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Improvement Efforts Underway

Enhancing HR processes to better serve you. 

Improvements Across UC Davis

Onboarding Satisfaction Surveys

In September 2023, UC Davis Health launched an onboarding survey, to gather feedback from the hiring manager 30 days after the employee starts and at critical milestones for new hires: 30, 60, and 90 days. The Davis campus launched the same survey on Dec. 13.

By collecting their insights and experiences, we aim to continuously improve our onboarding process to better support hiring managers and supervisors, as well as ensure that new employees feel welcomed, supported, and equipped for success. 

Read about the initial rollout and feedback at UC Davis Health here.

The survey is being administered through Qualtrics and covers various aspects of the onboarding experience, including:

  • Welcome and Integration

  • Assessing the new hires' sense of welcome, inclusion, and integration into their teams and the UC Davis Health community.

  • Equipment and Resources

  • Gathering feedback on the timely provision of necessary equipment, tools, and resources to perform their roles effectively.

  • Overall Experience and Retention

  • Understanding the overall satisfaction of new hires and their intentions to stay with UC Davis Health based on their onboarding experience.

The surveys reflect our commitment to seeking objective and subjective measurements early in the new hire's career because improving early experiences greatly influences engagement and can lower turnover. The surveys will provide continuous process improvement (CPI) opportunities for our onboarding and orientation experience.

 FAQ: Onboarding Satisfaction Surveys 

  • Who gets the survey?
    • External hires in staff roles (non-represented and represented), including students at 30, 60 and 90 days after their start
    • Staff transferring internally (including promotions and lateral transfers) within UC Davis Health or from the Davis campus to UC Davis Health
    • Hiring managers and supervisors at 30 days post-start
  • Who has access to the data?
    • The responses are NOT anonymous, though they will be treated confidentially.
    • Limited administrators with valid business needs from the SSO Onboarding team, Workforce Strategies data team, and Employee and Labor Relations will have access to the data.
    • Summary data for UC Davis Health will be made available quarterly, and there are plans to develop dashboards when there is a sufficient number of responses to ensure confidentiality.
  • How will the responses be used?
  • The data will be used to establish a baseline of satisfaction and will guide ongoing efforts in continuous process improvement. Positive and unsatisfactory scores will contribute to enhancing new hires' satisfaction with the onboarding process.
  • What questions are included?
  • Industry standard questions recommended by Qualtrics will comprise the survey. You can see a sample here.
  • What if something concerning is reported?
  • Administrators from the Shared Services Organization will review responses and engage Employee and Labor Relations for consultation and further escalation if needed.
  • What if I have further questions?
  • Please email HS-EmployeeOnboardingSurvey@ucdavis.edu 

Job Description Management Tool Replacement

In mid-2024, we are implementing is a new job description management tool that will replace PeopleAdmin. This tool will provide a repository for all current job descriptions as well as position management controls.

Because this tool will support both the Sacramento and Davis campus hiring processes, we are building the structure tables and templates for both at the same time, even though UC Davis Health will be deploying it first.

Benefits Support

  • Benefits Help Desks
    • Wednesdays, from 10 - 11 a.m., via Zoom to answer general benefits questions.
    • Thursdays, from 8 a.m. - Noon, at UC Davis Health's North Addition

For new employees:

  • New employees receive an email with benefits information and invitations to attend an on-demand or live Benefits Webinar and a weekly Benefits Help Desk. The email also shares information about critical enrollment deadlines, how to enroll in benefits and retirement as well as a reminder to review the disability insurance offerings since UC does not pay into State Disability Insurance.

Current goals:

  • Collaboration is ongoing with Leave Service Channels, Disability Management Services, and UCPath to improve communications, consistency, and handoffs between teams.

Recent projects:

  • To reduce benefits disenrollment, local outreach was initiated via email reminders for employees that need to submit documents as part of the Family Member Eligibility Verification (FMEV) process.
  • Onsite and virtual open enrollment help desks supported employees making benefits decisions for 2024.

Improvements At UC Davis Health

New Hire Onboarding Improvements

New employees have big expectations when they accept a role at our world-class institution and we want to deliver exceptional warmth and belonging at every step along the way - for both new hires and the people that hire them. 

These key improvements are underway and set to be rolled out over the next several months

1. Strengthening Pre-Employment Steps and Templates

  • Offer letter templates have been refined for accuracy, clarity, and warmth.
  • The significance of timely completion of additional pre-employment tasks (e.g., certification submission, EHS appointment scheduling, I-9 verification, issuing employee badges/card keys, system access), is being more explicitly communicated and reinforced.

2. Improved Employee/Manager Communication

  • The SSO onboarding team will now include managers on initial new-hire communications to help facilitate faster, lasting connections.
  •  Updated Web Resources

3. Coordination of Pre-Employment Activities into ONE Location (HAS)

  • A single visit to the HAS Building in Rancho Cordova fulfills EHS, I-9, Oath, Badge, Equipment, Privacy & Security Training, and Systems Access requirements.
  • This efficient solution replaces the previous 5-stop process, 3 of which required paid parking.
  • This shifts the coordination responsibility from the new hire onto UC Davis Health and decreases unnecessary new-hire anxiety leading up to the first day of work.

4. Single Point-of-Contact through Onboarding Concierge
Something currently being explored is the introduction of a dedicated Onboarding Concierge serving as a single point of contact for new hire onboarding support, and a resource for the hiring manager. 

  • This resource acts as both an approachable troubleshooter and problem solver for new hires and hiring managers alike.
  • It efficiently manages role-specific onboarding elements such as uniforms and parking, mitigating challenges currently handled by Talent Acquisition and the Shared Services Organization.
  • By observing and enhancing this service, we can readily identify gaps and implement continuous process improvements.

Job Description Standardization

We’re currently evaluating job descriptions for our most highly populated job classifications and series, aiming for uniformity in the following roles:

  • Clin Nurse 1 (NX)​
  • Clin Nurse 2  (NX)
  • Clin Nurse 3 (NX)​
  • MOSC 2 (EX)​
  • MOSC 3 Specialist (EX)​
  • MOSC 3 Lead (EX)​
  • Med Ctr Custodian Sr (SX)​
  • Med Ctr Envir Svc Worker 1 (SX)​
  • Nurse PD (NX)​
  • Nurse Svc Supv 2 (99)​
  • Med Ast 1 (EX)​
  • Med Ast 2 (EX)​
  • Nurse Pract 1 (NX)
  • Nurse Pract 2 (NX)
  • Nurse Pract 3 (NX)​
  • Voc Nurse and PD (EX)​
  • Voc Nurse Sr (EX)​
  • Clin Application Profl 3 (99)​
  • Clin Application Profl 4 (99)​
  • HUSC 3 (EX)​

Reducing variation in these job descriptions will enable our Compensation and Talent Acquisition teams to provide hiring managers with a more efficient review and approval process, thereby streamlining the overall hiring process and decreasing turnaround times.

The standardization process entails:

  • Aligning on preferred qualifications and establishing minimum qualifications
  • Developing a common list of preferred qualifications for managers to easily select from
  • Designing a process for maintaining and updating standardized template descriptions, facilitating quicker launches of future searches by hiring managers

The project team, consisting of hiring managers, division leaders, HR Compensation and Talent Acquisition, and process improvement professionals started this effort in June, projected to continue through March 2024. 

If you have questions, please contact

Talent Acquisition Improvements

1. Vacancy Approval Process Improvement

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2. Website Improvements & Updated Email Templates

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3. Department Assignments Search Tool

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4. The Hiring Experience "Transitional State Workshop" 

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Various leadership and team members involved with The Hiring Experience

Participants defined the "Transitional State" of improvements that will take place between the current state and the desired future state. It is a period of change and transformation, during which new systems, processes, and behaviors are being implemented.

  • 51 opportunities for improvement were identified. 31 opportunities were agreed upon and prioritized to be pursued as part of The Hiring Experience Program. 
  • 23 Service Level Agreements and defined turnaround times 

Next Steps:

  • The 31 opportunities will be progressed through Rapid Improvement Events under the Program
  • All changes will be managed and rolled out to all impacted stakeholders through the support of the Change Management and Communication workstream for The Hiring Experience Program
  • Exact timing for the rollout of the changes is still to be defined, but will occur over the next 6 months
  • More information on the specific changes and the timing of when the changes will be rollout will be shared once known

Planned Efforts at UC Davis Health

  • Re-structured Processes
  • Streamline end-to-end business processes
  • Improved Technology
  • Improve candidate, hiring manager and recruiter experience through enhanced job application and applicant tracking capabilities 
  • Reskilled Workforce
  • Train and prepare the workforce for new technology capabilities and processes 
  • Real-Time Data and Performance Metrics
  • Develop metrics to track key performance indicators