Staff Council working on employee retention with HR; praises third personal day

By MARTY LEVINE

Among the proposals Staff Council expressed support for at its July 20 meeting is the third personal day for full-time staff (or third half-day for part-time staff) now allowed annually, as announced by Human Resources on July 7, and the University’s working group studying the possibility of creating an ombudsman at the University. An ombudsman is a neutral party able to investigate complaints by employees against administration actions. 

Staff Council members involved with the University’s employee retention committee — staffed mainly by Human Resources personnel — said committee members are gathering concerns and ideas to help keep employees at Pitt. HR head James Gallaher said at the Staff Council meeting, “I am anxiously awaiting what you all produce so we can move forward.”

Staff Council’s second Spotlight presentation on compensation modernization set for 3 p.m. July 27 — originally advertised as identical to the first such presentation earlier this month — has been updated to include answers to questions generated by the first presentation. Gallaher and other Pitt officials will be the speakers. Register here for this second session.

The following month’s Spotlight presentation will take place at noon Aug. 23, and will feature the Office of Sustainability talking about the Pitt Climate Action Plan.

There will be no August meeting of Staff Council. Instead, the group will hold its annual orientation for new members. Thus far, the organization has 10 new members for this year, although the group’s administrator, Lola Suvak, said it recently received several more applications that are in process.

Suvak also noted that Pitt faculty and staff are eligible for discounted football and basketball full season tickets, cutting 25 percent from the cost for each sport. Contact the Panthers ticket office at 800-643-7488 to take advantage of this discount.

Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.

 

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