By MARTY LEVINE
James Gallaher, head of Human Resources, told Staff Council’s Sept. 20 meeting that the department has done further work toward improving the response time to departmental inquiries.
Having recently finished using a consultant to help the department better understand its challenges, he said, the consultant’s report “will help us to figure out how to make this a more manageable workload.”
HR’s Shared Services department, Gallaher said, handles responses to employee questions but also helps to process staff hiring and aids in responding when a hiring request has been pending for too long, for instance. “We’re still sorting out,” he said, “should all those questions be taken by Shared Services?”
Staff Council also welcomed 25 new members, which the group’s president, Lindsay Rodzwicz, told Senate Council was the largest number of new members in recent memory “taking our volunteer total to over 120 members.” The new members are:
- Jason Adams (Department of Pathology, School of Medicine)
- Gregory Allen (Advising Center, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences)
- Kristin Amos-Abanyie (School of Public Health)
- Matthew Bocchi (Philanthropic and Alumni Engagement)
- Gwen Buchanan
- Karen Butler (Student Affairs)
- Casey Clipper (School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences)
- Jennifer Cooper (Student Success Team, Office of the Provost)
- Zachary Davis (Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion)
- Kathryn Ferguson (School of Computing and Information)
- Shannon Fink (Center for Creativity)
- Sarah Fischer (Disability Specialist, Department of Disability Resources and Services)
- Janae Gans (Faculty Operations Manager, Dean's Office, Pitt Business)
- Marcie Johnson (Office of the Dean, School of Public Health)
- Andrew Lang (Planning Design and Construction, Capital Projects)
- Helen Kondrich (Purchasing coordinator, School of Dental Medicine)
- Dacia Mace (Department of Medicine)
- Sarah McMullen (Philanthropic and Alumni Engagement, Advancement Operations)
- Emily Nally (Assistant Athletic Director, Major Gifts)
- Anna Reinhard (Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine)
- Kelsi Schaer (Athletics)
- Shannon Suchta (Program Coordinator, Interdisciplinary Team, Linguistic, Dietrich School)
- Karoline Swiontek (School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences)
- Lindsey Smith (Residence Life)
- Stacey Williard (Office of the Dean, Dietrich School)
The group is already thinking summer — next summer. The 2024 Pitt Day at Kennywood was announced for June 22.
The next monthly meeting of Staff Council will be Oct. 18.
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
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