contact Jodi Azulai at jlazulai@ucanr.edu.
The next MSAP will be held Oct. 9-12, 2017. See the next article to apply.
CALL FOR ANR APPLICANTS: Management Skills Assessment Program (MSAP)
If you or your people managers are ready for a leap in professional development, we encourage applying for the Management Skills Assessment Program (MSAP).
This program assesses the management skills of high-potential, early-career supervisors and managers for future leadership opportunities at the University of California. We strongly recommend discussing the program with supervisors and managers who exhibit potential for management development.
Applications are due July 10, 2017.
Eligibility requirements include:
- Full-time career status with a current, satisfactory (or better) performance evaluation
- Career Tracks job classification as a supervisor or manager
Participants will be selected based on an evaluation of the applicant's (1) career goals in management, (2) level of skills essential for performing management functions, and (3) demonstrated career path and/or strong commitment to management skill development.
ANR Learning & Development pays the $1,095 program fee plus transportation and other related travel costs.
What to expect:
- A demanding program with assessees in activities from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
- No time to check email or attend to work responsibilities.
- Eat with other assessees and share small condos.
Application instructions and further information about the program are at http://msap.ucr.edu. Choose UC ANR (not UC Davis) in the application.
A UC ANR committee will review all applications and make the final selection.Completed applications must be submitted online at http://msap.ucr.edu by Monday, July 10, 2017 (Remember the website will shut down between July 7 and 14 for upgrade). As supervisor, you will also have a required portion in the submission for application consideration and commit to participate in the required post-program activities.
For more information, contact Jodi Azulai, ANR Learning and Development coordinator, at jlazulai@ucanr.edu.
ANR Learning and Development
To position ANR as the premiere source of knowledge and science for agricultural and natural resources issues, it is vital that our people keep their knowledge and skills at peak performance. The ANR Learning and Development website offers an array of opportunities for employee learning and professional development that can help serve that goal. I strongly encourage employees to take full advantage of these resources as well as other opportunities to enhance their personal and professional growth. – Glenda Humiston, Vice President
Respect, trust, accountability, shared vision, integrity and partnerships are needed to sustain a welcoming and inclusive ANR workplace environment.
UC ANR's Principles of Community Committee met for the first time on Sept. 29 in Davis to develop an outline for the Principles of Community. This document will serve as a guide for ANR employees to resolve and address conflict. In creating the Principles of Community, the committee strives to promote positive communications in the staff and academic personnel units, represent all organizational units, and provide examples of best practices.
Elizabeth Villalobos of Fresno County was elected chair and Tina Jordan of Davis was elected co-chair by the committee, which also includes Mary Blackburn, Emily LaRue, Chris Martinez, Laura Snell, Katherine Soule, Erin Spaniel, Jeff Tibayan and Terri White.
In 2012, ANR embarked on a journey to find out about the status of the working and learning environment across the entire UC system. As soon as the findings came in, ANR put into place an action plan.
This plan included regional workshops across the state to present results to all employees and to offer opportunities for employees to discuss the findings. One of the findings selected for discussion was the prevalence of “exclusionary behavior” experienced by employees. To help address this issue and to create a more welcoming and inclusive work environment, ANR leadership announced that a set of Principles of Community would be developed and used as a tool for education and training. To solicit input from the employees for the principles, 24 breakout sessions were held this year. At the end of each session, volunteers were recruited to form a statewide committee that would use the input from the employees to develop the Principles of Community for ANR.
After reviewing the charge, the Principles of Community Committee broke into groups to identify common themes derived from the 24 work environment breakout sessions held earlier this year.
The committee found that many ANR staff members viewed communication, perspectives, commonalities, age and generational differences to be both challenges and benefits for a diverse workforce. Respect, trust, accountability, shared vision, integrity, and partnerships were common values necessary to make a community and are characteristics needed to sustain a welcoming and inclusive ANR workplace environment. The committee also learned how ANR employees voiced their opinions on specific rights and responsibilities within the community such as communication, respect, a safe place, training, tools and work ethic, to name a few.
With the help from Emily LaRue, the committee's scribe, our team is on track to make history. We anticipate delivering a first draft of the principles and implementation plan by the end of the 2015 calendar year with a final draft due to ANR leadership in February 2016.
The committee plans to meet by conference call every two weeks. Feel free to contact any committee member with suggestions to share with the group because we want to capture the voices of ANR employees as we work to foster a more welcoming and inclusive work environment. Before we begin developing an implementation strategy, there will also be an opportunity for UC ANR members to provide comment and feedback.
The Principles of Community Committee wants you to know that we have heard what you have said and plan to develop a set of principles to help minimize the exclusionary behaviors staff has experienced in the past and move all to a positive working environment.
Author: Erin Spaniel (Thompson)
On behalf of the Work Environment Assessment Committee, we want to thank all who volunteered to be part of statewide committees to create an ANR Staff Assembly and to develop UC ANR Principles of Community. Response throughout the six regional workshops was tremendous and we appreciate your enthusiasm.
From the list of nearly 50 volunteers, committee rosters were developed that balance people from different areas of the state and different job responsibilities in order to provide a diverse representation of UC ANR. For those not selected, we sincerely appreciate your willingness to serve and to be part of these committees.
Here are the committee members:
|
UC ANR Staff Assembly |
UC ANR Principles of Community |
|
Matt Baur Andrew Besson Janelle Hansen Tammy Majcherek Lori Renstrom Nikolai Schweitzer Jeannette Warnert
|
Mary Blackburn Tina Jordan Emily LaRue Chris Martinez Laura Snell Katherine Soule Erin Thompson Jeff Tibayan Liz Villalobos Terri White |
The Staff Assembly will be a mechanism through which non-academic staff will be able to voice their issues, concerns and suggestions. The committee will meet throughout the fall and then provide a report to UC ANR Senior Leadership in February 2016.
The Principles of Community Committee will also work throughout the fall, taking the input from all of the Work Environment Assessment Workshops. The committee will work together to develop a draft set of Principles of Community for UC ANR by February 2016.
Both committees will reach out for feedback and will provide updates on a regular basis.
Thank you again to our volunteers who stepped up to create the first UC ANR Staff Assembly and to develop our own UC ANR Principles of Community.
Sincerely,
Jan Corlett, chief of staff to the vice president
Linda Marie Manton, executive director for ANR Staff Personnel
