Staff Development Program: A chance to step forward

By David J. Crockett
Past President, Clemson University Staff Senate
Member, ad hoc Committee on Staff Development
Chair, Staff Ombudsman Evaluation Committee

Clemson soon will launch a self-directed, incentive-based, peer-reviewed pilot program to further engage staff in Clemson’s Institutional Roadmap for Success. The “Staff Development Program” (SDP) will provide eligible participants the opportunity to earn permanent salary increases.

Despite the severe budget crisis of the 2008-09 fiscal year, Clemson has allocated funding for this pilot program, and now it is time for committed staff members to step forward.

This is the real deal, folks. For those staff members completing a self-developed 150-hour program of activities over the course of a year, the SDP offers a ten percent base salary increase – not a one-time bonus – up to a maximum of $4,000 for those below the top of their salary band. These development plans — a combination of professional, personal and university activities — will be worked out in advance by the participants and their supervisor.

The SDP pilot group will be an intentionally small and competitive pool of no more than 25 participants to permit an extensive evaluation of the concept before Clemson commits to continue it. To limit the initial pool size, pilot-year selection will take into account a variety of factors:

• Total years of state service
• Total years in current position
• EPMS ratings
• Formal disciplinary actions
• Performance-based pay raise history

Should the program move out of the pilot stage, the selection matrix will be adjusted in succeeding years to reflect available funding and anticipated staff enrollments into the program.

The SDP pilot didn’t just happen overnight. It grows out of the work of an ad hoc committee assembled by the Staff Senate in the early spring of 2007. The committee, with representation from the Staff Senate, Faculty Senate, the Commission on Black Faculty and Staff Affairs, the Women’s Commission, University Human Resources and University Libraries, was tasked with developing an employee-driven framework to encourage and reward classified and unclassified non-faculty staff performance and professional development.

Where a formal mechanism has existed to reward excellence among faculty for more than five years — the original “Academic Roadmap” — no such mechanism has existed for staff. Staff are reviewed annually under the state-mandated Employee Performance Management System (EPMS) but EPMS is essentially an employer-driven approach to monitoring and directing staff activity. It has no intrinsic reward structure built into it.  EPMS also is not designed to foster professional, much less personal development or engagement in the broader spectrum of activities that mark a well-rounded, productive workforce. The SDP seeks to create such a mechanism.

The SDP is built around a two-tier committee structure. A central steering committee of as many as a dozen staff members representing the constituencies initially targeted by the ad hoc committee will direct activities of as many as six operational committees of three to five members each. The operational committees will be the peer-review mechanism, with each peer review committee chaired by a member of the steering committee. 

This interrelationship and the use of a centralized funding model for salary adjustments will ensure program consistency and availability across campus. While peer review committees will be populated with nominal ‘peers’ of employees participating in the program, every effort will be made to seek out ‘peers’ from various units throughout campus. Such diversity will isolate the peer review committees from any appearance (or reality) of influence or divisional politics from outside. Additionally, no steering or peer review committee member will be eligible to participate in the program for the duration of his or her term of service.

While loosely based on the successes of the two-year-old “Career Success Program” in the Clemson’s University Libraries, the SDP is unique among both Clemson’s peers in the state and in the U.S.News&World Report “Top Thirty Public Colleges and Universities.”

Application packets for individuals wishing to be considered as peer reviewers are available online or may be requested by e-mail (sdp-L@clemson.edu) or telephone, 656-4522. 

The SDP will begin accepting applications from prospective program participants for initial blind review in February 2010. The pilot program is open to all staff across the university who are willing to step forward to be considered. 

Opportunity is knocking. Who will answer?