In your role as Assistant Dean of Human Resources for the College of Arts & Sciences, how you will use the new ConnectCarolina system?
My role has responsibilities that encompass both EPA and SPA personnel issues, faculty, EPA non-faculty, staff, temporary employees and students. I will use the ConnectCarolina system to oversee personnel transactions that relate to these employee types.
This integrated system will hopefully allow us to increase efficiency and help me with making workflow and process changes for the way that we do business. The robust reporting that we anticipate out of the system will be very helpful to me and the other College leadership team members in strategic planning for our units.
What did you do to test ConnectCarolina?
I was involved in two rounds of testing. In the first round, we had test scripts to run different personnel transactions on different employee types. We went through a whole lifecycle of an employee. That hypothetical person transitioned from being a temporary employee at the University, then a permanent employee. He got a pay raise and then his employment terminated when he died.
In a second round of testing, we got to really go through and see the workflow. When I entered an action, I could see how it flowed through the system for approval.
How was that helpful?
I could see what the system looks like for me as a user.
Testing also enabled me to start thinking about what I can do about my current business processes to prepare to make the transition smooth for go live.
By going into the system to test, I could start thinking about what do I need to do to prepare my school and division.
What did you like about the system?
It was nice to see how integrated the system is. When I pulled up an individual, I could see in one place all these different attributes. That the person is a student here, has another job on campus and is an affiliate. All these attributes about this person were in one place. I didn’t have to go to three or four different systems to find out bits and pieces about the one employee or individual.
Did testing ease your mind about the transition to a new system?
Going into the test, I was concerned whether the system really will be able to do what I need it to do in order to do my business. It was really helpful for me to get my hands on it and process some things.
Overall, a lot of my concerns were alleviated. The system does do what we need it to do as far as we can tell. Some things will look a little bit different and will have to be done a little bit different than what we’re comfortable with– but I don’t think anything that’s too painful for anyone. It will just take some time to get used to the new terminology and some new business processes and that type of thing. Otherwise, I felt it was a pretty successful experience.
What were your takeaways from the experience?
It’s going to be important to really understand the business processes and the policies and procedures that underlie the processes. In preparation for that, departments and schools can ensure that their folks understand why we do what we do. As far as being able to do it in ConnectCarolina, I think it will take a little adjustment period, but otherwise it will be good.