Dialog, UA Faculty and Staff News

HRD Training

Building Community
Communication
Computer Courses
Continuous Quality Improvement
Diversity
Performance Management and Development
Personal Growth and Development
Personal Safety
Policy and Procedures
Professional Development Series
Job Openings
New Employee Orientation

Faculty Senate Update -- Faculty Senate Rejects VIVA Health Plan

News from RSA: Two Items Mailed to Members and Counseling Dates Scheduled

Building Community -- Human Relations for the 21st Century.

Human Relations for the 21st Century is designed to develop human relations skills, heighten awareness of others and foster a sense of community throughout the UA campus. Workshops that bear the Building Community logo are available to UA employees.

Sexual Harassment Awareness and Prevention -- HRD Team, date TBA. HRD encourages employees to look at the on-line opportunity for training in this topic: www.newmedialearning.com/psh/ua/.

Communication

Advanced Connections -- Moving Quality Service Beyond the Basics -- HRD Team, call to schedule a workshop
Business Communications for Today -- HRD Team, Sept. 30, 2-4 p.m.
Customer Service and The University of Alabama -- HRD Team, Oct. 3, 8:30-10 a.m.

Computer Courses

E-Course -- Oct. 8-10, 1:30-4:45 p.m.
Word for E-Course -- Oct. 8-10, 1:30-4:45 p.m.
Intermediate Word -- Sept. 30-Oct. 1, 8 a.m.-noon

Continuous Quality Improvement

CQI Leadership Seminar Series. CQI workshops are part of the Leadership Seminar Series designed for people in academic and administrative organizations, such as deans, department chairs, directors, managers, assistant and associate directors and faculty who lead projects, or plan on moving into leadership roles. All workshops will be facilitated by John Dew, director for Continuous Quality Improvement. Contact the CQI Office at 348-9831 to schedule workshops, which are designed for 2-4 hours.

Diversity

The Diversity HRD presentations are part of the "Building Community" program.

The Diversity Experience -- HRD Team, date TBA

Performance Management and Development

Managing performance is the responsibility of managers and supervisors. Careful planning, coaching, and goal setting are key skills that must be developed and utilized in order for supervisors to help staff reach their full potential.

Performance Delegation and Follow-Up -- HRD Team, Oct. 6, 1:30-3 p.m.

Personal Growth and Development

Training and development opportunities are available through UA's Employee Assistance Program.

Personal Safety

Right to Know -- Janie Fowler, Health and Safety, Oct. 7, 1 p.m.

Policy and Procedures

Conducting Effective and Legal Interviews -- HRD Team, date: TBA
Effective Affirmative Action Recruiting Strategies -- Shirley Darr, Auxiliary Services, date TBA
Personnel Action Procedures -- Patty Kelly, Human Resources, date TBA

Professional Development Series

Effective Communication Techniques and Skills -- HRD Team, Oct. 9, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Job Openings

The University of Alabama is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. For the latest job updates, call the UA job line at 348-7780. For a full line listing of available positions, visit http://hr.ua.edu/employment/empl_oppor.shtml. Remember that office, technical, clerical, maintenance and service positions stay on the Job Line only five days. Faculty positions are listed under the appropriate college or school.

New Employee Orientation

New Employee Orientation introduces all new UA employees to campus life and provides them and employees with a status change (regular, part-time or temporary) an opportunity for benefits advisement and enrollment. New employees and employees with status change must pre-register and attend a New Employee Orientation session within the first 30 days of employment to be eligible for health insurance. Sessions are offered every Monday.

Three ways to register and to check out training material:

Call 348-7125
Fax to 348-2072
E-mail mkarrh@fan.ua.edu

Human Resources Development training sessions will be conducted at G54 Rose Administration building unless otherwise stated. Persons with special needs should contact Margie Karrh.

The Training Resource Center (TRC) offers videos for a staff development "lunch and learn" program. The TRC accommodates six to eight people.

Faculty Senate Update -- Faculty Senate Rejects VIVA Health Plan

Citing several reasons for its decision, UA's Faculty Senate solidly rejected a proposed option to UA's Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Alabama health care plan at its meeting on Sept. 16. The rejection of VIVA as a health insurance option was expressed in the form of a resolution.

The resolution notes that any changes to benefits must be made during UA's annual open enrollment period, which is scheduled for November, and does not give enough time to consider all the information, especially information regarding possible negative aspects of the VIVA plan and adverse consequences to UA's current plan. It also argues for following normal committee processes, which would influence bids for optional plans and for normal faculty and staff governance in health care plan changes and implementation. Finally, the resolution expresses skepticism about VIVA being 99 percent owned by The University of Alabama Board of Trustees.

The resolution resolves that the Senate "expresses its strong support of the resolution passed by the UA Faculty and Staff Benefits Committee, with no dissent heard, which recommends against the addition of the proposed VIVA plan to our health care benefits program at this time, but recommends to the administration of The University of Alabama that the Faculty and Staff Benefits Advisory Committee investigate VIVA and other possible options through its normal yearlong process."

For questions regarding this issue, contact Frannie James, chair of the Faculty and Staff Benefits Advisory Committee, at 348-7997 or John Mason, president of the Faculty Senate, at 348-2904. Mason also referred those interested in comparative ratings to consult the current issue of Consumer Reports, which looks at HMOs and PPOs (including Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Alabama) and rates BCBS of AL number one in a list of PPOs.

UA Health Fair Coming Oct. 8

UA's 8th annual Employee Health Fair will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 8, at Coleman Coliseum in the concourse area from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. UA employees and retirees must show their ACT cards to gain entry and receive free health tests and services that day. No one under age 18 will be allowed into the health fair. (See the Sept. 15 issue of Dialog for a complete run down of vendors and offerings this year, prizes, and information on Coaches Corner).

To receive accurate test results, employees and retirees should fast at least 12 hours before the health fair and wear short sleeve shirts or blouses to help in the testing process. All health fair participants will be given a red health fair checklist card to track their health tests. At the bottom of the checklist card will be a section to fill in an employee or retiree's name, department or address and telephone number to register for a door prize by placing that information into a raffle barrel at the fair. The health fair checklist will also have coupons to receive free refreshments and food samples provided at the fair.

Direct any questions about the UA Employee Health Fair to John Kasberg in Risk Management at 348-8874 or jkasberg@bama.ua.edu. More details are also available on the Web at http://hr.ua.edu/riskmgmt/health_fair.htm.

News from RSA: Two Items Mailed to Members and Counseling Dates Scheduled

All UA faculty and staff are members of the Retirement Systems of Alabama and, as such, should have received two important items recently: the annual retirement statement and the TRS Member Handbook. The postcard-sized, multi-paged retirement statement shows the accumulation of contributions the member has made to his/her retirement fund, years of service which is the basis for retirement income, and the approximate income at retirement based on the average final salary and years of service. It also shows any purchases of years made to the fund and the beneficiary. Questions can be made to RSA at 1-800-214-2158. The Handbook is a new tool for staying informed about the RSA. It contains all phone numbers, Web site, e-mail addresses, definitions and types of creditable service and much more.

RSA's member counseling sessions for 2003-2004 have been scheduled. These 20-minute sessions much be made through the RSA office in Montgomery, and the schedule is available on the Web site at www.rsa.state.al.us. The 2003 sessions will be held Nov. 5-6 at the Tuscaloosa County Board of Education building in Tuscaloosa. The deadline for registering is Oct. 31. For information, contact UA's benefits office at 348-7732.