Enhance the employee experience during onboarding and orientation

• Welcoming and Orienting Employees to Cornell: A Supervisors Guide : a customizable tool to walk supervisors through the most common needs of a new employee during their first 120 days.
• Welcome Center Website: a timeline-based guide to resources for new employees, integrated with Workday onboarding dashboard.
• New Hire Decision/Enrollment Guide: a step-by-step introduction to benefits options, decision-making support, and enrollment instructions.
• Streamlining of new hire messages: a reduction in frequency and length of communications to help new hires feel less overwhelmed.
• Personalized Onboarding Dashboard in Workday (sample): Centralized hub for new hire actions and onboarding, customized to employee status and integrated with content housed in the Welcome website.  (View onboarding dashboard by clicking the cog icon (configure applications) in upper right of Workday landing dashboard; add "Onboarding" as an optional worklet.)
• In discovery: An employee app 

Build a culture of belonging that supports our diverse workforce and champions inclusion for all members of our community

• Developed a 5-year strategic plan for increasing staff diversity and inclusion.
• Created the Disability is Diversity campaign to educate about the disability experience, build a community of disability allies, develop a culture in which individuals are empowered to speak out, and move our campus forward toward greater accessibility for all.
• Doubled the overall response rate by faculty, academics, staff and union employees for the spring 2018 voluntary disability self-Identification survey. Results will provide a better picture of the diversity of our workforce and help to ensure that individuals with disabilities are supported and represented throughout the University.
• Established a centralized disability accommodations fund for faculty, staff and guest speakers/scholars invited to campus as of July 2018.
• Relaunched the Accessible Red Runner service to provide certain work and employment-related campus transportation effective as of July 2018.
• Revamped the Inclusive Excellence Academy to provide workshops that focus on the actions participants can immediately implement in their unit or department that positively affect diversity, inclusion, and a genuine sense of belonging, including a podcast and biannual summit.
• In development: Creating targeted recruitment plans for positions in key job families to increase diversity within the workforce.
• In discovery: Conducting an inclusivity assessment to determine and improve the inclusivity of HR functional areas.
• In discovery: Strengthening the structure and enhancing development opportunities offered through the colleague network groups.
   

Support employees in all aspects of their wellbeing

• Added a remote attendance option for nearly all Work/Life events and workshops.
• Developed targeted resources and programming to address silent and/or prolific issues impacting our staff and faculty, i.e., domestic violence, chronic tiredness and sleep issues.
• Added Care@Work, Care.com's platform for employers, to the benefits program for faculty, staff, retirees and graduate students.
• Developed online presentation aligning university resources to the dimensions of wellbeing and programming to educate employees on the importance of care for the whole self.

Promote opportunities for employees and retirees to engage

• Implemented a “hiring experience” section on the Acclimation Survey; results have improved our understanding of the importance of more communication during hiring and impact of already knowing someone in an employee's sense of belonging.
• Created a networking and support group for relocated new hires.
• Developed a retiree exit survey; results have highlighted gender differences in employees' feelings of financial “preparedness” for retirement.
• Piloted a series of new “belongingness” survey items with Alumni Affairs and Development.
• Launched an improved staff exit survey

• Improved priority policies to simplify and clarify content, and reduce administrative burden. Updated policies include:
  • guidelines for pay practices during Inclement Weather; and
  • several areas under Time Away from Work i.e., standardized the method for compensating holiday pay, simplified the formula for stopping and starting accruals while on paid leave, incorporated NYS Paid Family Leave law and aligned other aspects of Family and Medical Leaves for Staff with the federal FMLA
• In development: identification and prioritization of additional policies
   

• Implemented website improvements to hr.cornell.edu including a streamlined menu structure for easier navigation.
• Completed audit of web pages and documents for compliance with WCAG 2.0 AA; several significant updates have been implemented, with more continuing.
• Rebranded Working@Cornell Facebook presence to appeal to employees throughout the lifecycle at Cornell.
• In development: strategic social media plan to engage current and prospective employees.
   

• Increased security through mandatory Two-Step Login for all areas of Workday.
• Implemented the new Workday time-and-attendance system for ~12,000 nonexempt, biweekly staff and student employees.
• Launch of three new user-based dashboards as part of the ongoing effort to improve our employees’ experience.

• Completed a redesign of Cornell/vendor information for both Open Enrollment and Option Transfer for 2018, including new comprehensive guides that provided employees with decision worksheets and step-by-step instructions for completing their enrollments.
• Completed a review of health and other benefit plans for the usage of gender terminology and to compare coverage and support for LGBTQIA+ faculty and staff. Findings were presented to the Employee Assembly.
• Designed and implemented Cornell’s policy under the New York Paid Family Leave Act (NYPFL) providing a higher-level of compensated leave for staff to bond for a newborn or newly adopted child, or to care for a family member with a serious health condition.
• Completed negotiation and renewal of Cornell/Aetna health plans for 2018, with a focus on plan enhancement (where possible) and mitigating cost increases to both staff and Cornell. Despite continued growth in medical and Rx claims, negotiated to maintain current level of plan design (no reductions) and to need to pass on only a modest increase in staff contributions
• Implemented a new benefits service model that offers employees enhanced counseling on health and retirement, as well as additional access to resources.
• In development: re-constitution of a group of approximately 15 vendors, service providers and Cornell groups to review and assist Cornell staff and Ithaca area community with health-related issues. The group will be tasked with determining 3-5 high health needs areas per year to focus a concerted effort on education, prevention, treatment, and providing local and national resources.
• In development: overall review and re-structuring/re-design of health plan information related to benefits.

• Developed and refreshed resources and tools to support employees as they navigate their career path, including a Workday portal for formal and informal experiential development opportunities; a networking/mentoring tool, Cornell Colleague Connections, that allows employees to connect with peers at the University; and the alignment of technical competencies with positions in Career Navigator.
• Implemented a strategic, multi-channel approach to talent management that harnesses the power of career management, succession planning, and college/unit talent leads to become a more agile, innovative organization.
• Launched the Opportunity Graph in Workday, a new feature that helps employees explore career possibilities matched to job openings at Cornell.
• Created Supervising@Cornell, an online supervisory training program available free of charge to all Cornell employees.
   

• In development: expansion of the Workday profile to help an employee better understand how their individual skills, knowledge, and job responsibilities impact the university as a whole.
• In development: college/unit mission statements that better align working at Cornell with the university mission.
   

• Launched  a real time peer-to-peer recognition system that allows employees to thank colleagues across campus, and empowers managers to reward individual achievements throughout the year.
• Revamped a robust  and inclusive employee award program that shares excitement for the achievements of staff who go above and beyond to create a culture of belonging at Cornell.
   

• Enhanced coordination with the Offices of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Faculty Development and Diversity.
• Provide enhanced communications and monthly updates to the college and unit leadership; Vice Presidents, Deans, Chairs and HR Directors regarding the spouse/partner’s job search and networking activities.
  • A comprehensive, monthly summary regarding program participants is shared with Dual Career Program leadership.
• Tailoring the Engagement Program to meet the needs and interests of each new hire in the program.
• In development:  A campus working group will be formed to formalize a best practice service approach for the dualcareer spouse/partner.
• In development: Joint Dual Career/Engagement Program Reception