Human Resources (HR) is one of the four main service areas of the PEAK Initiative.
Prior to PEAK, many employees across the system performed a variety of HR tasks, or even a variety of HR and Finance tasks. This led to compliance risks due to inconsistent processes across the system, unclear roles and responsibilities for staff doing the work, duplicate work across campuses/colleges/units, and inequitable opportunities for developing HR expertise and professional development.
PEAK established the HR Operations Center to create a more efficient, equitable, and consistent way to deliver and receive services at the University.
New positions for existing HR staff will be created that focus on:
- Payroll
- Talent acquisition
- Compensation and benefits
- Workforce data management
- Leave of absence
PEAK is creating equitable and inclusive opportunities through clearly defined roles and standardized job responsibilities (across similar job titles) within HR. HR staff will benefit from working on a team surrounded by other skilled specialists and from the structure of clearly defined levels and pathways for professional development and advancement. In addition to the HR Operations Center, central HR includes the HR Centers of Expertise (COE) and local HR Leads who will partner with the HR Operations Center on planning and service delivery.
HR resources are listed below.
How is the Work Changing?
Work Today
- Lack of experience with processes needed to complete certain tasks, leading to re-work or mistakes
- Different levels of support depending on campus/college/unit
- Limited opportunity to develop expertise in an area
- Compliance risks
Work Tomorrow
- Streamlined work processes
- Clear reporting pathways
- Clear roles and responsibilities
- Opportunity to train and develop expertise in a specific functional area
- Less compliance risks
How will roles change in the HR Operations Center?
It depends on the individual and which role they will be moving into. Let’s take A.J. for example.
Right now, over half of A.J.’s includes talent acquisition, workforce data management, classification, and other miscellaneous tasks outside of HR. A.J.’s supervisor is not an HR practitioner and isn’t in their job family.
If A.J. joins the HR Operations Center, they will be able to focus on an area of specialty, receive the latest updates on process right away, have the support of peers doing similar work, and there will be backup to ensure services continue to be provided when A.J. is out of the office.
Not all individuals experience the same challenges as A.J., but there is variation in how campuses/colleges/units are resourced and potential for more consistency in HR work.
Human Resources Questions
Specific HR questions have been archived. Current general PEAK questions can be found on the Frequently Asked Questions page.
HR questions have been archived as of June 30, 2023.
HR Resources
March 2023
Implementation Phase 1 - Milestone 3 Town Hall
- View the HR Milestone 3 Town Hall presentation deck
- Watch the HR Town Hall recording (for University of Minnesota staff systemwide - login required)
November 2022
Implementation Phase 1 - Milestone 2 Informational Meeting
- View the Human Resources Milestone 2 presentation deck
- Watch the Human Resources meeting recording (for University of Minnesota staff systemwide - login required)
Contacts
Sponsor & Transition Teams
View the PEAK Initiative Sponsors.
As each area moves through the PEAK milestones, the leadership of the campus/college/administrative unit forms transition teams. When your area is actively engaged in the process, you will be able to find your representative on the list of transition team members from Finance, Human Resources (HR), Information Technology (IT), and Marketing and Communications (Marcom).
PEAK Office
Email us at [email protected], or use the PEAK contact form to contact the PEAK office.