GOAL TEAM 3 – Combined Report – May 26, 2011
(From Objective teams 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3, which met separately, rather
than as one large goal team.)
To What Extent Has Progress Been Made Toward Goal 3? What evidence do we
have of that Progress?
From Team 3.1 - Collaboration
The College is deeply involved in a review of strategic governance that includes
addressing how we define collaboration and how we can best use collaborative tools. A report
is expected soon from a Steering Committee that reports to the College Planning Council.
Importantly, a plan to improve internal communications in support of shared
governance is also being developed, via a second task force. These are first efforts to begin to
define communications in a collaborative college and to provide new tools that support
collaborative communication. This work is being led by the newly created office of
Organizational Development, in Human Resources.
In addition, professional development activities have continued to address
collaboration. Good progress has been made.
From Team 3.2 – Career Growth
The College is beginning to make progress towards having a more effective and
universal performance measuring tool – the Performance Development Process (PDP). If
utilized in the manner in which it was designed, the PDP tool is a positive direction for
encouraging Valencia’s supervisors and employees to think and talk about professional
development needs. The new PDP promotes conversation between supervisors and employees
regarding professional development opportunities and career growth planning. The PDP has
facilitated the alignment of various diverse constituency groups across the college into a
formalized development process with universal application. Records of attendance for the
ongoing PDP training have been maintained by the Office of Organizational Development.
The establishment of the Office of Organizational Development and the alignment of
that office under the banner of Human Resources in August of 2010 is another significant step
towards accomplishing the objectives of Goal 3.2. This office was created to focus on strategic
Human Resources issues which include professional development, employee on-boarding, and
talent management. The key responsibilities of this office link directly to developing college
employees to further the College’s goals including: performance management, supervisory
training and development, and awards and recognitions. This office has already done a great
deal of work and utilized various data gathering methods (including survey, job shadowing, in
depth-interviews, and a review of existing data) to devise a plan for refreshing the college’s
staff development offerings. This data will drive the creation of a comprehensive professional
development catalog designed to be used in conjunction with the PDP to align professional
development with organizational, departmental, and individual goals and objectives. The first
draft of the catalog and 6-month schedule is expected to be ready for release by mid-2011.
Additionally, the Office for Organizational Development conducted a series of supervisory
development workshops in November and December of 2010 to help support skill development
in the areas of coaching, giving feedback, managing performance problems and conducting
performance conversations. The Office of Organizational Development conducted an employee
climate survey entitled, “The Valencia Experience”, the results of which can be used as baseline
data.
A draft set of supervisory competencies/critical success factors have been identified via
a DACUM-like process facilitated in February 2011. These competencies will be used as the
basis for a multi-layered supervisor development process to be designed and ready for
implementation in late 2011. These efforts are part of a bigger “talent management” strategy
which reflects the desire to enable employees who demonstrate that they possess potential or
exhibit that they already possess specific skill sets to be further developed and be more
competitive in the selection process.
The Staff and Program Development (SPD) Redesign Task Force has been reconfigured
as a standing committee reporting to the College Operations Council. The committee, the SPD
Advisory Committee, revised and updated the current SPD guidelines and created a funding
grid to aid employees in understanding and accessing SPD funds. The SPD Advisory Committee
will be reconsidering the full SPD system, process, and guidelines throughout 2011 – 2012.
From Team 3.3 – Employee Wellness
The college has an effective Wellness Program in place, and has made progress toward
providing a high quality wellness activities to the diverse college community, in partnership
with our health insurance provider. While challenges remain, such as providing opportunities
on campuses that lack gym facilities, the college is off to a great start with the Wellness
Program, and participation continues to increase.
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A full time coordinator is now dedicated to overseeing the Wellness Program

The Coordinator of the Wellness Program is in the draft stage of creating a new
Wellness Program Plan which defines Wellness Practices at Valencia
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The college has received comprehensive statistical data based on the health assessment
and biometric screening data

A new marketing/communications plan has been created for the Wellness Program,
along with the release of an expanded incentive program. A Passport to Wellness has
been mailed to all employees.

Development of Team Valencia with 75 members has increased the visibility of
Valencia’s Wellness Program and participation in local wellness activities (5k runs,
charity walks and bike rides)
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Continue with plan to offer Metabolic Syndrome Improvement Program that began in
April 2011 (42 participants)
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Promote Cigna’s incentive points program (will be evaluated in May 2011)
Do the current and planned activities in the Strategic Initiatives reports show
promise of “moving the needle” on Objective 3.2 by 2013?
For Team 3.1 – Collaboration
Yes, the team expects to be able to see refinements to our shared governance model
based on the results of the review currently underway. Also, professional development
activities in the use of collaborative tools will continue to be offered.
For Team 3.2 - Career Growth
Should the Office of Organizational Development be successful in accomplishing the
goals of PDP integration and utilization and the development and training of supervisor
competencies at the same time that the redesign of SPD fund eligibility and distribution is
completed, there should be some “movement of the needle” through late 2011 and into 2012.
All of these significant initiatives possess great potential for fostering increased employee
satisfaction and engagement, grooming better supervisors and managers and lend traction to
more effective and dynamic talent planning.
Committed and intentional talent planning and professional development efforts will
eventually increase the number of individuals in the “leadership pipeline” who would be ready
and able to fill key positions. The need to fill key positions will become more critical as the
College experiences the first wave of “baby boomers” retiring.
For Team 3.3 - Wellness
Yes, the College can expect to continue to see increases in self-reported wellness
practices between 2011 and 2013. Incentives and added program variety continue to
encourage participation.
Are there significant challenges or opportunities related to Goal 3 that should
be noted?
For Goal 3.1
The governance review underway provides an opportunity to improve our governance
model based on what we have learned. It remains a challenge to be certain of which decisions
require collaboration and why, and how the collaborative consideration will be structured.
For Goal 3.2
One key challenge will be to shift employees’ paradigm from “the way it has been done
in the past” and integrate new perspectives, new procedures and processes, and new skills into
our ongoing practice. In regards to supervisory training, for example, a shift has to occur
between looking at job descriptions based on competencies vs. skills. Another example relates
to moving away from the term “succession planning” which entails the concept of grooming
specific individuals for specific positions and adopting “talent planning” which reflects the
desire to have a pool of talent no matter who the talent is.
The Data Analysis Results from the 2006 Strategic Planning process indicate that the
number of students enrolling in community colleges is increasing at the same time that the
retirement of baby boomers is creating workforce vacancies. Valencia’s current expansion
plans are compounding this vacancy challenge. Additionally, current HR trends predict that the
necessity of growing talent from within due to both a shortage of qualified external resources
and the desire to foster employee engagement and retention is increasing. This is further
evidenced in the “Alerting a Talent Void” article in NACUBO’s Business Officer Journal regarding
Daytona State College’s response to the anticipated leadership gap prompted by retirements.
For these reasons Valencia must be focused on growing and developing employees to their full
potential.
There are several challenges in effectively implementing the PDP across the College.
For example, it could be years before the PDP truly become a part of the culture. It is evident
that the training for utilizing the PDP has been inconsistent across the College and some teams
have not been trained as of the writing of this report. It is recognized and supported that any
teams that have gone through the PDP training should be utilizing the process. Is there an
effective tracking mechanism in place to ensure that each employee has received a PDP
annually? Who ensures that the PDP has been completed honestly and effectively and not
treated as a “paper drill”? There seems to be some indication that there are areas within the
college who are not embracing the PDP fully enough to make it significant and meaningful to all
employees. There have been reports that some managers are having employees fill out PDP’s
with no discussion, obviously defeating to the purpose of the PDP. There are also reports that a
large majority of administrative and executive staff are not using this process. There is a need
for upper management to demonstrate their support of this process by utilizing the PDP and
effectively modeling the work. Some employees are not seeing the connection between one’s
current PDP and a potential future career path. Rather many complain that the PDP is just
another form to fill out. These employees will continue to request to attend random
conferences and workshops without proper direction and counsel from supervisors and
managers. It is recognized that the PDP should be an on-line tool to enable data to be more
quantitative, as well as qualitative as it is now. Further, the PDP should be viewed as a coaching
and developing tool, not an instrument for addressing performance issues. For this reason,
Valencia needs to have a formalized Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) process in place for
when performance isn’t where it should be. Hopefully, the continuous improvement approach
of the PDP consulting team and ongoing communication from the Office for Organizational
Development to ensure the eventual successful implementation of the College’s new
Performance Development Process through training, coaching, consulting, and on-line support
tools will help overcome these challenges. Valencia has a prime opportunity to get the process
right by laying a firm foundation, building a supportive structure, prompting supervisors to
complete the various phases of the process and monitoring feedback from employees.
Measuring employee engagement is certainly an issue as well. There is study being
conducted by teams within the Human Resources Department regarding a new Employee
Relations model. One of the elements of this work is determining how to promote employee
engagement. The challenge lies in how employee engagement would be measured and how
individual employee goals should be tied to larger institutional goals. A thoughtfully conducted
PDP should prove to be a key element in successfully achieving the goal of maximizing
employee engagement. Additionally, in theory, Weave On-Line should be able to assist with
this as well, but it appears as though the College is still a ways away from having Weave
perform at this specific level.
For Goal 3.3 - Wellness
Yes, there are obstacles. Not all campuses have the facilities to support all desired
wellness activities, meaning that opportunities vary from one campus to the next. The
adequacy of facilities is expected to remain a challenge on smaller campuses. Also, not all
employees’ schedules can accommodate wellness activities during the day, which can be an
impediment.
Have we learned anything that we are currently using or that we might use to
improve the success of future efforts towards achieving Objective 3.2?
For 3.1 - Collaboration
Yes, we are learning how to conduct a review of governance. The task force that is doing
this work will include an evaluation of the process used, which will be helpful in the future
when a new review is undertaken.
For 3.2 – Career Growth
Identifying essential competencies and behavioral indicators will prove crucial to
successfully meeting the goal of designing and implementing an effective talent management
process. These competencies can be shared with hiring committees and be utilized in the PDP.
The College must have an effective Employee Relations model in place including
meaningful awards/recognition, employee climate surveys, and mediation to expediently and
effectively address employee issues if the College is to successfully meet the goals of Objective
3.2, Investing in Each Other.
The team also discussed the College’s interpretation of FLSA requirements to prevent
non-exempt employees from teaching. Is there a way to get around this, to offer career
development opportunities like adjunct teaching to non-exempt employees without violating
college policy? The phrase heard was, “We grow them, and then lose them” in describing how
career staff employees go to Seminole State College, for example, where they gain teaching
experience and get hired. Valencia loses that valuable employee who otherwise would most
likely have stayed at Valencia.
Efforts have to be made to demonstrate the College’s long-term commitment to the
talent management process. There are some employees who believe that this concern is only a
passing phase like many others in the past. The College’s senior staff must find ways to
deliberately demonstrate the commitment to this process. Once it is apparent that the College
is seeking internal talent to fill vacancies as new positions arise or individuals retire, Valencia’s
employees will begin to acknowledge the reality, the significance, and the importance of such a
process.
The team observed that because of the level of diversity among Valencia’s employees,
no “across the board” process or tool will be satisfactory to all Valencia’s employees in
achieving the goals of “Investing in Each Other”. The mission of strategic planning as applied to
this specific goal will best be accomplished by remembering the broad spectrum of employees
likes, desires and aims.
For 3.3 - Wellness
Yes, we have learned that employees embrace opportunities to exercise when it can be
incorporated into their daily routine on campus, and that the incentive points are effective in
encouraging participation.
Does the team have any recommendations regarding Goal 3 or the measure
being used to gauge progress?
For 3.1 – Collaboration
No recommendations at this time.
For 3.2 – Career Growth
As the PDP is introduced and integrated into the Valencia system, upper level managers
must monitor the process to ensure the integrity of the tool. To simply claim that every
employee has had a PDP established does not guarantee that an effective discussion has
occurred between the manager and the employee. PDP’s have to be meaningful to both the
manager and, perhaps more importantly, to the employee. The Office for Organizational
Development could survey managers and employees to determine the satisfaction with and the
effectiveness of the process to verify that the goals of the tool are being met across the College.
To ensure success, feedback must be encouraged, considered and acted upon, if deemed
appropriate.
Additionally, The Office for Organizational Development must continue to be aware of
the potential for and identify the critical needs that exist for targeted professional
development. Because gaps in training or development will no doubt arise, professional
development resources must be either identified as readily available or cultivated to meet the
future needs of Valencia’s employees.
Likewise, the SPD Advisory Committee must continue to examine the processes and
guidelines of the SPD Program to ensure the relevancy and effectiveness of the program
benefits for all Valencia employees.
For 3.3 - Employee Wellness
The team would like to see more uniformity collegewide in opportunities to participate
and in the timing of employee participation. Regarding measurement, the college receives
helpful data from the passport to wellness program, the use of the incentive program, and
through self-reports as a part of the annual health insurance renewal process. Data are
reported in aggregate form, and confidentiality of personal data is maintained.