University Business - March 2012 - (Page 20)

HUMAN RESOURCES A Missed Opportunity Trends in creating, managing, and enforcing cell phone policies—and how HR could be more involved By Carol Patton he only consisTency about cell phone policies for campus employees is that there isn’t any. likewise, the level of human resources office involvement is as different as the kinds of cell phones or data plans that are available today. in some cases, cell phone policies are developed and implemented by iT or the business office. other times, hR helps create the policy, then stands on the sidelines. some schools don’t even have a policy, or don’t request hR’s participation at all. What should hR leaders do? should their department even have a role? There’s no right or wrong method, but there are various levels of hR’s involvement in cell phone policy development and enforcement that work. even being involved at arm’s length helps ensure consistency and fairness among the campus workforce, possibly avoiding employee complaints or grievances down the road. consider a few approaches institutions have taken and compare them to how your own school might handle its cell phone policy. Fresno PaciFic University (caliF.) The VPs of finance, business, and iT joined forces in 2009 to create the cell phone policy for Fresno Pacific’s 300 employees, shares lori Kroeker, who serves as the university’s payroll manager, which falls under hR. in the past, the university purchased phones and issued them to employees—resulting in too much confusion and paperwork. now supervisors decide which employees need a cell phone to carry out job tasks. each employee buys 20 | March 2012 T ‘We felt there was abuse. Our [monthly] cell phone bills were sometimes $100,000.’ problems can erupt if the policy is not consistently applied or enforced. consider employees claiming inequity—even discrimination—because they were denied a monthly cell phone stipend when others in their department were approved. “Anything can happen,” Kroeker says, suggesting that cell phone policies spell out which job titles or perhaps rankings (like all VP positions) receive cell phone allowances so that such decisions are not left up to a supervisor’s discretion. it’s also important, she adds, that supervisors consistently write up employees who violate the policy. salt lake commUnity college The iT, business, and purchasing departments develop and enforce this college’s policy, which applies to 200 of the estimated 1,100 full-time employees, says Douglas hansen, controller and business manager. Approximately four years ago, the college purchased cell phones for employees, but iRs laws required administrators to have employees painstakingly track how much of the phone was used for personal use for tax purposes. To make matters worse, overages were growing out of control. “We felt there was abuse,” hansen recalls. “our [monthly] cell phone bills were sometimes $100,000. The overages got to be consistent enough that we had to do something about it.” now the school uses a three-step process developed by a team including iT and business office staff. First, supervisors determine which employees require a Carol Patton is a Las Vegas-based freelance writer who specializes in covering HR topics. universitybusiness.com —Douglas Hansen, Salt Lake Community College a phone, fills out an allowance request form, and attaches a copy of the active cell phone contract for monthly reimbursement, which is then approved by the vice president of business and finance. since hR was not involved in the initial creation of the policy, Kroeker asked to review it. it’s a good thing she did. “The policy lacked language about text-based communication while driving,” explains Kroeker, who later approached the VPs, requesting to insert language to cover such issues. For example, the policy now states that employees are not allowed to text while driving or talk on the phone while driving without a hands-free device. she also added that monthly cell phone allowances are taxable and do not constitute an increase in their base pay. “hR has more insight into this stuff than other people do ... and should also be involved in policy management to ensure consistency.” so far, the university has not had any policy issues with cell phones. But http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - March 2012

University Business - March 2012
Contents
Editor’s Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Human Resources
Campus CFO
ERP in the Ethers
Digital Treasure
Scoring Big With New Football Teams
Money Matters
End Note

University Business - March 2012

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