Findings
Colleagues across units described several challenges in HR work
- Many processes are handled by people who only do them occasionally
- Limited backup support when staff are out
- Compliance risks
- Inconsistent processes from unit to unit
What Employees Have Requested Most
- Better training and clearer guidance
- Smoother hiring approvals
- Improvements to recruitment and search processes
- Leave experiences that are supportive of the employee on leave as well as their team at PSU.
What HR Leaders Also Identified
There was strong support for centralizing some HR functions to:
- Make training easier and more consistent
- Reduce compliance risk
- Simplify and standardize processes across campus
These insights shaped recommendations aimed at reducing complexity, strengthening support, and creating a more consistent and reliable HR experience for employees and hiring managers.
Recommendations
HR Campus Support Hubs: Increase dedicated HR support for business units by building on the HR Partner model and expanding direct support from Employment and Search coordinators. This involves continuing and strengthening transactional HR support first implemented in 2024.
Expand Training Resources: Increase HR training capacity to support onboarding, ongoing learning and unit-specific needs. This approach prioritizes consistency while allowing flexibility for different campus needs.
Consolidate Protected Leaves: Bring protected leave programs under a unified, PSU-centric structure to improve the employee experience and reduce duplicated employee administrative work, while improving data accuracy and coordination with payroll.
For more details, watch the HR presentation from the Operational Excellence Town Hall on Oct. 22, 2025.
Process
The Human Resources work group, with seven members from around campus who engage in HR functions as part of their jobs, met seven times to evaluate and identify processes to target for improvement.
In March of 2025, MGT Consulting held a listening session with 103 participants. The sessions were followed by a survey that was shared in PSU's employee newsletter.
In August of 2025, the HR recommendations were consolidated into a Year One Report as part of the Operational Excellence project.
In October of 2025, HR presented these actions as part of a town hall meeting to campus.
Why HR?
Currently, less than 25% of HR functions at PSU are managed centrally; the remaining critical HR workload is highly decentralized across all business units.
This structure has been consistently highlighted over multiple reviews as a key focus area. Providing more central support for HR services would allow business units to increase focus on their local strategic priorities while concurrently driving significant institutional efficiencies.
This strategic realignment enables unit staff to shift their focus to core, mission-specific team needs, minimizing time spent on routine, yet essential, HR administration.
In 2022, the PSU Support Services & Operations Review documented 28 specific recommendations aimed at optimizing HR service delivery. Since the review, while HR has implemented nearly all 28 recommendations, successful implementation for certain key initiatives necessitates broader cross-campus collaboration (e.g., establishing centralized service hubs) or involves building new central capabilities where none previously existed (e.g., comprehensive employee training).