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Progress reports on personnel issues planned

The Human Resource Practices Design Team (HRPD) will hold three community meetings starting Friday, Sept. 27 to report their progress and present recommendations on personnel issues.

The meetings, which will last approximately 50 minutes, will be held in the Bush Room (10-105) on the following dates and times: September 27 at 8am; Monday, Sept. 30 at 12:15pm; and Wednesday, Oct. 2 at 3:30pm. The team scheduled the sessions at a variety of times to maximize participation by a broad spectrum of employees.

"The team's work this summer has included a steady dialogue with the MIT community to assess the Institute's human resource needs, and so we want to share our recommendations and get feedback as we prepare our final report for the reengineering Steering Committee," said Patricia Brady, team captain.

In their working document, the team notes that as an employer, MIT has reached a point where it needs to reconcile equal and competing forces and viewpoints that will shape the work place in the future. "MIT prides itself on an entrepreneurial spirit, yet there is a need for some consistency and standardization of policies and processes across the Institute," the introduction states.

"As current economic and legislative pressures continue to build, MIT must struggle with the cost, time and attention often required of excellence vs. the need to cut costs and use time efficiently. An individual's personal and professional needs will continue to compete with the needs of the organization to do more with less," the working document says.

Team members have gathered input from across the Institute community through meetings, focus groups and "Speak Up" sessions. They have also studied the best human resource practices at other organizations.

Some of the recommendations are:

  • In designing human resource practices, recognize that teams are evolving as the primary way people are organized to get work done.
  • Implement a process for labs, centers, and academic and administrative departments to hire and retain people into the most suitable roles for their competencies, with the understanding that they may move to other jobs, roles and responsibilities over time.
  • ������������������Implement a process to recognize and reward employees for their contributions. This includes financial and non-financial recognition and rewards.

The full set of recommendations can be found on the HRPD team's Web page at .

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on September 25, 1996.

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