The University of Minnesota seeks an innovative and visionary leader for the position of vice president for human resources and chief human resources officer (CHRO). This is a system-wide leadership position located in Minneapolis. The position has been realigned as a direct report to the President, Joan Gabel, to reflect her personal emphasis on maximizing the impact of the human resources function, both central and distributed, on the University. The CHRO will provide strategic leadership and vision for an institution committed to being an employer-of-choice and renown for fostering a culture that is creative, inclusive, and forward thinking.

In her personal charge to the CHRO Search Committee, President Gabel outlined her priorities for this leader:

"As an active member and voice on the executive leadership team, the new CHRO will be a strategic doer, focused on cultivating and championing the University of Minnesota's greatest asset - its people. As institutional complexity has grown, the need for a C-Suite executive focused on the University's commitment to people is more important than ever. This individual will be deeply dedicated to employee well-being, while valuing this positive investment and its direct ties to the University's central mission. This individual will foster an equitable and inclusive workplace culture with a clear focus on campus climate and a sense of belonging. This commitment to diversity must translate and be implemented statewide, across all aspects of the system.

"As a collaborative partner, this individual will have the diplomatic and operational acumen to move complex, leading institutions towards best practices with a creative mindset, viewing the progress of the University's model as an opportunity. They will leverage the arrival of a new University President and Provost, to create unique opportunities for strategic alliances, so that the full human resources portfolio, from data to incentives to programs and beyond, can be the most innovative across higher education, but in ways that also reflect the University of Minnesota's leading stewardship of resources and cost-effective sensibility.”

The successful candidate will possess personal and professional integrity, strong analytical skills and a commitment to collaboration, innovation, flexibility and creativity. We invite candidates from diverse backgrounds to include those with progressively responsible human resources leadership within higher education, not-for-profit and for-profit industry, consulting, or a combination of all or some of the above.

The successful candidate will possess a solid record as a collaborative leader and ability to guide staff through institutional change. The CHRO will lead by example, with a natural orientation to mission and service. The incumbent will have a strong understanding of the academic mission and context, operate with a “people” orientation, and possess exceptional communication and leadership skills.

The University of Minnesota’s central Office of Human Resources (OHR) includes 116 staff members who serve the University’s 27,000+ employees, 850 distinct job titles and five Minnesota campuses. Its mission is to work as a strategic partner to provide the workforce and organizational capabilities that drive excellence at the University. Its vision is to create a diverse workplace of the future where people are engaged, connected, thriving and achieving. The 116 employees within OHR spread across the units as follows:

• Administration – 10 • Talent Acquisition – 9
• Leadership and Talent Development – 17 • Operations – 52
• Employee Relations – 8 • Total Compensation – 20

In addition to the OHR, the University Human Resource function includes a team of over 66 HR professionals serving the University of Minnesota Health Sciences (one of the largest, most comprehensive academic health centers in the nation) and 81 embedded HR professionals supporting each of the colleges and administrative support units on the Twin Cities campus. Additionally, there is one HR professional on the Crookston campus, six on the Duluth campus, two on the Morris campus and two on the Rochester campus. The annual budget for the central OHR is $19.2 million and the current Human Resources Management System is PeopleSoft 9.2.

The OHR serves as the first point of contact for potential employees of the University and closely collaborates with unit-based HR staff regarding HR and organizational effectiveness issues such as benefits services, classification and compensation, employee and organizational development, employee relations, policy and practice overview, employee recognition, recruitment and workforce planning and work-life programs.

The University of Minnesota is considered to have one of the strongest and most active shared governance systems among large research universities. Faculty, students and staff system-wide participate in University Senate governance. Shared governance provides an opportunity for the diverse voices of the University community to participate in discussions and weigh in on many of the key issues facing the University, including human resource policies and procedures.

University Senate governance at the University of Minnesota is steeped in rich tradition dating back to 1912 with faculty engagement and continuing to today with the University Senate now having four senates: the Faculty Senate, the Student Senate, the P&A Senate and the Civil Service Senate. There is great pride in the fact the University of Minnesota is one of the only Big 10 institutions to include civil service and professional and academic (P&A) staff in its University Senate governance system.

The large number of people involved across the University system in shared governance (251 elected senators and 26 Senate Consultative Committee members representing 4,720 faculty,  6,775 P&A and 3,969 Civil Service) demonstrates broad engagement by the University community, and contributes to a collaborative and consultative relationship with both the administration and the Board of Regents.

Within the University of Minnesota system, there are the following 10 labor unions:

• Law Enforcement  Law Enforcement Labor Services - 63 employees
• Crafts and Trades  Minnesota Building and Construction Trades - 254 employees
• Service, Maintenance, and Labor - Teamsters Local 320 - 1,430 employees
• Health care, non-professionals - AFSCME Local 3260 - 198 employees
• Clerical and Office - AFSCME Locals 3800 & 3801 - 1,364 employees
• Technical - AFSCME Locals 3937 & 3801 - 648 employees
• Faculty Outstate Instructional UMD/UMC Faculty - University Education Association (UEA) - 555 employees
• Bindery – District Council No. 1, Graphic Communications Conference, IBT, Local 1B - 6 employees
• Lithographers – Graphics Communications Conference, IBT, Local 1M - 6 employees
• Radio & TV Broadcast Technicians – International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 292 - 2 employees

Role of the Chief Human Resources Officer

As a member of the president's Senior Leadership Team (SLT), the CHRO will partner with the University’s senior leaders to drive human resource initiatives that support the overall mission and strategic direction of the University, while ensuring all programs and services are communicated and effectively deployed from a comprehensive, employee-centric strategic and operational approach. The CHRO will serve as a senior-level advisor to the president, as well as the senior vice president for finance and operations and other cabinet members, providing strategic and operational guidance on all issues regarding human resources. This senior leader will be seasoned and savvy, and will be capable of serving in a counselor role to the University of Minnesota President and the president's SLT. Possessing a strong maturity level, this individual will be viewed as a “trusted advisor.”

They will need to be bold in approach, able to seize new opportunities and lead in culture development, enhanced human resources services and help to create lasting change in how top talent is recruited, retained and engaged in the mission. They will be a strategic thinker and actor who knows how to lead human resources, what kind of people they want to hire, and how to gain their organization's competitive edge through strategic talent acquisition and retention strategy. This individual will listen and learn, lead with a clear direction, set strategy, work collaboratively with others, believe in their own skills and negotiate differing viewpoints effectively.

The CHRO will be the principal steward for the University's human capital and will provide strategic leadership to an engaged, high-performing workforce. They will provide leadership and system-wide coordination for the University's HR philosophy, strategies and programs in order to advance the human potential to best serve their students and faculty and support the needs of the employee population. The CHRO will provide strategic leadership and service to ensure the University of Minnesota is the employer-of-choice in higher education. They will establish and promote a human resources vision and strategy that attracts, develops and supports the talent needed to advance the University’s mission.

The CHRO will partner with academic leaders at the campus, collegiate and provostal levels to strategically promote leadership and talent development, advance faculty diversity and provide support for academic units and personnel.

This person will be able to build high-performing teams and ensure the successful development of staff at all levels of the University. The CHRO will champion an organizational commitment to diversity and inclusion, serve as an advocate for all staff and partner with local and community leaders and resources to ensure programs are effectively executed. This leader will also possess experience leading human resources staff and programs in large, highly-complex and multidisciplinary enterprises.

Duties and Responsibilities

The CHRO has the following responsibilities:

• Serves as a key member of the SLT to drive University strategies and objectives, and to determine the role and contribution of the human resources function in overall strategy achievement and mission advancement for the University;

• Supports the University of Minnesota in the planning and management of total Human Resource personnel and budget;

• Supports and directs an organizational culture change process to assure principles and philosophy alignment toward the achievement of institution-wide strategy and goals. Manages transition processes associated with change initiatives;

• Guides the HR leadership team by establishing a vision and strategic priorities for the Office of Human Resources that are based in service, partnership, curiosity, innovation and flexibility, add value, contribute to the achievement of University strategies and position the workforce for the future;

• Establishes accountability for achieving measurable results by leveraging the use of data and analytics to evaluate and advance university-wide human resource (programs and practices) contributions;

• Ensures HR practices, programs and processes are results-focused, effective and efficient and drive organizational and individual performance;

• Directs university-wide workforce strategy development to ensure the University has acquired and is developing and retaining the human capital it needs to deliver on its mission;

• Promotes effective employee services, initiatives and programs that nurture an inclusive and equitable learning and working environment;

• Values diversity, equity and inclusion and builds a culture of respect and engagement;

• Consistently engages with OHR personnel to provide coaching, talent management, performance evaluations and work plans, information and recognition;

• Leads the executive resource planning process for the University, which includes the development and succession of leadership;

• Engages with the University of Minnesota shared governance process that assures effective accountability and integration of human resource policy and programs;

• Grows the educational, professional and operational skills and competencies of the people within the OHR to enhance their abilities to partner with leaders, deliver results and provide outstanding service to frontline employee and campus partners;

• Responsible for setting performance expectations, providing coaching and feedback, establishing development plans and making salary decisions for all direct reports in the OHR; and

• Develops and manages the design, staffing and budget requirements for the university-wide HR function ensuring optimal department performance, productivity, responsiveness, service to customers and cost structure.
 
Opportunities and Expectations for Leadership

Beyond the day-to-day leadership of the human resources function within a complex university, the Chief Human Resources Officer will be asked to address several priority areas, including:

Unify the University of Minnesota’s human resources function under a shared vision and develop a common mission and strategy to achieve this vision.

The University of Minnesota has made significant investments in its human resources infrastructure of people, processes and technologies. These resources are deployed both centrally (under the OHR) and within numerous academic and administrative units. Currently, these are managed in a matrix fashion, with the unit heads reporting directly to their academic/administrative leaders and a dotted-line to OHR. While this arrangement is consistent with the University of Minnesota’s long-standing practice of a highly decentralized organization, there is a concern that it does not fully optimize the impact of the collective power and expertise of HR and does not fully align all HR staff under common priorities and practices. The new CHRO will be expected to evaluate the current structure with the goal of more effectively unifying the HR staff (central and units) through building a common culture and more consistent and efficient approaches.

While recognizing the differences in the HR needs and clients across the University system, the CHRO will work to reduce the possibility of duplications and inconsistencies in practices, policies and resources. To accomplish this, the CHRO should work closely with central and unit colleagues to demonstrate the benefits of a more coordinated and logical approach to the structure and deployment of HR resources. These efforts will be deemed as successful if the new CHRO is ultimately recognized on their merits as the acknowledged leader of all University human resources – not just the central Office of Human Resources.

Ensure the University of Minnesota’s HR practices are fully aligned to enable the recruitment and retention of world-class faculty and staff.

Talent is the University’s most valuable resource, and all current HR professionals, policies and practices should be focused on this goal. This is particularly critical over the next five years or so, as an unusually large number of retirements are expected and the competition for talent intensifies. The key areas requiring functional excellence here include recruitment, compensation and classification, benefits, employee development, diversity, risk management and succession planning. The CHRO will be expected to possess – and share with University leadership – a full understanding of workforce trends including succession needs, leadership readiness, training, promotions and turnover and staffing metrics, all of which will inform organizational innovation and investments.

This leader will demonstrate data-infused decision making and be expected to apply metrics, which establish a baseline for measuring progress, and serve to evaluate results and assess impact. The CHRO will ensure these best practices are pervasive throughout all academic and administrative units. The CHRO must deploy a framework of accountability that evaluates the human resource function, purpose, structure, services and delivery models, as well as capabilities of the staff to maintain the practices in an unwavering fashion.

Continue to build a culture in the University of Minnesota’s human resources function that is characterized by best practices that promote operational excellence, adherence to institutional values and high-performing employees.

The CHRO should focus on continuing to build an organizational culture within the University of Minnesota’s HR function – both central and unit-based – that is characterized by increased flexibility, customer service and a strategic versus transactional orientation. This will be accomplished by engaging all HR employees to seek out ways in which they can provide added value to University clients, and continuously working to improve the quality of HR services and delivery.

The CHRO must ensure the enterprise-wide HR function itself is well-served with its own talent management practices and places high value on the recruitment, development and retention of top caliber and diverse HR professionals. The CHRO should bring a personal leadership style that shows a high respect for each employee and their value to the University and an effectiveness as the “ambassador” of HR to its partners in the University.

To guide the direction and inform/energize HR staff, the CHRO should develop a formal and inclusive strategic plan that charts a path for the next few years and further strengthens the HR function as a value-added resource to the University. This will serve to better focus HR staff on their mission by more precisely defining their relationships with the HR units, setting resource priorities and establishing expectations for individual and organizational performance. The CHRO will use this newly-refined direction as a platform for connecting with strategic academic and administrative partners in a manner that gains mutual concurrence on performance standards and enhances the credibility of the HR function.

Serve as a passionate champion to advance diversity, inclusion and equity throughout the University.

Workforce diversity, inclusiveness and employment equity are critical elements of the University’s mission and strategic goals. The new CHRO will play a pivotal role in increasing the diversity of the University’s workforce, and fostering a workplace culture that welcomes and retains individuals who hold marginalized identities. The University is a large, complex institution that requires several offices and points of accountability related to equity and diversity goals. As a result, the new CHRO will be responsible for supporting and collaborating on institution-wide equity and diversity efforts. For example, the new CHRO will oversee the President’s Initiative to Prevent Sexual Misconduct – a research-based, community-driven, public health approach to preventing sexual misconduct – as well as other critical initiatives.

To be successful in the implementation of key equity and diversity goals, the new CHRO must have demonstrated experience working sensitively and effectively with and across diverse communities, including: people of color, new immigrant populations, American Indians, people with both apparent and non-apparent disabilities, women, people with underrepresented gender and sexual identities and expressions and people with differing socio-economic statuses. The new CHRO must also have a deep and comprehensive understanding of how power, privilege and implicit bias impact workplace environments, employee well-being and the ability to recruit and retain excellent employees. Finally, the new CHRO must demonstrate critical thinking and self-assessment about how their own identities, biases and experiences impact their work. Ultimately, the new CHRO must be able to articulate and promote the critical importance of equity and diversity goals with a high level of knowledge, skill and authenticity.
Candidate Qualifications and Personal Qualities

Appointment

The Vice President for Human Resources/Chief Human Resources Officer is a full-time, 12-month, senior administrative position, appointed by and serving at the pleasure of the President.

Opportunity Summary

The Chief Human Resources Officer at the University of Minnesota will be presented with the opportunity to achieve the following professional and personal accomplishments:

 Serve as a senior leader at one of the most dynamic and well-regarded universities in the nation, and directly contribute to its continued momentum towards even higher levels of success and distinction;

 Lead transformative initiatives that will make the University of Minnesota’s human resources function a highly regarded contributor to the University’s mission;

 Partner with a dedicated, energetic and innovative new president, the Board of Regents, the senior leadership team, faculty and staff – all of whom present a high capacity for partnering and collaboration; and

 Work and reside in a region known for its diversity of exceptional resources, high quality of life and vibrancy.