Inside HR Services

Back to school means a new year of HR Services…

September starts a new school year and a new service year for HR Services. Membership renewal packets were sent to program contacts in mid-August. Packets included your membership invoice plus calendars and information on all of the products and resources that HR Services provides. Please renew your membership by Oct. 30 to avoid any interruption in service.

…and a new cycle of Salary Surveys

As an HR leader, you need lots of data, and HR Services delivers. Data collection is under way for this year’s Salaries and Wages in Texas Public Schools survey. Our salary survey reports are the only current-year data reports available on the compensation practices for more than 150 jobs and extra-duty assignments in Texas public schools.

Survey deadlines are as follows:

The Superintendent Survey  is on pace to generate record participation for the second year in a row, with 207 responses already received. We hope to eclipse last year’s record (867 districts).

This is our second year to offer an electronic, Microsoft Excel-based questionnaire to make it easy for districts to submit district personnel salary and stipend data. More than two-thirds of districts participated in 2008–09, a small decline from the prior year. We hope to boost participation for 2009–10 through our now-familiar survey process coupled with a week-long extension of the due date to give salary survey contacts more time to submit district information.

Need HR metrics?

DataCentral members will be able to participate in and access survey data on HR policies and practices through DataCentral HR Surveys beginning this month. The first release of HR Surveys will be sent to our program contacts the first week of September.

HR Surveys are topic-driven. The first release includes four surveys: teacher absence rates; time-off benefits; sick leave pools and banks; and health insurance costs. You must be a member of DataCentral to participate and you must participate in order to create comparison reports or download data.

We are pleased to report that 372 districts joined DataCentral in its first year! The HR Services Advisory Group for DataCentral will be meeting on Sept. 18 to help us brainstorm new topics to survey in the future.

Fall is a great time for HR training

With the push to staff schools over, HR staff can now focus some attention on their own learning needs. HR Services offers lots of fall training classes with several new or updated courses. Fall offerings here at TASB include the following:

• Sept. 23—Wage and Hour Rules for Public Schools
• Sept. 24—Get a Grip on the FMLA (new)
• Oct. 14—Fundamentals of Pay Systems
• Oct. 15—Controlling Complex Pay Systems (new)
• Nov. 17—Staffing Controls for Public Schools (new)

And don’t forget the premier event of the season, the Texas School HR Administrators Academy, Nov. 2–3, 2009, cosponsored by TASB HR Services and the Texas Association of School Personnel Administrators. Check HR Services’ Web Site  to learn more about all the above courses and to register on line.