New Career Center Will Provide Support to Laid-Off Employees

A Career Center will be opened on the campus to support Yale employees who are laid off from their jobs as a result of University budget cuts necessitated by the current economic crisis.

The establishment of the new center, at 155 Whitney Ave., was announced by Michael Peel, vice president for human resources and administration. (See related story.)

While the University hopes to achieve most of the necessary reductions in staffing through normal attrition, explained Peel, Yale wants to provide as much economic and emotional support as possible to any staff member affected by workforce reductions.

In a recent letter to all Yale employees, President Levin called for reductions in staff salaries and other non-personnel costs of 7.5% — up from the 5% he had originally asked for in December. The more aggressive cuts are needed because “the prospects for an early recovery” from the economic downturn “have diminished” due to the prospect of a “prolonged recession,” Levin said.

The new Career Center will be staffed by Yale Human Resources professionals and external staff from the career transition firm Right Management. It will be overseen by Sheila Sautter, who as the new director of internal placement will assist in matching displaced employees to job openings at the University.

Representatives from the Wellness Corporation, Yale’s Employee Assistance Program provider, will also be available to help staff members with personal and family concerns as a result of layoffs, Peel said.

“Transitioning employees will receive a broad range of internal and external job coaching, re-training assistance, where helpful, and administrative support,” Peel explained in a Feb. 27 letter to managers.

Peel has appointed Donna Cable, senior director for employee relations and staffing, as overall project leader for transition programs and processes. She, and others on the Career Center team, will assist managers who need to make changes in their departments and will help evaluate whether additional special programs or support are needed to help departments reach their budget reductions.

To help laid-off employees, Peel also announced an enhancement to normal severance benefits for the next six months (through Oct. 1, 2009) for employees not covered by the University’s collective bargaining agreement with its unions. Staff members will receive 90 days of advance notice when their jobs are terminated, and will be given two weeks of salary continuation for each full year of their Yale service, with a four-week minimum and a 52-week maximum.

“For most employees, this transition pay will be double the benefits that they would have been eligible to receive under our standard program,” noted Peel.

Medical coverage will also be extended for laid-off employees. Consistent with new federal tax incentives, Yale will pay 65% of the cost for up to nine months of medical protection in addition to the current one month per year of service medical coverage continuation.

Other options first

While Peel acknowledged that some layoffs will be unavoidable for some departments to meet budgetary targets, he has asked managers to explore all possible alternatives before laying off members of their staffs.

“In our recent Workplace Survey (see related stories), hundreds of employees commented that they wished Yale had more flexible work schedules,” Peel said in his letter to managers. “Many indicated an interest in part-time work, job sharing arrangements, unpaid leaves, seasonal positions, phased retirement, and other forms of flex-time and flex-place accommodations.” He asked managers to discuss some of these “budget-friendly possibilities” with their employees as a way to reduce salary expenditures in their units without having to eliminate staff.

Since President Levin’s first letter on budget cuts, Peel said, the University has already eliminated several hundred job vacancies which were to be filled. Even with the expectation of lower turnover rates due to economic uncertainties, he noted, between 300 and 500 additional positions will open due to normal attrition. However, first preference for these vacancies, he added, will be given to internal candidates. Jobs must be posted for two weeks before they are opened to external candidates.

Peel suggested the following additional measures for University managers forced to trim their budgets.

• Expenditures for consultants, temporary labor and overtime pay should be eliminated to retain permanent staff;

• Rather than just scaling back on personnel, managers and their teams should eliminate unnecessary work by prioritizing and distinguishing the “need to do” from the “nice to do”; and

• All layoffs should be reviewed in advance by the department’s Human Resources generalist to ensure all legal and contractual obligations are met.

“While we recognize that difficult and challenging decisions must be made to reduce unit budgets, we are making every effort possible to avoid taking the painful step of laying off valued members of our staff, and to be as supportive and helpful as we can in the event such an action is our only option,” said Peel in a recent interview (see page 7).