2022 VCA Annual Report - People & 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 FY21 Operating Results & FY22 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

  • Compensation

  • Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

  • Employee and Labor Relations

  • People & Organization Development

  • Performance Management

  • Talent Acquisition

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

Support during COVID

Berkeley’s COVID response continues to require extensive support from People & Culture to ensure employees are well-informed and engaged throughout this pandemic. The 2020 transition to a remote workforce required careful consideration of processes and policies that guide human resources. Moreover, supporting the health and safety of workers whose jobs required that they remain on campus has been equally challenging. The goal is to continue that support as the campus works together to build a strong workforce that will help the university to continue to succeed in this new world, shaped by COVID, racial equity and justice, and many other opportunities.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

People & Culture’s new department of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging has made great strides in building programs and initiatives that support these important campus values. The Talent Acquisition team continues their successful work sourcing and hiring new members to the campus community, even as the world experiences low candidate pools. The People & Organization Development team continues to enhance the GROW portfolio, providing a wide range of training, development, and consulting opportunities for all members of the campus community. This year, People & Culture evaluated the impact of this team since transitioning to the GROW model in 2018 and were thrilled by the results (read more here).

Image of Berkeley students around a fountain

Image credit: Steve McDonnell

Achieve Together

The change work People & Culture started years ago continues with the launch of the new performance program, Achieve Together. These efforts were rewarded by an 8% positive increase in Performance Management indicated on the systemwide Willis-Towers-Watson staff engagement survey. In fact, the 2021 survey results were truly glowing, showing the impact of many initiatives designed and led by People & Culture, showing marked positive improvements from 2019 in the areas of Career Development (up 9%), Diversity & Inclusion (up 5%), Communication (up 12%), Leadership (up 7%), Organizational Change & Innovation (up 12%), Supervision (up 8%), Sustainable Engagement (up 7%), Wellness (up 9%) and Working Relationships (up 7%).

Image of career counselor

Career counseling.

Supporting Berkeley's Staff

During FY21, People & Culture re-launched the sponsored tuition program, a partnership between People & Culture and University Extension, allowing staff the opportunity to participate in UC Berkeley Extension courses at little or no cost (as People & Culture covers course tuition). Since its incorporation into the GROW portfolio, this program has enabled 2,612 course enrollments in the life - and career-changing offerings from the University Extension team (figure inclusive of enrollments in January 2018 - October, 2021). 

People & Culture has introduced regular employee engagement surveys and continues to administer those to maintain positive trends tracked in FY21. People & Culture is also aiming to increase participation in learning and community events, both virtually and on campus when staff begins to return en masse.

FY21 Operating Results & FY22 Budget

People and Culture