IV. Human Resources Executive Council Charter

Mission: The HR Executive Council (HREC) mission is to serve USNH as the guiding body on human resources matters. The HREC is charged with identifying, analyzing and presenting recommendations – incorporating campus needs, best practices, policy, employee impact and financial considerations - to the USNH Administrative Board to advance the goals of attracting, retaining, developing and rewarding our faculty and staff. Additionally, HREC is committed to ensuring integration and partnership in its core services and service delivery with other executive councils and in tandem with HR affinity groups, as deemed necessary and appropriate.

Membership: The HREC will consist of the following members (as determined by the HREC): GSC Chief HR Officer, KSC Chief HR Officer, PSU Chief HR Officer, UNH Chief HR Officer, USNH Chief HR Officer, USNH Associate Director of Benefits and USNH Associate Director of Employment. Each member of the HREC may invite members of their staff to attend HREC meetings as needed and when relevant to the agenda. The Chair of the HREC (by committee vote) will be the USNH Chief HR Officer. While a Vice Chair was deemed not necessary, in situations where the Chair cannot attend an HREC meeting, an alternate Chief HR Officer will be appointed to serve as temporary Chair.

Roles and Responsibilities: The HREC committee members are responsible for participating in each discussion, representing the specific needs of their campus, thinking of solutions that are based on fact and best practice and collectively making recommendations that will promote the HREC mission (as stated above) and support and advance the goals of each campus and USNH. The HREC members will utilize other subject matter experts, invited guests, and participate in training (as needed) to complete the charge of identifying, analyzing, and presenting recommendations.

The HREC Chair will be responsible for coordinating the review and finalization of agenda topics, creating and distributing the agenda and meeting notes, meeting locations and dates/times. The Chair will   serve as the primary liaison to the Admin Board for recommendations and subsequent discussions. The Chair is also responsible for ensuring an effective, efficient and thoughtful discussion of ideas and to  help the Committee finalize and formalize relevant conclusions, decisions and recommendations.

Goals and Objectives: The high level HREC goals and objectives include:

• Develop, recommend and implement HR topics, services and supporting technology to support and advance campus needs and a USNH wide mission of attracting, retaining, developing and rewarding faculty and staff.
• Evaluate and monitor internal and external factors, data, legal requirements, best-practices, risks vs. rewards and trends and incorporate these factors into informed and fact-based recommendations and implementations.
• Promote transparency of work, agendas/notes and discussions and seek partnerships and integration opportunities with other councils. Create opportunities for ‘inter-council’ discussions/reviews at HREC meetings and present at other council meetings as needed and invited.
• Review, update and make appropriate recommendations on all relevant USY and BOT HR policies.
• HREC will establish working groups or subcommittees as necessary to complete key projects or tasks.
• HREC will integrate and gather necessary feedback from affinity groups to adjust policy and general HR recommendations as needed. HR related task forces are advisory to HREC, who will make final determination on issues within our authority or final recommendations to the Admin Board on items requiring their approval.
• Serve as a high functioning, engaged and integrated council following proper meeting etiquette and the ‘Ten Attributes of Successful Councils.’
• Follow the established workflow for review and approval of all topics, as identified here:

1. HREC discusses issue/topic; input from each campus; recommendations finalized;
2. CHROs for each campus reviews recommendation with campus president/cabinet;
3. Assuming approval from each campus (item 2), HREC makes final recommendation to Admin Board. If approval by all campuses is not achieved, item does not go to Admin Board for review.
4. Following approval from Admin Board, implementation of recommendations takes place on each campus by CHRO (with support from System Office as needed).

• Support and prepare information for relevant Board of Trustee Committees or Trustee requests.
• Serve as a task force for resolving time sensitive and/or priority tasks that are identified by the Board, Presidents, Chancellor, campus leadership or from external requests that require timely and fully vetted response.
• Creation of an annual, strategic work plan with priorities and deliverables that align to campus/System goals and deliverables. In alignment with this work, the HREC charter will be reviewed and adjusted annually.

Meeting Structure: The HREC will meet monthly with a rotating location, covering all campuses and the System Office.  The HREC may also need to schedule additional meetings/calls as needed from time to time. Where necessary and appropriate, video and voice conferencing will be used to limit travel time and gain efficiencies in cost and time.   Key components to each meeting include:

• Creation and distribution of agenda prior to meeting. Agenda items submitted by all HREC members.
• Meeting start and end times will be honored.  Engagement and participation supported.
• Meeting notes taken and distributed within five business days of completed meeting.
• All meeting materials to be saved on SharePoint site for HREC creation and use. Appropriate access will be given to other councils to ensure full integration and partnership.