LTD board approves $500K for HR services

Presenter: Lane Transit District gets some help for its Human Resources department from a company with labor experience. At the April 16 board meeting, LTD CEO Jameson Auten:

Jameson Auten (LTD, CEO): We have had quite a bit of change in the organization over the past few years, and one of the challenges and opportunities that we find is making sure that we have solid process and procedures around our Human Resources area. With that said, I’m going to have Wendi present our path forward.

[00:00:29] Presenter: Chief Administrative Officer Wendi Frisbie:

[00:00:32] Wendi Frisbie (LTD, CAO): So we’re requesting to have a three-year contract with a company called Xenium HR. They’re in Tualatin, Oregon, and basically the services that they provide are process management, HR staffing, benefits administration, HR compliance, training, and as well as reorganization and then development of HR departments.

[00:00:51] Our goal for this process is to enhance our operational efficiency, improve compliance among the district, and ensure scalability for support for the district, to allow us to add support or decrease support depending on the needs of the district. And especially our employees, of course.

[00:01:06] And the focus is going to be on this for our front-line employees. It’s going to affect all employees, but our focus really is to improve that experience for our front line.

[00:01:13] Presenter: Two Xenium HR professionals will be on site at LTD, with access to another 80. Wendi Frisbie:

[00:01:20] Wendi Frisbie: As part of this contract, we’ll be receiving access to 80 HR professionals that are in Tualatin. We’ll have two that are going to be on site. They’re giving us a service guarantee of four hours. If they can’t answer that question, they’ll respond to us and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to research this,’ and get back to us as soon as possible. So there’s going to be more communication.

[00:01:38] And also, again, like I said, scalability. We’re able to increase or decrease depending on the needs of the district.

[00:01:44] What they’re going to provide for us is employee relations management, preventive legal support, proactive compliance, alerts and updates, HR forms and template updates, employee handbook development, new hire processes, terminations, disciplinary actions to help us make sure we’re in line with those, help us get a solid exit interview process in line, as well as the facilitation of that.

[00:02:07] And then part of this also is we’ll provide live virtual trainings, and then also on-demand trainings, which, we really are excited about this, because this will not only help, you know, all of our supervisors, it’s going to meet the schedule that they have, because they don’t just work an 8-5 shift. They’re going to be, you know, different hours.

[00:02:23] Part of this also is it’s going to allow us to increase that footprint for HR where we have hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. So with our ever-changing workforce, it’s just important for us, I think, to keep on top of these trends, looking at the multigenerational needs and making sure that we’re addressing those.

[00:02:42] Presenter: The contract was approved without going out for competitive bid, because, ‘It is not in the best interest of LTD to proceed with a formal or informal solicitation process.‘ Wendi Frisbie:

[00:02:55] Wendi Frisbie: I will say they have not had transit experience, but I mean, they’re willing to work with us and they do have labor experience that can help us a lot.

[00:03:03] If this is approved tonight, we were hoping to have a contract executed this week, and so we’re going to have a kickoff meeting Monday afternoon—if, again, of course, everything passes.

[00:03:13] From what we’ve done, all the assessments on this, it should be very budget-neutral. And in fact, with that, adding 80 additional staff members really bring very minimal cost to us. I think over time we’re expecting that it probably will help decrease that a little bit, in fact.

[00:03:29] What I would like to do is come back to you guys on a quarterly basis and report just the metrics of what we’re seeing, the data that’s happening. We can do benchmarking what we have now, and then where we are each quarter. We’re happy to do that in person or also with a written report if that’s more desired.

[00:03:45] Presenter: Board member Michelle Webber:

[00:03:47] Michelle Webber (LTD, board member): I personally think that this is a really good opportunity to bring in current practices and just make sure we’re really on track with all of the changes in HR, the evolutions that just are continually taking place. So I’m excited to see what they can do.

[00:04:05] Wendi Frisbie: Thank you. If you think about it, we have four generations that are out there in the workforce right now. And so making sure that all of those needs are met and having a diverse company that can really look at that and look at it from a larger, higher perspective to help us meet those.

[00:04:19] Presenter: CEO Jameson Auten:

[00:04:21 Jameson Auten: Our employees have talked about this to us through our last several employee engagement surveys. Some of our partners, external partners have seen some, you know, seeing the areas where we can improve as well. So, it may be a surprise to some, but I don’t think it’s an unanticipated or unknown need or opportunity for the organization. We’ll communicate that out.

[00:04:44] Presenter: Without a competitive bid, LTD approves a half-million-dollar contract, with the ability to extend by another $100,000, for human resources services that Xenium has and that LTD needs.

Produced by John Q from the April 16 Lane Transit District Board of Directors meeting for Whole Community News, KEPW 97.3, Eugene’s PeaceWorks Community Radio.