HR for IT: Managing People in a
Decentralized IT Environment
A Case Study at Wake Forest University

In 1996, Wake Forest University undertook the challenges of implementing an innovative strategic plan entitled the Plan for the Class of 2000. The information technology component of the Plan presented the opportunity for the human resource (HR) and information technology (IT) departments to form a critical partnership upon which successful implementation of the Plan would rest. The partnership of HR and IT at Wake Forest University is a study of the changing paradigm of higher education staffing. The purpose of this paper is to study the changing HR functions at Wake Forest University, and to provide lessons learned from the example. This paper presents the research in a case study approach, and utilizes a job satisfaction survey to measure the effects of the HR and IT partnership at Wake Forest University.

In 1996, Wake Forest University undertook the challenges of implementing an innovative strategic plan entitled the Plan for the Class of 2000 (the Plan). The Plan addressed six areas-- university ideals, personal teaching, class and program availability, top quality faculty, scholarship support, and information technology (Wake Forest University, 1996). The information technology component of the Plan presented the opportunity for the human resource (HR) and information technology (IT) departments to form a critical partnership upon which successful implementation of the Plan would rest. The partnership of HR and IT at Wake Forest University is a study of the changing paradigm of higher education staffing. The HR functions of attracting, hiring, and retaining employees are critical success factors for maintaining IT staffs at levels appropriate to support the ever increasing infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to study the changing HR functions at Wake Forest University, and to provide lessons learned from the example. This paper presents the research in a case study approach, and utilizes a job satisfaction survey to measure the effects of the HR and IT partnership at Wake Forest University. The structure of the organizational hierarchy, the attraction, hiring and retention methods, and job satisfaction factors will be presented.

Wake Forest University has implemented a technological infrastructure that includes two IBM RS/6000 SP-2 mainframes with 14 nodes, one IBM RS/6000 F-50 web server, an IBM PC Server 704, an IBM PC Server 720, an IBM PC Server 520, an IBM PC Server 320, and an HP 9000 852 and HP 3000 959K (Wake Forest University Information Systems, 1998). With the campus infrastructure in place, the technology initiatives in the Plan called for the integration of technology into academic life and the campus community. Through a partnership with IBM, each undergraduate student enrolled at Wake Forest University receives an IBM Thinkpad, providing a foundation for the technology initiatives stated in the Plan. To make the Plan a reality, staffing for IT became a top priority of the administration. The framework and infrastructure, as well as the staff required to operate the IT function, were all deemed as essential in order to take the campus into the next century.

Staffing for IT on the Wake Forest University campus is a decentralized function according to the organizational hierarchy. As the largest concentration of IT staff on campus, the main campus information systems department staff support the technological infrastructure, including the academic and administrative computers, the web server, the network, help desks, and campus Thinkpad support. The professional graduate schools (law and business) run separate network systems with smaller IT staffs. A unique group of IT staff, the academic computing specialists (ACS) support the faculty in computer enhanced learning initiatives in the classroom. The ACS position has truly decentralized IT functions for the academic areas of the campus, and is a position that is separate from the other IT units. The ACS staff report directly to academic department heads, with varying responsibilities depending upon the nature of the department.

The case study is based on a series of interviews with Wake Forest University administrators, including Jay Dominick, chief information officer and associate vice president; Janet Bright, special assistant to the vice president and business manager; James Ferrell, director of human resources; and Harvey Lineberry, assistant director of human resources. The interviews occurred during August 1998.

The information systems department serves the Wake Forest University campus, excluding the medical school. The information systems department had a definitive impact upon the technological initiatives of the Plan, with responsibilities including the student Thinkpad distribution and campus infrastructure and related support. The mission statement of the information systems department, as follows, reveals its commitment to the campus community:

To support the mission statement, qualified IT staff are essential. Information systems has the greatest concentration of IT staff, with a total of 63 positions in 1998. In 1994, the information systems department had 21 staff members, a three-fold increase in just four years. The increase in staff has been funded through the tuition increases necessitated by the Plan.

The information systems department is structured with a team framework and management style. The design of the teams follows the main functions of the department. The teams include support services, systems support, business applications development, business computing, and network/project management. The teams are responsible for solving problems and managing their functional areas. There are not static job responsibilities for team members. They respond to tasks, and jointly decide how to approach issues. Two auxiliary operations are located in the department, and include a Y2K project manager and technology outreach director and staff. The information systems department reports to the chief information officer.

The team concept of management has been an evolutionary process in the information systems department, and challenges have arisen. Despite a new facility devoted to information systems, several teams are split geographically across campus due to the lack of office space. While some staff members are housed in the new facility, others are still located in older office environments. There is constant pressure to find better office space for the teams who are dispersed. Inter-team rivalry is another challenge that is a result of the teams working so well together in their insular environment, but the team members are not functioning well across teams. The competition between teams has been addressed this year by management, with an emphasis on getting the teams together in social situations so that the employees can get to know each other across teams.

The department had a salary budget of $1.9 million in fiscal year 1997-98, with a department budget total of $4.6 million. The salary budget is $2.5 million in the current fiscal year 1998-99, with a department budget total of $5.2 million. The budget for salaries increased 31% from 1997-98 to 1998-99. The total department budget increased 12% during the same period. Fringe benefits were budgeted at $434,600 in 1997-98, and $567,000 in 1998-99, representing a 30.4% increase. Salaries and fringe benefits were 51.4% of the total department budget in 1997-98, and are 60.1% of the total department budget in 1998-99 (Bright, 1998).

With the three-fold increase in headcount over the past four years, the HR function has proven to be essential for the information systems department operations. HR provides services to the information systems department that are traditionally not provided to other campus constituents. Market salary surveys are conducted by HR, and serve as support for the frequent out-of-cycle salary increases. Staffing positions have been regraded and reclassified to keep up with market trends. Position upgrades occur on a continual basis as driven by the marketplace. Attraction methods have changed to include advertising on the World Wide Web. Retention methods have changed to include the out-of-cycle salary increases, management development and leadership training, extensive skills training, and tuition remission for the MBA program. The IT staffing marketplace, in contrast to the traditional higher education staffing marketplace, has affected all major HR functions.

The hiring process is handled through several different operations. The HR department handles the advertising for the open positions, and forwards the applications to the information systems department’s business manager. The business manager then forwards the applications to the hiring director. The hiring director is the supervisor of the team, and handles screening, interviewing and extending the final offer. The directors have the hands-on skills, and they can easily determine if a candidate is suitable for the specific position. Overall, the information systems department practices promotion from within the ranks. Employees have been attracted to the information systems department from other campus departments due to the favorable internal promotion policy.

Information systems department attracts staff from different applicant pools depending on the nature of the position. The support and help desk applicant pool is traditionally based in the local marketplace, and advertising is placed in the local newspaper, as well as on the web site. Pay for support and help desk staff is in the mid to high $20,000 range, which is supported by the local job market. Turnover is higher in this category than in the professional categories. After gaining an impressive skill set at the university, the support and help desk staffs are attractive to area employees, and are often hired away after an 18 – 24 months period. A new performance review system is in place for this category, with an emphasis on goal setting, as a response to the turnover.

System network and programming staff are hired from a regional applicant pool. Advertising for these positions include regional newspapers and the web site. Turnover for these positions is low; growth is the primary reason for open positions. Compensation is tied to the salary market. Extensive training is also provided for the staff in these positions. Retention mechanisms for these positions include the popular tuition remission for the MBA program. In fact, tuition remission for the MBA program has been viewed by management as the best retention mechanism in the ongoing battle to keep the IT professionals. The university requires the employee receiving the tuition remission for the MBA program to sign a contract stating that the employee will remain employed by the university for one year after completing the degree. A monetary amount based on the cost of the MBA program tuition is indicated in the contract if the employee chooses to leave the university and breaks the agreement.

Retention methods vary among the teams and the team directors, but the management emphasis is on providing all IT staff with the tools they need to do their jobs efficiently and effectively. The philosophy is to invest in the staff by providing tools, technology and training to keep the work force energized. Investment in skills training is evident. In fact, skills training is a negotiation point in the contracts with software and hardware vendors. The entire department has instituted a structured on-call system, monthly staff meetings, and travel budgets. An example of the management emphasis on providing tools needed and requested by employees is the purchase of departmental vans. When the new IT facility opened, staff members were concerned about responding to IT needs across campus. The staff members asked IT management for vans, but budget funds were non-existent. As part of the restructuring of the many vendor-related IT contracts, substantial budget savings were found, and vans were purchased with the surplus funds. Another retention mechanism is the employee of the month program that was initiated this year. A cash incentive of $350 is provided to the selected employee. The honoree is selected by the directors, and approved by the chief information officer. Directors have applied more creative retention methods that include a new fitness center, coffee and water service, humidors filled with cigars and pizza parties with the intention of keeping job satisfaction and morale high.

Overall, retention efforts have paid off for the information systems department. Four staff members left voluntarily during the 1997-98 fiscal year out of 63 positions, for a 93% retention rate. Two of those staff members left for personal reasons (marriage or graduate school), and two left for higher paying jobs. .

The graduate professional schools, business and law, operate with small staffs ranging from three to six staff members. The law school and graduate business school IT director positions report to their respective deans, and have a similar human resource operation as the information systems department. They operate as one team per school, instead of the multiple level of teams that exist in the large information systems department. Attracting and hiring candidates are similar processes for the graduate professional IT departments as for the information systems department. Retention is excellent. In fact, the graduate school of business has a 100% retention rate of IT staff for the past eighteen months. Retention is helped with the MBA tuition remission plan, as well as flexible work schedules and extensive skills training. Once again, the management emphasis is on providing the IT staff with the tools they need to do their jobs efficiently and effectively, with the intention of keeping job satisfaction and morale high.

The ACS position was created in 1996 to support the technological initiatives stated in the Plan. Nineteen ACSs support faculty in computer enhanced learning and are actively involved in the academic process. The ACS position is recruited through regional advertising and the web site. Faculty members and academic department heads interview, select and hire the ACS. Retention had been a concern of HR even before the first ACS was hired. HR management felt that the ACSs would be attracted to the university due to the nature of the Plan’s initiatives, but keeping the employees after the newness wore off was an issue. However, to date, retention has been excellent in the ACS category. HR stated that since many of the ACSs have advanced degrees, they possess an understanding and affinity for the academic life which may be a factor in retention.

ACSs are considered part of the academic departments, and therefore, are managed in various ways depending on the nature of the departmental culture. ACSs, as a category of IT staff, are as unique as the academic departments that they report to. The backgrounds of the ACSs reflect diverse educational degrees and concentrations. In many cases, the ACSs do not possess degrees in information technology, but rather they hold degrees in the academic field that they have been hired to support.

Managing the ACS positions creates challenges for the academic department heads. The ACS position is often split between two to three academic departments, and the position reports to several department heads. Managing workload and priorities is a challenge between the departments. Hiring or firing decisions, salary increases and performance reviews have to be negotiated among several academic department heads. Many of the academic department heads have not received formal human resource and organizational behavior training.

To measure job satisfaction of the IT professionals at Wake Forest, a survey was administered to the information systems department staff and the professional schools IT staff. The survey was sent to 72 staff members, with 33 responses returned, for a response rate of 45.8%. The survey measured attraction and retention factors, as well as job satisfaction for the campus IT professionals. The respondents were 42.4% male and 57.6% female. A large group, 39.4% of the respondents, had held other positions outside of IT at the university prior to joining the IT staffs.

The survey found the following results:

• 63.6% of the respondents rated their job satisfaction as above average to excellent.
• 57.6% of the respondents rated the team concept of management as effective.
• 66.7% of the respondents answered that they were satisfied overall with their position.
• 36.4% of the respondents rated the pay and compensation as fair, while 39.4% rated it as below average and poor. 24.2% rated pay and compensation as above average or excellent.
• 45.5% of the respondents rated the hiring process as fair, with 33.3% rating it as above average to excellent.
• 62.9% of the respondents became aware of the open IT position through a personal contact. Only 22.9% of the respondents became aware of the position through the newspaper.
• 91% of the respondents stated that they were exposed to new technology in their position, and 75.7% said that that the new technology kept them at Wake Forest.
• Pay and promotion ranked as very important factors to employees.
• Facilities ranked as an important factor to employees.
• Technology and campus infrastructure received the highest number of responses as factors that attracted the employee to the university, with the university’s reputation and the academic environment receiving the second highest response.

The management of HR and IT were asked to respond to Likert scale questions on the success of attracting, training, retention, and managing IT staff, with 1 as the lowest rating and 5 as the highest rating. Their responses have been averaged. In response to the question of "has the university been successful in attracting IT staff," management rated the success as 4.2. In response to the question of "has the university been successful in training IT staff," management rated the success as 4.5. In response to the question of "has the university been successful in the retention of IT staff," management rated the success as 4.7. In response to the question of "has the university been successful in managing IT staff", management rated the success as 4.5. Overwhelmingly, management rated the attraction, training, retention and management of IT staff as successful.

New approaches to HR were evident in the study at Wake Forest University. The approaches included:

• Creation of the grassroots IT staff with the ACS position residing in academic departments and reporting to academic department heads.
• Decentralization of the hiring process to the faculty for IT staff (the ACS).
• Utilization of the World Wide Web beginning in 1996 for advertising of positions, which is used actively for advertising for positions today.
• Development of proactive approaches for retention of IT staff, to include the fitness center, MBA tuition remission program, out-of-cycle salary increases, and continued reclassification of IT salary grade positions.

The challenges for the HR and IT partnership include:

• Managing the out-of-cycle salary increases to ensure that internal salary equity exists. Currently, the out-of-cycle salary increases are justified by market demands for the information systems department, but there needs to be an across the board salary review to ensure internal salary equity across all IT staff on campus, including the ACSs and the professional schools IT staff.
• Managing the decentralized hiring effort for the IT staff across campus. While a candidate may not be a fit for an ACS position, the candidate might be the perfect fit for an open position in the information systems area. No one is responsible for IT recruiting for the campus, leaving open the possibility of losing out on a good candidate.
• Managing the predicted growth of new positions in IT. Growth to 75 employees is predicted, up from the current level of 63, for the information systems department. The ACS category may increase from 19 to 20 positions, and the professional schools are expected to add one position over the next year. The Y2K compliance project may add a number of consultants over the next year, and a new administrative software conversion may have an impact in the number of staff.
• Remaining proactive in the approach to retention in particular. As the IT industry evolves, the partners must remain diligent in their efforts to retain the qualified IT staff.
• Providing all managers of IT staff with knowledge of the HR initiatives and IT marketplace demands, as well as appropriate HR training. Academic department managers (deans and department heads) need to be provided with knowledge of the HR initiatives with the information systems department. HR should provide the academic department managers with human resource training opportunities to ensure that all campus managers are aware of the importance of attracting, hiring and retaining the qualified IT staff member, as well as the benefits of being a partner with HR.
• Promoting the scholarship/internship initiative. The information systems department has started an undergraduate scholarship program in which a student would receive scholarship and internship support. The student would develop the desired skill set, and would make a fine candidate for hire after he/she graduates. This program has great potential for producing a knowledgeable, entry level work force that has a connection with the institution. Filling the Wake Forest pipeline with qualified IT staff is a proactive solution to managing the IT staff marketplace demands.

The first lesson learned is that IT staff are professionally loyal, rather than institutionally loyal. New technology and a tuition remission can attract the employee, but to retain them for the long-term is hard work. To keep the qualified IT staff, HR and IT have been both reactive and proactive in strategies. But the good news is that retention has not solely been left up to the HR staff. It has been a joint effort with department managers contributing to the cause. With employees stating that they are satisfied with their position, while pay and compensation rate below average, it is clear that pay is not always the driving force. Other factors are in the mix as the survey results have shown. Providing the team with the tools to do their jobs has laid a foundation for job satisfaction, and creative team leaders have assisted with retention efforts. The partnership must be ongoing, and must provide open communication and attention. Without the effort of both the HR and IT departments, the strategic plan initiatives would not become reality. To date, the Plan is considered a success -- a success in large part due to the people affected by the HR strategies. Clearly, managing the IT staff in a decentralized environment offers challenges and great rewards.

Bright, J. (1998, May). The dollars and sense of information systems. Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest University.

Wake Forest University Information Systems (1998, October). Information systems equipment. Available HTTP://www.wfu.edu/Computer-information/systems/equip.htm#servers

Wake Forest University Information Systems (1998, October). Information systems mission statement. Available HTTP://www.wfu.edu/Computer-information/right.htm

Wake Forest University (1996). Plan for the Class of 2000. Winston-Salem, NC: Author.