Professional Council Meeting Notes
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
10:00 am - 11:00 am, GAINES Hall 111
Council present: Donna Negaard, Chancey Ringer, Karen Steele, Abbey Keene, Sean Cleveland,
Jonathan Hilmer
Guest: Cathy Hasenpflug (HR) and Dennis Defa (HR)
1. Call to Order
2. Welcome and introductions
3. Human Resources guests (Cathy Hasenpflug and Dennis Defa)
a. Strategy on communication from perspective of HR. Are we as professionals
getting the communications we need?
b. Dennis: – one of HR goals is to develop communication plan for all types.
Information needing to be distributed is selective to staff type. Emails need to
be more targeted so HR doesn’t overload inboxes. Need synergy with
Professional Council and HR to help distribute information to Professional
employees.
PC: - would like to help out so professionals are all getting information they
need. Is the Professional list-serve truly accurate?
Cathy: –Currently HR uses these modes of communication to reach employees:
1. PPS (payroll personnel services) Listserv – meant to capture anyone who
has a role of HR nature. Information is forwarded to the listserv for
distribution to departmental staff as appropriate
2. Superuser group (subset of PPS) HR contacts covering colleges or
multiple departments. This group meets monthly on specific HR topics.
3. HR has a website that posts current information/news.
4. HR also posts periodically on MSU Today.
For the future, HR would like to try to leverage various groups, including councils
and senates, to help out with communication. HR could also foresee a more
systematic way to communicate with all employees.
 Via individual e-mail. Requires transition to a consistent e-mail protocol
across campus.
 Via supervisor. Requires tracking of who is in a supervisor role and a
shared understanding of the communication role of a supervisor re
sharing and forwarding information from HR.
PC: Currently how does HR capture information that would assist communication
efforts in Banner?
Cathy: Overall, there are systemic issues. Banner was originally designed as a
payroll system. We do not currently track attributes in a manner that effectively
support communication efforts, like whether an employee is currently a
supervisor. Nor do we have a simple data field that we can use to “find” all
current Professional employees.
Future projects to support communication include:
 Implementation of new data fields or better use of existing Banner data
fields to support communication strategies

Working with ITC to create strategies for standardizing e-mail addresses
for use by HR and other administrative departments (perhaps
supplementing rather than replacing existing department-specific e-mail
addresses)
 Increasing outreach to existing employee councils/senates
 Better supporting supervisors in communicating with their teams.
Creating communication briefing documents for departments and
supervisors to assist in “cascading information” to employees;
 Improvement of HR website to make it more user friendly for all
employees and for communicating info and policies (looking into full
website redesign)
These approaches would require some significant changes. Such systematic
change will require consultation over time with a broad group of stakeholders.
In the interim, HR is interested in working with the Professional Council to
support specific communications needs.
Cathy: I would like to provide one additional update on a project related to
communication – specifically the need to communicate effectively with newly
hired employees.
 The “Jumpstart” program has been introduced in February to provide a
user-friendly session for new staff – starting with classified employees.
 Jumpstart is offered each Monday and Wednesday morning in Hamilton
Hall. The 2 hour session provides a supportive environment for new
starters to complete new hire paperwork and get practical information
on basic topics like “getting paid” and “getting benefits.” Additionally, a
hands-on system tour is provided to introduce the new employee to
MyInfo, MyApps, and the MSU website.
 Jumpstart is meant to cover aspects of working at MSU common to all
employees; the program is supplemented by specific departmental
orientation.

Our classified pilot is running well and we are in process of evaluating
any additional information that would be of value to professional staff.
We intend to open Jumpstart to newly hired professional staff starting in
mid April and would welcome involvement of professional council.
4. Approval of 3/05/14 minutes
5. Spring social updates
6. Professional Development opportunities
7. PC brochure review, suggestions for updates
8. Elections
9. Committee updates?
a. PTAC – need new PC member
10. Updates & Announcements
a. Log-in w/ Net ID starting 3/20 (tomorrow)
b. Wheeler Center
c. PC “manual”
d. PC Room change for March 19th and April 16th – in Gaines Hall conference room,
RM 111
11. Adjourn: next meeting, April 2 , 2014