Attendance

ASF (10) — Zak Johnson, president; Margie Giauque, president elect; Nina Johnson, membership; Aspen Easterling; Kris Williams; Bridget Tews, treasurer; Bonner Karger; Duane Biehn; Andy Bartlett, secretary; Stephanie Bard.

ADMIN (3) — Dr. Jesse Grant; Dr. Deb Peterson; Megan Zothman.

Agenda

Call for Additional items

a. Overtime Reports — Zak Johnson
b. FLSA — Megan Zothman

Special Initiative Award 2017-18

Zak Johnson said ASF is seeking a 2017-18 timeline and a budget for the Special Initiative Awards program; a framework that can be provided to ASF members who are interested in submitting proposals.

Performance Evaluations

Megan Zothman provided a final draft performance evaluation form similar to the form ASF provided at April Meet & Confer. Some differences:

• Employee self-evaluation as a first step in the review process to identify key accomplishments and areas for growth. This process should cover, on average, four or five areas of responsibility.
• Supervisor would perform their own first-step evaluation to assess an employee’s key accomplishments and areas of growth, and provide a rating for each responsibility area.
• Supervisor would assess performance on “core competencies” that measure performance against a set of baseline expectations for all employees at BSU. Supervisor would provide a rating and identify areas for growth.
• Establish fiscal-year goals, which will vary for each employee. Supervisor and employee set goals at individual meetings; set wide range of goals, establish how you’ll measure success and completion of goals.
• Quarterly performance conversations between employee and supervisor to review goals. Administration wants goal review and performance updates to not be a once-per-year activity any longer.

HR’s goal for this year is to finalize performance evaluation tool, review position descriptions and establish goals and quarterly activities in July. Quarterly review conversations will begin this fall and the new annual evaluation form will be used beginning in July 2018. HR wants to ensure that the form itself is not a barrier to completion of performance reviews.

Margie Giauque asked why the decision had been made to require quarterly performance updates.

Megan Zothman said the quarterly reviews were a way to document and formalize conversations that should be taking place already—quick updates on goals and performance that happen more often than once per year. Updates can help ensure both that work being done is in support of annual goals, and that goals that were set are actually being addressed. Goal is to have a consistent process for all employees on campus regardless of their supervisor — there’s an understanding of what the university’s review process looks like.

Stephanie Bard asked how this process affected other bargaining units who get performance reviews in conjunction with anniversary steps.

Megan Zothman said that those anniversary steps have been used but that reviews are not contractually tied to anniversary dates; that has just been a matter of past practice. This new process should ensure that employees and supervisors have significantly more time and opportunities to discuss performance and goals.

Zak Johnson commended HR for the work it’s doing to develop a performance evaluation process that seems to have more accountability for both supervisors and employees.

Position Updates

Megan Zothman —

Positions in search:

• MSUAASF head strength & conditioning coach
• Hobson Memorial Union director
• Assistant Director of Admissions/transfer specialist

Positions currently posted: none

Positions filled:

• Hall director x3
• Student Success Adviser

Nina Johnson asked if new employee announcements have been coming out in conjunction with an employee’s start date.

Zothman said yes, or just before the start date.

Other/Information Items

4a.—Overtime Reports — Zak Johnson asked if ASF can receive an overtime report, similar to the AFSCME document provided at their Meet & Confers. He asked what information is typically included in the AFSCME report.

Megan Zothman said the reports list employees and number of hours of overtime worked. HR would like to provide this report quarterly.

4b.—FLSA — Megan Zothman provided additional information following the May 30 meeting on FLSA. Documents that have been provided to MSUAASF has some outdated information but do still provide answers to many questions. Exemption test forms have been sent; there are several tests but the ones sent are the ones that were used to review BSU positions. Will start with the administrative exemption form so there is transparency when review process is done for MSUAASF Range D and Range E positions.

Zothman provided an example to illustrate how travel works for non-exempt employees:

• If an employee is traveling during normal work hours, it’s paid time whether that employee is a driver or a passenger.
• If an employee is traveling outside normal work hours but in the same day, say for a trip that begins at 6 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. with no overnight stay, it’s paid time whether that employee is a driver or a passenger.
• If an employee is traveling during normal work hours on a trip that includes an overnight stay — for example a non-exempt employee that works from 8-noon, then takes lunch and departs via car at 12:30 p.m. for St. Paul. For both the driver and passenger, 8-4:30 normal work time is paid for both.
• For exempt employee travel outside of normal work hours, say departing for St. Paul at 5:30 p.m. for a trip that requires an overnight stay after wrapping up normal work day, only driver gets paid overtime unless passenger has assigned work activity in the vehicle.

Margie Giauque asked whether Wedneday-to-Tuesday workweek for 40-hour counting purposes is consistent with other campuses.

Megan Zothman said regardless of how the week is split, there’s a beginning and end to the week. Wednesday-to-Tuesday is used because it aligns with pay periods. FLSA requires that hours counted for overtime purposes take place during a single 40-hour workweek. She reiterated that adhering to FLSA guidelines were going to force offices to “learn how to work in a completely different work environment.”

Adjourn

Meeting adjourned at 3:06 p.m.