By Donna Hemmila

The Office of the President's Human Resources department is moving forward with plans to partner with the UC San Francisco HR department in a move expected to bring more services to Office to the President staff.

HR Director Rosemary Monroe and Associate Vice President of Human Resources and Benefits Judy Boyette have been exploring options for moving OP human resource services to one of the campuses. With the restructuring of OP into a smaller, more efficient central administration unit, Monroe said it became apparent that the HR department would have a hard time maintaining service levels as a standalone department.

"We thought UCSF was a good environment for us," Monroe said. "We thought we could have a good business relationship with them."

No decisions have yet been made about the number of positions available for OP HR staff or where they will be located.

The OP HR department is part of the bigger systemwide Human Resources and Benefits Department based at the  Office of the President in Oakland. Systemwide Human Resources and Benefits serves employees at all UC locations with functions that include labor relations, benefit administration and retirement services. The Office of the President HR department serves from 1,900 to 2,000 employees with 20.5 staff positions. The department functions much like a campus department administering job and staffing services, compensation classification programs, training and staff development, ergonomic evaluations, labor relations, workers' compensation and the employee assistance program.

Through the new arrangement, Monroe said, OP is hoping to improve employee access to training opportunities.

"We have quite an elaborate training program within our department and across the campus," said Mike Tyburski, director of UCSF's HR department. "We just launched a leadership development program. We've been increasing our professional development training."

The goal is to offer the same training opportunities to OP staff, he said, by sending trainers to Oakland so employees won't have to travel to classes.

Over the next several months, Tyburski said, the departments will be assessing the service levels now provided at OP and looking for the best ways to integrate them with UCSF and achieve efficiencies for both. The transition will take place over the next nine to 12 months.

"The next step is assessing where HR staff should be located, in Oakland or in San Francisco with staff who are doing the same work," said Tyburski.

Monroe expects some people will stay in Oakland, and others will go to San Francisco. She thinks the affiliation will be good for her staff, who will find more opportunities at the larger San Francisco department.

"There will be opportunities for people who really want to grow," Monroe said. "It's hard now because the staff – like everyone else - don't know where they're going to land."

Monroe is retiring in June, so an interim OP HR director will be hired. Recruitment for the position is open only to OP and UCSF HR staff.

Meanwhile, she said, HR staff will continue to serve the OP community during the restructuring. One way it is doing that is through the skills classes being offered to help people through the restructuring. Employees have been taking advantage of a trio of job searching skills classes that include resume writing, interviewing and job searching on the Internet, which is taught in a computer lab.

The department offered the three classes twice in April and three times in May for a total of 15 classes. More will be offered in June, said Linda McMullen, manager of OP employment and staffing services. Recruiters from UCSF, UC Berkeley, UC Davis and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have held classes at OP to explain their available employment opportunities and how to apply for them. Representatives from UC Santa Cruz will visit the Franklin building on May 28 at noon.

"People whose jobs are being affected should come to the classes even if it's for a skills refresher," said McMullen. "Come just to get focused on the fact that you need to do this."

The HR department is continuing to add classes. Anyone who has an idea for a class can contact linda.mcmullen@ucop.edu.

Donna Hemmila is editor of Our University.