2023 VCA Annual Report - People and Culture

People & Culture supports and engages employees with the Chancellor’s top priorities and campus strategic plan by bringing clarity and efficiency to human resources processes and structures. They help to create a workplace where people are valued and respected for who they are and have equitable opportunities to both succeed and advance. Their FY22 Operating Results & FY23 Budget can be found here.

The department also develops and supports opportunities that create deeper engagement, higher trust, and better performance, all furthering the building of community at UC Berkeley. The key areas of People & Culture include:

  • Benefits

  • Central Services

  • Compensation

  • Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

  • Employee and Labor Relations

  • People & Organization Development

  • Performance Management

  • Talent Acquisition

  • UC Path Campus Operations

People & Culture is under the leadership of Eugene Whitlock, Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Resources and Chief People & Culture Officer.

FY22 Accomplishments

By the numbers

  • 4,484 staff participated in 179 People & Culture sponsored in-person (Zoom) courses/conferences/events.

  • 2,183 staff benefited by having a 1:1 Coaching appointment provided by People & Culture staff and programs.

  • 101 leaders received a developmental 360 through People & Culture staff and programs.

  • 480 staff enrollments in UNEX courses through the UC Berkeley Sponsored Tuition Program.

  • Rolled out 27 new pages in UCPath to allow for better user support and troubleshooting of issues locally in the areas of payroll and benefits. Piloting new Benefits Billing Report not currently available to campus locations.

  • Despite unseasonably warm temperatures over 1,200 people attended the Berkeley Staff Carnival. This was the first large-scale event for staff appreciation since the pandemic began.

  • Secured a campus unit’s sponsorship of $50,000 to expand DEIB’s Berkeley Equity Training Series (BETS) exclusively for their unit.

More in depth

The Compensation team implemented JDX Job Builder and conducted dozens of JDX training sessions for campus users. The Catastrophic Leave Donation Bank was opened, giving employees the chance to donate and benefit from fellow co-workers generosity with their leave balances.

UCPath took a big step forward as new navigation for transactional users was implemented using the Fluid user interface that will set the stage for all future enhancements in UCPath. The team also developed and rolled out new eLearning courses for Absence Management while collaborating on a brand new Employee Referral program.

The newly transitioned Central Services Team successfully implemented BioMetrics4All to collect fingerprints for employees throughout the US making it easier and more convenient for new employees to begin the Background Check Process and reducing the time to hire. They also implemented mass uploads to UCPath for staff and student new hires from Smartsheets allowing for faster processing of these employees and increases data quality within UCPath.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) launched a series of onboarding and welcome emails for all non-academic, non-student new employees after 3+ years of work and also launched the Berkeley Career Opportunities and Resources for Equity Program (BCORE).

Image of a man sitting on an orange chair and working on a laptop
Image of students on campus

Image credit: Adam Lau, Berkeley Engineering .

FY23 Goals

1)

In the coming year People & Culture will relaunch the in-person UC Berkeley Women’s Initiative, a professional development companion program to the systemwide initiative, to enhance the success and advancement of woman-identified professionals, and all employees who support and are committed to this mission, on our campus. We will also expand the Next Opportunity at Work (NOW) Conference to include virtual pre- and post-conference activities to support a full in-person conference day while expanding the reach of the program by inviting all campus, lab, and med centers to participate.

2)

The UC Experience Conversations Program will be launched; a guide for managers and staff to successfully have “stay conversations,” continuing to enhance the coaching culture on our campus. Another hugely important program to us, the UC Berkeley arm of the Moving Beyond Bias Program, will be created and launched, including eCourses, consulting help, and self-use resources to enhance the staff experience related to belonging and inclusion on our campus. The Employee and Labor Relations team will implement a new performance management system, including a full set of updated templates, and a handbook of written processes that includes roles and responsibilities and flow charts.

3)

The Berkeley UCPath unit will execute on the UCPath Roadmap initiatives for Salary Cost Transfer Redesign, Lived Name, Enhance PayPath, and New Hire Pilot while updating all local training materials, microlearnings and job aids with the new navigation, lived name, and salary cost transfer changes. The DEIB team will complete a campus equity dashboard, increase participation of spring BCORE cohort by 20% and fully expect at least 2,000 people to attend the large-scale event for this summer’s staff appreciation event.

FY22 Operating Results & FY23 Budget

People and Culture