By Carla Ferreira Rodrigues, Director Human Resources

Today, the university launched a campus-wide Employee Experiences Survey. This represents a key goal of the new university strategy to address organizational culture. This will serve as a baseline metric for all future initiatives aimed at improving the employee experience. 

Over the course of the next few months, a number of your Advancement colleagues will be engaged in a series of intensive exercises in support of our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system exploration. Advancement will be working closely with Queen’s Information Technology Services (ITS) and their consulting firm, Alithya, to prepare a request for proposal with a target to be in market for the end of May/early June.  

As Leigh wrote in last week’s newsletter, many across Advancement have been engaged in some serious planning over the last few weeks. There was plenty of discussion on a wide range of issues and some general themes were reinforced. For me, the big themes were around creating a culture of increased collaboration and trying to come to a shared understanding of how the work we do contributes to our overarching goals.

The last two weeks marked the first return to “normal” for many of us. It was my first time returning to in-person and hybrid activities. But it was anything but “normal.” I am reflecting on our time and realizing that much of what was accomplished is a first step in a longer journey.

I am truly impressed by how far we have come.

Last week, we completed our first quarterly gathering – and it was incredible to interact with everyone again. Today, we are only two weeks away from re-opening Summerhill to begin our test of the physical space elements of Building a Better Workplace. It is all starting to finally come together.

By Jeanette Hepburn, executive director of Development and Alumni Engagement at Smith School of Business
 

I have been reflecting a lot on “change” lately and the pace of change in society.  Some good, some long overdue, some scary and some definitely overwhelming. For me, 2021 has been the ultimate in change – personally and professionally – empty nesting, hybrid/virtual work, new leaders, new colleagues, and new exciting ideas on how we approach our work together and support Queen’s desire to change and have an impact on society.

For those that don’t remember, March 13, 2020, was our last day in the office and Wednesday, March 16, will mark the two-year anniversary of the beginning of our radically different work experience – remote working.