As the University of Wisconsin-Madison continues the process of redesigning its human resources system, one breakout session at Friday’s Diversity Forum sparked criticism over the new plan and current employee conditions at the university.
Around 30 of the forum’s participants attended the Human Resources Redesign & Diversity Initiatives breakout session to hear how the Diverse Workforce working group approached assessing campus diversity and making recommendations to the redesign project team.
However, the conversation quickly became a critique of diversity related problems within the current personnel system and how the university would address those problems in the redesign plan.
Gretchen Caire, an office associate in the department of financial services, told the group about a personal experience in which her supervisor referred to her as “mammy” on multiple occasions.
Caire said she eventually reached out to her lead worker for help, but was forced to wait over a month to hear back from anyone.
“Where do you go for help? Who can you talk to?” Caire said. “You’re afraid you’re going to be retaliated against. We all need our jobs, we all have to learn to respect each other.”
The session’s facilitator, Assistant Vice Provost for Workforce Equity and Diversity Luis Perino, told Caire to reach out to his department at the Office for Equity and Diversity.
“You certainly are welcome to come and speak with us and we’ll be more than interested in hearing and following up,” Perino said.
Many other participants were concerned with the makeup of the work teams and how the university would address issues like Caire’s under the new system.
Participants also wanted more information about how the university would hold supervisors and managers accountable, especially if employee evaluations are taken into account when determining pay, as the plan proposes.
“I would encourage, if there are still some issues that are not resolved, I imagine that the [project team] would like to hear some comments and observation,” Perino said. “I think many of the things you have talked about here today would be informative and helpful for them to factor in.”
