Human Resources at Your Service

After serving four months as interim executive director, Cheryl Gochis was named associate vice president for human resources in October. Under Gochis’ leadership, Human Resources hopes to continue improving communication with Baylor faculty and staff.

“We exist for the staff and faculty and for it to be a good employee experience,” Gochis said. “But sometimes, there are things that happen. If we don’t have feedback on them, we don’t know which levers to adjust.”

Gochis said Human Resources’ main area of focus in 2015 will be benefits and helping faculty and staff fully understand all that is offered. At the top of that list is health coverage.

Gochis wants to help employees make informed choices but stressed that ultimately anything related to benefits is the employee’s decision.

“As an HR department, we want people to understand they have the freedom to make those choices rather than have benefits handed to them with no choices,” she said. “Instead, we want to say, here are your choices; let’s evaluate your choices and help you get in the best plan for you.”

Any discussion of health coverage is incomplete without knowing how the Affordable Care Act affects employee benefits. Gochis said Baylor’s benefits already exceeded those required by the law.

“We realize when you go home every night and hear on the news about the Affordable Care Act, you begin wondering how we’re doing,” she said. “The impact to us was very minor because we already were doing a great job delivering healthcare options for our employees. We’re trying to make sure we communicate that, and we have some communication efforts planned for the spring.”

Gochis said the area in which the ACA most affects Baylor’s benefits package is for part-time employees.

“Technically, if you work 30 hours or more, we need to offer health insurance,” she said. “In the past, it really has been less structured. We have a comprehensive team with HR, budget, payroll and the tax office, making sure that if we have anyone in that situation they understand they could have health insurance through us.”

Another area of focus for Human Resources is helping departments in the hiring process to find the best possible candidates.

“Whenever there is a vacancy, we really need to say, ‘How can I upgrade my department?’” Gochis said. “Then we need to go to market to search for that person. Truly, it should transform that whole department and employee experience.”

However, Human Resources’ ability to assist does not stop with the hire. Gochis said another point of emphasis in 2015 is giving managers the necessary tools to make their teams successful.

“The manager is the most important person to an employee in the entire organization,” Gochis said. “For a lot of managers, they need better tools to help them communicate, manage and lead.”

With this in mind, Gochis said managers should understand that they do not have to be everything to an employee, but that many times they simply need to be an employee’s conduit to Human Resources. From finances to benefits to family or health concerns, Human Resources can assist.

“Sometimes, managers are overwhelmed by the fact that all these employees are coming to them with all these issues,” Gochis said. “A manager may be tempted to say, ‘Let me try to help you solve that.’ It’s a Herculean feat for anybody. We’re trying to emphasize the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that managers can call for help in dealing with these things.”

EAP or Employee Assistance Services (EAS) offers support, guidance and resources to help full-time faculty and staff resolve personal issues. This includes unlimited telephone access, online guidance resources and face-to-face consultations.

For more information on all the benefits provided Baylor employees, visit the Human Resources website at baylor.edu/hr.