4P5 Planning for Personnel Changes

Administration uses institutional data and information gathered from fall budget and planning meetings with programs and departments to plan for future personnel needs. Requests for new personnel are submitted to the Vice President of Finance and Operations who includes the request as part of the budget review. The STI Administrative Team then meets to determine which positions will be brought to the STI Council for consideration. The process allows for all positions to receive equal consideration as well as the opportunity to combine or adjust requests prior to final submission. Decisions are based upon the needs of the institute, the current goals and direction of the institute, and available funding. Those positions not moved forward in the budget can be submitted again in following years.

STI also recognizes the need to be prepared for personnel changes that occur due to retirements. To help better prepare for these unexpected job changes, STI administration continually works with faculty and staff to determine what changes may be coming in the near or distant future so that the institute can better meet these challenges. For example, STI is expecting that within the next two to three years, a significant change in faculty, due to retirements, will take place. STI is already preparing for this.

Sudden changes, such as long term illnesses, death, or employee terminations, create additional institutional challenges. To meet these challenges, STI relies on its stakeholders to help the institute.

This has included:

hiring previous employees to fill positions temporarily
reassigning job responsibilities and calling upon current employees to assist in other areas
working with Advisory Committees to find outside resources to provide support
hiring part time assistance through temp agencies

To assist with the orientation of new employees that results from changes in personnel, STI is working to document more of its processes and procedures. This will help STI maintain better consistency in its services and reduce the amount of time required to orientate new employees.