Report 2016-122 Recommendation 1 Responses
Report 2016-122: California State University: Stronger Oversight Is Needed for Hiring and Compensating Management Personnel and for Monitoring Campus Budgets (Release Date: April 2017)
Recommendation #1 To: University, California State
To improve the oversight of CSU's management personnel, the Chancellor's Office should develop a policy that requires its own divisions and departments and campuses to prepare written justifications for both the purpose and specific number of proposed additional management positions. As appropriate, these should justify the number of management personnel positions to be hired based on a workload staffing analysis and the number of people to be supervised. The Chancellor's Office should also require human resources units to maintain these justifications and make them publicly available to stakeholders when requested. No later than one year following the issuance of this new policy, the Chancellor's Office should begin monitoring its own divisions and departments and campuses to ensure that they are properly justifying all new management personnel hires.
1-Year Agency Response
On March 27, 2018, the Chancellor's Office issued Human Resources Letter 2018-04 to require written justifications for both the purpose and specific number of proposed additional management positions. The policy also provides examples of the types of information the justifications may include and provides a template the Chancellor's Office and campuses can use for monitoring compliance. A minimum three-year record retention period is specified, along with direction to make the justifications publicly available to stakeholders when requested. Further, to the extent that monitoring compliance with this requirement falls reasonably within the scope of either a remote or onsite campus review being conducted by a Chancellor's Office division or department, we will include the monitoring in the scope of work.
- Completion Date: March 2018
- Response Date: June 2018
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Resolved
6-Month Agency Response
The Chancellor's Office is finalizing a policy that requires written justifications for both the purpose and specific number of proposed additional management positions. As appropriate, the justifications should include the number of management personnel positions to be hired based on a workload staffing analysis and the number of people to be supervised. The policy will address required archiving of the justification documents. In addition, the policy will include instructions for the campuses to conduct sample testing to ensure they are properly justifying new management personnel hires.
- Estimated Completion Date: January 2018
- Response Date: October 2017
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending
60-Day Agency Response
The Chancellor's Office is developing a policy that requires written justifications for both the purpose and specific number of proposed additional management positions. As appropriate, the justifications should include the number of management personnel positions to be hired based on a workload staffing analysis and the number of people to be supervised. The policy will address required archiving of the justification documents. We estimate the policy will be issued by January 2018.
In addition, we are developing a methodology to ensure appropriate monitoring by the Chancellor's Office is in place. We expect to begin monitoring within one year following the issuance of the new policy.
- Estimated Completion Date: January 2019
- Response Date: June 2017
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
All Recommendations in 2016-122
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.