Fredrick Martin at Uva (a)

Abstract

Senior Change Manger Fredrick Martin and the UVA HR leadership team are tasked with the implementation of Ufirst, a project that will merge more than 70 HR programs and 11 distinct HR offices in both the academic division and the health system into a single, seamless HR. Ufirst will also leverage new technology that will provide self-serve HR to approximately 30,000 employees. It is an ambitious and complex project for the university, and the first in a new strategic effort to streamline university operations to make them more efficient, less costly, and best in class. Martin's experience is in the corporate context. Academia presents novel problems because of its complex governance structure. Change in the academic context requires buy-ins from many different stakeholders who could “opt-out, ” which could prolong decision-making and derail implementation. Martin and his team must also contend with complex regulations governing hiring and workforce management.Martin needs to figure out how to support the needed change to a new culture where HR professionals are strategic partners with the people they serve rather than transactional experts. They needed to demonstrate to a large university community the power of collaboration and integration to revitalize HR. Excerpt UVA-OB-1257 Rev. Jul. 30, 2020 Fredrick Martin at UVA (A) Fredrick Martin looked out onto the construction site for a new University of Virginia building on Old Ivy Road, which would eventually house a newly centralized and revitalized HR department that would serve the entire university and the UVA Health System. In the year since he had started his job as senior director of Change Management, he'd seen the building's piers sunk into the Charlottesville, Virginia, soil, the foundation laid, and the pipes fitted. At the moment, workers in hard hats were framing the walls. As the building rose, Martin's team worked to transform the workforce that would eventually move into it. Martin and his colleagues were tasked with the implementation of Ufirst, a project that would merge more than 70 HR programs and 11 distinct HR offices into a single system. It was an ambitious and difficult project for the university, and the first in a new strategic effort to streamline university operations to make them more efficient, less costly, and best in class. . . .