10 Questions with Sadonia Milsap

1.    What is your name, title, and department?

a.    Sadonia Letrice Milsap, Classification/Compensation Specialist I, UIC HR Compensation

2.    What is your role in Campus Human Resources?

a.    My role is to administer salary administration processes (reclassification, requisitions, auditing, reporting, etc.) campus-wide. Conduct and participate in compensation surveys conducted by other companies. Write and edit job descriptions for Civil Service jobs, assign job attributes, ( e.g. Exemptions, FLSA, EEO) etc.

3.    How long have you been in this role? 

a.    5 years

4.    How long have you been at UIC? 

a.    10 years

5.    Tell us about your job positions prior to your current role?

a.    I used to work for The University of Illinois Hospital and Health System HR and I was the Academic Search Coordinator and processed all Academic hires. 

6.    What do you enjoy most about your role?

a.    Assisting the departments with their Compensation requests. This allows me to learn more about and  gain better understanding what all the departments do to represent UIC to our external and internal customers.

7.    Who are the primary customers you serve?

a.     All departments at UIC

8.    What projects are you working on right now?

a.    Currently working with market salary surveys for 2013.

9.    What services do you provide to customers at UIC?

a.    Administer salary administration process, which includes processing reclassifications, requisitions, auditing, reporting, etc. campus-wide.

10. What do you wish more employees knew about the services you provide in this role at UIC?

a.    I will work collaboratively with each of you to help you get what you want, provide guidance and coaching, and act as liason between UIC and SUCSS in gaining approvals for specialty factor requests and contract appointments. It is my responsibility to protect the University by working with SUCSS to get a clear understanding of class specifications and how we are using titles on the UIC campus to make sure each request correct and compliant with SUCSS rules and UIC policy.

11. Bonus question: What do you do for fun and relaxation?

a.    Shopping

Meet Ron Puskarits, Director of Compensation for UIC HR

Pablo Rajczyk, HR Business Adminstrative Associate

An early interest in psychology led Ron Puskarits, the new Director of Compensation for UIC HR, to DePaul University where he earned a degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. The field of psychology, some might quip, is a perfect area of study for transition into the world of Human Resources work. But Ron takes a more practical approach; “I appreciate the psychology of business,” he says.  

Ron, who holds the designation of Certified Compensation Professional (CCP), comes to UIC after spending nearly 11 years at the Chicago Transit Authority. As a manager on a wide variety of HR projects and initiatives he developed and implemented a compensation plan based on a philosophy that he defines as “market driven.” Additionally, he managed the annual performance review and merit increases to ensure that performance was linked to organizational goals.

Ron’s education and years of public and private-sector experience have prepared him well for the challenges ahead. The Job Analysis project that Ron inherits midstream is among his first priorities. While with the CTA he developed and managed programs to analyze and evaluate jobs that produced accurate and highly effective job descriptions.

Meet Eva Mecic, Organizational Effectiveness

Eva Mecic joined the Organizational Effectiveness team last June as a training specialist and got right to work, supporting the June UIC Human Resources All Staff meeting and developing content for the newly designed MyCareer site. More recently, she completed the first of a series of Civil Service awareness sessions. This series of training sessions will touch all Civil Service employees, and she continues to support this initiative reaching out in order to meet the needs of a variety of audiences. In addition, she is looking forward to producing custom online training for UIC processes.

Getting to Know the Organizational Effectiveness Team

The Organizational Effectiveness (OE) area has primary responsibility for campus-wide professional development programs, employee performance management process, human capital strategic communication, and workplace diversity and inclusion programs. This is the UIC HR area focused on creating and delivering strategies that align people with the university’s mission. The team designs and delivers tools, and programs to support employees across colleges and units to meet job related goals. Its mission is to create opportunities that encourage workplace high performance. To that end, OE implements strategies and professional development programs to foster a high performing employee culture at UIC.

Getting to Know the Labor and Employee Relations Department and What They Do

The UIC Labor and Employee Relations Department (L&ER) engages in activities and services in the area of labor/management relations, counseling, employee relations and associated support to managers and employees.   

L&ER operates on behalf of and provides assistance to every unit administratively reporting to UIC, including the 16 colleges, the hospital and health science system, administrative and auxiliary units, and UIC operations in Rockford, Peoria, and Springfield.  

10 Questions with Joanne Neris

1.    What is your name, title, and department?

a.    My name is Joanne Neris, Human Resource Manager at UIC Human Resources.

2.    What is your role in Campus Human Resources? 

a.    Advise, counsel and support campus hiring managers, employees and applicants on employment procedures and practices that include the State Universities Civil Service Rules and University Policy and Rules.

3.    How long have you been in this role?

a.    I have been in this role a little over a year.

4.    How long have you been at UIC?

a.    I have been with UIC for 18 years now.

5.    Tell us about your job positions prior to your current role?

a.    I joined UIC in 1995 as a Personnel Assistant II in Testing Services.  In this position, I was responsible for administering and grading Civil Service examinations.  Five years later, I was promoted to a Personnel Assistant III within Temporary Services where I placed new hires into temporary assignment, processed Criminal Background Checks, submitted payroll, and electronic billing. Shortly after that, I moved into the Human Resource Officer role.   While overseeing the Testing Services functions including the supervision of two staff members, I also worked with departmental staff to fill Civil Service positions. In 2005, I was promoted to an Assistant HR Manager. In this role, I continued to oversee the   overall operation of the Testing division, trained new staff on the Civil Service Hiring Process, and related HR Systems.

6.    What do you enjoy most about your role?

a.    One of the things that I enjoy most in my role is building relationships and trust with my customers.

7.    Who are the primary customers you serve?

a.    My primary customers are employees, department representatives and applicants.

8.    What projects are you working on right now? 

a.    I am not working on any projects at the moment, but recently was involved in the bi-annual Civil Service Audit that was just completed in June.

9.    What services do you provide to customers at UIC?

a.    Knowledge, guidance, support, and counseling during the hiring and application process which can seem complex at times and customer service.  I believe that providing more than what is expected by the customer demonstrates how valuable our customers are.

10.  What do you wish more employees knew about the services you provide in this role at UIC? 

a.    I would really wish that employees knew that we do understand their needs and that we are here to help in any way possible.

11.  Bonus question: What do you do for fun and relaxation? 

a.    For fun, I love taking my kids to the movies and for relaxation, I enjoy practicing hot yoga.

Meet Rebecca Fortier

Rebecca Fortier is the Special Events Facilitator for UIC-HR Special Programs.  Her role is to plan and manage campus events for UIC staff and faculty. These include the Employee Recognition Award Program, Campus Charitable Fund Drive, Retirement Luncheon, and the Retirement Planning Conference.

Rebecca, “the new kid on the block”, joined us in mid-July, is new to the University and new to this role.

Prior to coming to UIC, she spent six and a half years at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in the Office of Undergraduate Admission where she planned and managed all of the undergraduate recruitment events like open houses, overnight weekends, and receptions.

Learn About the HR Business Services Team

By Liz Budzik

The Business Services team in HR consists of Liz Budzik, director; Elba Quezada, Nelly Crespo and Marilyn Sommer.  We provide administrative support to UIC HR. Such activities as budget and finance management, leave of absence coordination, academic professional search coordination, UIC HR operations management, oversight of special programs for campus, and University of Illinois Hospital metrics reporting are among the many things we do! 

I am in charge of creating the unit budgets and the overall budget.  There are 26 different accounts in HR such as the unit state accounts, temporary services, fingerprinting, and charitable fund drive.  Elba reconciles all these accounts, and makes sure the charges are in the correct account and are for the correct amount.  My office handles the contracts and 16 standing purchase orders each year. 

Meet Shannon McGinnis

“10 Questions with Shannon McGinnis”

1.    What is your name, title, and HR department? 

a.    Shannon McGinnis, HR Manager (soon to be Deputy Director) Human Resources, Extra Help, Temporary Services

2.    What is your role in Campus Human Resources? 

a.    My role is to manage the Extra Help process and provide Temporary Help temporaries to departments as needed

3.    How long have you been in this role?   

a.    HR Manager a little over a year, Deputy Director just recently

4.    How long have you been at UIC?   

a.    7 years

5.    Tell us about your job positions prior to your current role?

a.    I began at UIC in the Benefits Department as a Benefits Counselor.  I transferred to Employment in 2007 as a Human Resources Officer where I managed the Temporary Pool, outside agencies, and hired Status Civil Service Employees.  I was promoted to HR Manager in 2011 as I began managing the Extra Help processing in addition to my current role.

6.    What do you enjoy most about your role?

a.    Working with different people and helping them solve their problem.  I also enjoy making department’s jobs easier whenever possible.

7.    Who are the primary customers you serve? 

a.    My customers include all levels of employees on campus as well as applicants and outside vendors.

8.    What projects are you working on right now?

a.    I am now working on the RFP for the Background Checks, Civil Service and Extra Help processing and SUCCS audit.

9.    What services do you provide to customers at UIC? 

a.    We process the Extra Help paperwork, process payroll for employees in the Temporary Pool, and we contact the outside agencies when needed.

10.  What do you wish more employees knew about the services you provide in this role at UIC? 

a.    That our goal is to provide the best service possible and help departments in any way that we can.

11.  Bonus question: What do you do for fun and relaxation? 

a.     I love to read and watch football and baseball.