UHD’s Employment Services and Operations (ESO) was awarded the prestigious HR Houston Impact Award for HR Service Technology on May 13, 2008.

Created to raise awareness of excellence in human resource programs and practices in the Greater Houston area, HR Houston’s IMPACT Award recognizes HR workgroups that have created significant business value (impact) for their organizations.

HR Houston is a non-profit professional organization dedicated to the advancement of human resource management. As an affiliate of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), HR Houston is one of the largest SHRM chapters in the nation. SHRM is the world’s largest professional association devoted to human resource management and represents more than 225,000 individual members in over 125 countries.

There are seven categories for which an award may be received. These are:

1. Communications Integrity
2. Diversity Excellence
3. HR Service Technology
4. Flexible Workplace
5. Recruiting and Retention
6. Small Business - 2008 New Category
7. Total Rewards and Accountability

In the Service Technology category UHD competed against major companies such as AIG Retirement Services, CenterPoint Energy and the City of Sugar Land. The ambitious technology overhaul, spearheaded by Vice President for Employment Services and Operations, Ivonne Montalbano, PHR, was accomplished over a two-year period. The project included:

1. Conversion of personnel files to electronic documents. Managing personnel records is now much simpler. HR staff has access to personnel records for both active and inactive employees 24/7. It is also more economical as storage and retrieval fees for records stored at off-campus facilities have disappeared. Also, it has freed valuable office space previously occupied by numerous filing cabinets.
2. Automating the performance management process. With the implementation of the eAppraisal system, ESO now offers a fully-automated, interactive, and web-based performance management system. Employees and managers have access year round to appraisals, established goals and objectives, as well as performance journals in which to keep notes for future appraisals. Since implementation, the participation rate has reached 100%.
3. Implementation of PASS (People Advantage Self Service). PASS has enabled users to manage their personal information online, such as updating address and contact information, and viewing/printing check stubs and W-2s. Employees may also initiate more complicated procedures, such as name, marital status, and education level updates.
4. Development of an online employee directory, populated daily using extractions from the HRMS system. These daily feeds increase the accuracy of data in the employee directory and eliminate the need of duplicating efforts.
5. Enhancing communications efforts through two initiatives:

   • Complete redesign and enhancement of the ESO website. Customized pages were developed for each ESO functional area - Employment, Payroll, Benefits, Compensation and Performance Management, Campus Relations and Training - where up-to-date useful information is organized and maintained. Useful links were also added.
   • Development of a quarterly electronic newsletter. This newsletter is emailed quarterly to the University community and also uploaded to the ESO website for easy retrieval.

So far, the outcome of these initiatives has been very positive. These projects have improved services to employees and managers; provided access to reliable quantitative data for strategic planning; reduced costs; and increased the accuracy and integrity of all HR-related transactions.

It is important to note that in the four years since the inception of the HR Houston Impact Award, this is the first time that an institution of higher education has received this honor.

.