The workforce issues across the country are greater than ever, and investment in our people and in recruiting, developing, and retaining our faculty and staff are a priority. In order to maintain a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining faculty and staff, we need to invest in more programs and services to support and develop our employees. As noted in the final report from Segal, HR has not only been under-funded for quite some time, but it’s been a deeply defunded department as well, operating with very limited resources. In addition, there are various initiatives going on around the university, HR is just one of them.

Lessons learned from the pandemic helped employers better understand and recognize the changing needs of the workforce and workplace. The HR Now initiative will better prepare us to meet those needs.

It is important to note that the intent of the HR Now effort is not to cut costs. Rather, HR Now is expected to save time with its efficiency and streamlined processes, as well as easier and more timely access to HR service and support for all faculty and staff. Consolidating our processes leads to cost savings over time. In essence, it is expected to pay for itself over the next few years.

Consultants typically have deep knowledge and expertise in best practices and provide an effective methodology and facilitation throughout all phases. Segal, specifically, has extensive experience working with higher education institutions. Several members of the team assigned to this project held faculty and staff roles inside major public research universities, so they understand higher education practices and culture. Another benefit is having Segal serve as an objective partner in this process. As noted in the final report from Segal, HR has not only been under-funded for quite some time, but it’s been a deeply defunded department as well, operating with very limited resources. With the investment in HR operations, HR service delivery throughout the campus will be better resourced to address the changing needs of the workforce. 

The assessment provided a comprehensive analysis of strengths and opportunities in HR support relative to best practices and the needs of Stony Brook and its workforce. The first phase of work also provided a detailed set of recommendations for addressing the findings, and a road map for designing new solutions, structures, programs and services.

While Stony Brook features many best practices in HR, our resources supporting HR across the campus are uneven, and our decentralized HR structure results in inconsistent levels of support and services for our leaders, faculty, and staff across the university. Dated systems and complex, manual HR processes also prevent us from consistently delivering an efficient and seamless HR experience. We also know that in order to maintain a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining faculty and staff, we need to invest in more programs and services to support and develop our employees. HR Now is focused on these areas to ensure an outstanding HR experience across the university.

Yes, there are exciting changes happening in Central HR including new services and programs being developed. We are making great progress, and would like to share some key updates:

• Several new and expanded services in Central HR have been developed, including resources for training, career development, and expanded recruiting and employee engagement services to help build and sustain a great employee experience.

• Many core HR processes have been streamlined and redesigned, and this work will continue for the next couple of months.

• We are investing in new and expanded HR technology solutions that will provide easier and faster access to HR services and information along with modern tools to enhance the customer experience.

• The HR Now Steering Committee, made up of campus leaders, faculty, and staff, has been hard at work since June to develop new approaches that will address the inconsistency and gaps with decentralized HR support across the campus.

We will continue to provide regular updates as well as ensure training and support resources are made available when the time comes. The HR NOW Communications team will keep you informed of the progress made along the way so keep an eye out for email updates and changes to the HR Now website. 

Eliminating administrative redundancies like multiple levels of similar approvals, standardizing repetitive processes and eliminating processes that add minimal value are just a few of the ways we will expedite and improve the hiring process. The goal is to meet hiring needs as quickly as possible while enhancing department and candidate experience. 

Yes, eventually. For example, SOLAR, Stony Brook University's enterprise-wide, self-service system which provides faculty, staff, and students with online access to manage personal information, will soon be updated with a new interface.

There will be training and support resources made available when the time comes. The HR NOW Communications team will keep you informed of the progress made along the way so keep an eye out for email updates and changes to the HR Now website.

As HR does currently, we place great importance on our unions and will continue to strengthen those partnerships by meeting from time to time with union leaders to provide updates. 

We are in Phase 3. For a detailed look at Phase 3, visit the Implementation Phase.

We are making great progress, and would like to share some key updates:

• Several new and expanded services in Central HR have been developed, including resources for training, career development, and expanded recruiting and employee engagement services to help build and sustain a great employee experience.

• Many core HR processes have been streamlined and redesigned, and this work will continue for the next couple of months.

• We are investing in new and expanded HR technology solutions that will provide easier and faster access to HR services and information along with modern tools to enhance the customer experience.

• The HR Now Steering Committee, made up of campus leaders, faculty, and staff, has been hard at work since June to develop new approaches that will address the inconsistency and gaps with decentralized HR support across the campus.

You can continue to Contact Us as you normally would. For questions specifically related to this HR Now initiative, feel free to email hrnow@stonybrook.edu.

The members of the HR Now Steering Committee can be found on our About HR Now page.

As part of the HR Now initiative, committee members have put many hours into reviewing our current processes and providing recommendations for our HR processes, these recommendations will be a part of an overall implementation plan with process improvements established for departments and Central HR. These improvements will be our first step towards streamlining processes and eliminating waste to improve our post to hire timeline.

Central HR has added an employee engagement unit to its office, the purpose of this unit will be to work with departments and managers/supervisors on ways to encourage teamwork and collaboration as well as the best practices to express appreciation in a manner that is meaningful and continual.

This question is for East Campus HR, the HR Now initiative is for West Campus HR. However, all searches on East Campus are posted in Taleo, even when partnering with a search firm. For West Campus, all of our executive level searches, which use a search firm, are not posted within Taleo; however, they are posted on our Executive Jobs page here: https://www.stonybrook.edu/jobs/executive. 

Our new Total Rewards page captures all of the benefits available to you as an employee.

Please see this new webpage HR System Resources.

We are working on a new guide that will list all of our contact information. In the meantime, we have created HR Email Groups for each area of Human Resources so your questions can be promptly addressed by the subject matter experts. 

In addition to mindfulness programs such as the MBSR through EAP or Healthier U, we also recommend the Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART) program from the Clinical Mind Body Research Center.

We understand how important it is for you to have quick and easy access to the information you need, which is why we are creating an HR Toolbox, filled with every resource you may need to better serve your respective areas at Stony Brook. Stay tuned here.

Central HR is reintroducing training and professional development to the West Campus, SOM and HSC. Recruitment is underway for a trainer and procurement efforts are underway for an e-learning platform.

This is something that our Culture & Organizational Development team will look at with management as it relates to professional development.

As part of the HR Now Initiative, recommendations have been made to move from a traditional recruitment format to talent acquisition. Central HR is preparing to transition to the new model in the coming months.

SUNY and the state are the guiding forces on “work from home” options. As decisions are rolled out, we will work to ensure the message is disseminated properly.

Yes, we are working to provide additional guidance and support specifically tailored to supervisors and Performance Management. Our aim is to offer more comprehensive resources to assist supervisors in their roles.

Please reference pages 4,5 & 6 from this NYSPO document

Yes! We created this “Planning to Retire” page in an effort to offer more robust retirement resources. We also have these retirement feedback surveys to help identify gaps in our content and better respond to the needs and proferences of our employees.

We recently created this Implementation Dashboard as a way for our employees to to have easy access to the changes and where we are in their implementation process.