Goal: Attract, support, and retain a best-in-class workforce who will develop and sustain best practices and policies that support the College’s overall excellence.
Objectives
- Strengthen a culture of professionalism and pride, mutual trust and respect, and appreciation and recognition to allow us to flourish individually and collectively.
- Promote employee mentoring, continuous learning, professional development and advancement in the context of the new landscape of how we work and what is needed to thrive.
- Improve administrative and operational effectiveness and efficiency.
- Advance innovative practices and creative solutions to steward and sustain human, fiscal and environmental resources.
- Develop strategies and tactics to improve internal communications across campus.
Dottie Hauver leads the strategy and implementation behind our World-Class Workforce initiatives. She joined Holy Cross in 2011 and serves as our Treasurer and Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance.
Since announcing our Aspire plan, we've launched a number of initiatives to attract, support and retain a best-in-class workforce. Here's some of what we've accomplished so far:
The Heart of Holy Cross
The Heart of Holy Cross event featured a panel of five Holy Cross community members who shared how their personal story embodies the College’s mission (co-sponsored by HR and Office of Mission).
Inclusive Hiring Training
The HR and JEBI Offices collaborated to pilot Inclusive Hiring Training for Managers conducting staff searches. This course provides a guide to promote diversity and inclusion throughout all the stages of the hiring process. The workshop also focuses on reducing bias in the recruitment process, creating diverse search committees, and adopting best practices in candidate screening, interviews, and evaluations.
Financial Wellness
Financial wellness is a focus area, with enhancements to the Defined Contribution 403(b) Retirement Plan. Partnering with Fidelity as the sole recordkeeper has brought increased transparency, lower-cost investment options, and enhanced educational tools for employees.
Wellness Awards
Awarded two wellness awards in 2023: one from the Worksite Wellness Commission of Massachusetts and the other named Holy Cross as one of the 100 Healthiest Workplaces in America.
Referral Program
Launched a $750 referral bonus program for any Holy Cross employee who refers someone to an hourly role.
Streamlining Processes
Adopted JobVite as our applicant tracking system in June 2023 to improve the recruitment and hiring process. This helped reduce the average time to fill job openings by 56%.
Mentor Program
Created a mentor program to improve the new employee onboarding experience. We have now matched over 100 new hires with Holy Cross employee mentors.
Employee Training
Added LinkedIn Learning as a new platform for training courses, in addition to dozens of other learning and development options. 70 employees have completed leadership programming, and we've expanded our management development series to quarterly sessions.
Employee Recognition
Launched a Guusto reward system and a peer-to-peer recognition platform. Awarded 160 spot awards through the You Make a Difference program.
Town Hall Updates
On October 4, 2023, a Town Hall was held to provide updates from our leadership team on each of the six pillars of our Aspire strategic plan.
Get Involved
If you have a question about Aspire or a suggestion or idea related to one of its aims, we invite you to review the plan and share your thoughts.