2023-2024 HREC Annual Report: Fueling USC's Future by University of Southern California

2023–2024 HREC Annual Report

Fueling USC’s Future

A Message From USC’s Senior Vice President

HUMAN RESOURCES, EQUITY, AND COMPLIANCE

Courage, collaboration, coordination, and communication have been instrumental in the transformational journey of USC’s HR, Equity, and Compliance (HREC) division, a team that I have had the privilege of leading these past five years. In this inaugural report, you will see the integrated nature of the work delivered by the HREC team and our accomplishments from fiscal year 2024 – all of this made possible by the reimagining of HR, culture, and compliance.

I was recruited in 2019 at a time when USC was navigating the changing environment in higher education and healthcare and facing the challenge common to many higher education institutions – ensuring operations are optimized to support the university’s mission and future ambitions. Compounding that challenge, USC faced a very visible and high profile public reporting of inappropriate employee behavior that persisted over decades, exposing a dire need for policies, systems of accountability, development of our people, and education.

I often shared that this journey would be like building a plane while also flying it. That is a challenge that might frighten some, but not our HREC leadership team! Our team members rolled up their sleeves and rose to the occasion.

Our journey began with a listening tour to understand the individual experiences, ideas for solutions, challenges, and pain points. Through analysis of the feedback, we identified the need for more robust, efficient HR processes, upskilling of our HR professionals, and clear policies consistently applied university-wide. This effort resulted in HREC – designed to build on synergies across the HR, equal opportunity, Title IX, culture, and compliance functions to ensure we could improve those functions and emerge into an organization to collectively safeguard and shepherd our people and risks, not just reactively, but with sustainable systems and practices in place that demonstrated our competence and care. Finally, we transitioned –welcoming HR teams from administrative units into our division and moving them into their new, best fit roles, and hiring for critical roles.

As you will read in this report, we have worked diligently to build the structures, processes, and relationships to best support schools, units, and our people as they drive USC’s mission forward. For example, to uphold the highest standards of safety and integrity, we bolstered background screening requirements and offerings with updated offer letter templates to reinforce, university-wide, the policy requirement that our screens are successfully completed prior to new candidates starting work at USC. We also developed a uniform License and Certification program to ensure our employees are appropriately licensed and certified for their roles, an effort that led to a 23% increase in the license and certification renewal rate since prior fiscal year.

We have created connective frameworks for accountability to support a healthy institutional culture, and a shared understanding of the increasing and complex regulatory requirements. Through training led or supported by HREC offices, we deepened awareness of compliance, reporting, and people and employee data protection obligations. From the comprehensive 2022 Supervisor File Review and all of our continuous efforts to enhance university responses to the new front door for the USC community to report concerns – the Report & Response website – we continue to build awareness and trust in our reporting and informed response capabilities.

Our integrated design reflects a deep understanding of the inextricably intertwined nature of HR leadership, effective compliance, and positive culture.

As I close out my time at USC, I recognize that while there are many accomplishments to celebrate in the pages that follow, there will continue to be challenges and opportunities for continuous improvement, especially with additional technology investments, including AI. Positioned to drive continuous improvement, I am confident our teams will sustain and advance our division’s transformative efforts to elevate the experience of USC’s people, instill cohesiveness across the university, cultivate a welcoming environment for all to learn, research, and work, as well as advance the mission of USC.

The contributions from each and every HREC member now live in our inaugural report, Fueling . Thank you. We celebrate you.

Felicia A. Washington

Meet HREC

HR, Equity, and Compliance

The Human Resources, Equity, and Compliance division encompasses the offices entrusted with fostering positive university culture, equity, ethics, professionalism, and compliance functions, as well as the traditional areas of HR – talent acquisition, development, and growth; compensation and benefits; and well-being – so our faculty, staff, and students can learn, work, and thrive.

Our teams continuously design systems that elevate our employees’ experience, instill university-wide cohesiveness, and implement and integrate legal requirements. Aligned with USC’s Unifying Values, we pursue excellence and are committed to operating with integrity, building trust in the university while advancing USC’s mission.

OUR VISION

Our division’s vision emerged from an ongoing journey that began with the recruitment of USC’s first senior vice president for human resources, Felicia A. Washington, who joined USC in June 2019. Recognizing this was to be a multi-year journey, the senior vice president for human resources was tasked with designing and implementing a coordinated and professionalized world-class HR function. In December 2019, those responsibilities expanded to include additional people-focused central offices: Culture, Ethics, and Compliance; Equity, Equal Opportunity, and Title IX; and Professionalism and Ethics. Thus, USC’s HR, Equity, and Compliance (HREC) division was formed, and Felicia’s vision of Delivering More Impact Than Ever Before was adopted.

Supported by HR: Design for the Future (HRDF) and the realignment of the university offices responsible for professionalism, ethics, and compliance, HREC

has transformed into a strategic and highly effective business that reflects the integrity and standards of the university while promoting campus-wide connection. Eight key objectives continuously drive how we deliver people-centric services (see Figure 1).

Today, we remain committed to people, culture, and compliance – a standard upheld by HREC’s unifying vision of Delivering More Impact Than Ever Before and the four strategic pillars that uphold it:

• Elevating Our Employees’ Experience

Whether it be for a traditional HR need or a response to reports of misconduct, our goal is to create consistent, competent, and caring experiences for students, faculty, staff, patients, and guests. Regardless of how or where a question, concern, or report is submitted, we strive to create a respectful, equitable, and informed experience.

• Instilling University-wide Cohesiveness

We work in partnership with colleagues and teams, driving connectivity university-wide to care for our people as a team. Informed by the law, a root cause analysis of our history, and an in-depth listening tour, we are systematically addressing gaps in policies, processes, and procedures to minimize risk through habits of mind, redesigned operations, and a commitment to shared fluency of the myriad issues facing higher education.

HOW WE’RE ORGANIZED

HREC comprises four offices: University Human Resources (HR); Equity, Equal Opportunity, and Title IX; Professionalism and Ethics; and Culture, Ethics, and Compliance. Accompanying these offices and providing consulting services for units across USC are our two supporting units – Strategic Communications and Strategy and Business Operations – which collaborate on university-wide communications and change management, respectively.

HREC’S OFFICES

University HR

Our HR teams play an important role in designing systems and policies and delivering human resources services university-wide. Working together to offer management guidance, support the cultivation of a positive workplace culture, provide health and wellbeing services, and promote growth opportunities, our goal in University HR (UHR) is to deliver top-tier HR services.

University HR departments listed below include skilled individuals who support our faculty, staff, student workers, postdocs, and retirees to drive a positive and productive workplace community.

• Client Services provides daily and direct guidance in HR matters and leading HR practices to provost and senior vice president administrative units, as well as to select schools. This department hosts monthly HR Business Meetings, inclusive of local HR partners in schools, to provide employment, policy, compliance, legal, and current HR information and training.

• Employee & Labor Relations works closely with school and administrative unit leaders and HR Partners to resolve workplace concerns (not covered by the university’s Policy on Prohibited Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation), including providing information, tools, and resources to address reported concerns in alignment with USC’s values and mission.

• HR Information Systems provides functional and technical support to HR systems, such as Workday and TrojanLearn.

• The HR Service Center is the comprehensive resource for general employment-related information (e.g., policies, benefits, time off, leave administration) and serves as an uber generalist answering faculty, staff, and student-worker questions.

• HR Strategy and Program Management serves as the project management team working with HR team members to ensure that HR projects are aligned with the university’s strategic initiatives and are successfully executed.

• Talent Management focuses on the attraction, recruitment, development, engagement, and retention of employees.

◦ At the forefront of this experience is Talent Acquisition, which supports recruitment and staffing compliance services, including employment screening, licensing and certifications, and independent contractor programs.

◦ Learning & Organizational Development provides ongoing development and meaningful experiences that allow our faculty and staff to recognize and maximize their potential.

• Total Rewards encompasses the numerous and diverse benefits and well-being initiatives that make up a comprehensive rewards program for faculty and staff. Comprised of Compensation, USC Child Care, Benefits and Leave Administration, and the WorkWell Center, Total Rewards delivers competitive and equitable benefits to attract and grow a motivated workforce, prioritizing wellness and tailoring offerings to meet our employees in their current stage of life.

◦ Benefits Administration is a team of benefits specialists who administer and assist with inquiries about various offerings (i.e., MetLife voluntary products and death claims, COBRA, flexible spending), manage faculty and staff eligibility, handle questions about spousal surcharges and Open Enrollment, specialize in Tuition Assistance, and contribute to our USC Competes moonshot by enhancing benefits.

◦ Our Child Care team provides access to highquality childcare through Bright Horizons, with on-site childcare centers at University Park Campus (UPC) and Health Sciences Campus (HSC) and back-up dependent care for dependents.

◦ Our Compensation team directs the strategic planning, design, implementation, administration, and communication of all compensation practices (i.e., market pricing, reclassifications, promotions, job description creation and revisions, compliance reviews, and organizational assessments), ensuring alignment with the university's culture and strategy.

◦ Disability and Workers’ Compensation is a team supporting our faculty and staff during illness or injury from the moment a claim is submitted to ensure their seamless return to the workplace.

◦ Our Leave Administration team is composed of leave specialists dedicated to developing, implementing, coordinating, and administering comprehensive absence management policies and procedures for USC faculty and staff.

◦ Our Retirement Plan Administration team guides faculty and staff through their retirement journey, covering accuracy in contributions and distributions, managing enrollments, overseeing loans, and when within two years of retirement, offering specialized support through a Retirement Navigator.

◦ The USC WorkWell Center is a mental health and well-being resource offering programs, resources, and services to USC benefits-eligible faculty, staff, postdocs, and retirees that help them thrive in all areas of work-life wellness. As one of the many benefits offered to USC faculty and staff, the center’s services include the traditional Employee Assistance Program offerings and go beyond with innovative health and well-being programs that help support the whole person.

• Workforce Analytics brings together skilled experts specializing in deciphering complex data and translating it into information that equips leaders and partners in HR. Leveraging Workday and other information systems at USC, this team reviews and analyzes HR-related data and performs benchmarking to understand trends and opportunities. They also support various strategic programming to help drive the university's mission and ensure USC's compliance with state and federal regulations (e.g., pay transparency and state reporting) to foster a positive environment for faculty and staff.

Equity, Equal Opportunity, and Title IX (EEO-TIX)

Our EEO-TIX team is responsible for centralizing resources for civil rights education, reporting, and resolution procedures, and for implementing the university’s Policy on Prohibited Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation (the Policy). More specifically, EEO-TIX manages the university’s response to reports of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, including providing supportive measures to our USC community, with the support of the following sub-teams and areas of focus.

• Affirmative Action and Equity handles responses to local, state, and federal agency matters (e.g., Department of Fair Employment and Housing, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Office for Civil Rights), develops and updates the university’s annual Affirmative Action Plan, and ensures compliance with applicable law and policy.

• Dedicated Healthcare team members provide exclusive services to Health Sciences Schools and Keck Medicine of USC.

• Dedicated support liaisons handle day-to-day administrative and operational support and importantly function as facilitators to ensure effective communication and collaboration with HR Business Operations, Talent Management, Information Technology, and other departments and units in the division.

• Intake, Outreach, and Support team members reach out to reporting parties and respondents in matters of concern that are handled by EEO-TIX to discuss resources, supportive measures, and available options. They provide timely, empathetic, and consistent care.

Together with university partners, the Intake, Outreach, and Support Team comprises the Initial Assessment Triage Team (IATT), to support the coordination of information and personnel, and inform the Initial Assessment detailed in the Policy and Resolution Processes. IATT is a multi-disciplinary campus team convened twice per week to assess all reports of sexual misconduct or other similar serious reports, including discrimination based on national origin. During IATT meetings, EEO-TIX and campus partners gather to review and discuss all available information, including any information about prior reports. Based on the available information, the IATT conducts a risk assessment and analysis, evaluates the need for additional or unique supportive measures, considers the need for emergency removal or administrative leave, and determines appropriate next steps to ensure close campus coordination and careful documentation of all factors considered to support the needs of the USC community.

• Investigation and Resolution team members strive for the prompt and appropriate resolution in response to formal complaints, based on the Policy's definition of discrimination and harassment based on protected characteristics and related retaliation. This team of trained professionals conduct fair and impartial investigations, and facilitate processes steeped with notice, and an opportunity to be heard, including appeal options.

• Leadership, Communication, and Education ensures the effective implementation of the office’s civil rights mission; communicates the office’s policies and processes within the USC community; and builds relationships through the development and implementation of a comprehensive training and education program.

Professionalism and Ethics

Our Professionalism and Ethics offices foster behaviors consistent with professional and university standards and encompass our teams in the Offices of Athletic Compliance, Professionalism and Ethics (OPE), and Threat Assessment and Management.

• The Office of Athletic Compliance maintains compliance with NCAA and conference regulations, guiding coaches and administrators, student-athletes, USC faculty and staff, and all supporters of USC Athletics in this effort.

• OPE is charged with centralizing and simplifying the process of reporting, tracking and triaging concerns, coordinating university initial responses, and performing quality assurance to ensure concerns are timely referred to the appropriate university office for resolution once they are received. This team maintains the university’s primary reporting hotline, Report & Response (previously known as Help & Hotline), and maintains quality assurance for policy, procedure, and compliance.

• The Office of Threat Assessment and Management, which joined the HREC division in fiscal year 2024, supports the early identification, assessment, and management of potential threats to help keep USC’s campuses and community safe.

Culture, Ethics, and Compliance (OCEC)

Our teams in OCEC work with university partners to align decisions and behaviors with USC’s mission, Unifying Values, and compliance obligations, including Clery and Youth Protection, Institutional Accessibility, Research Compliance, Privacy, and supporting USC’s Culture Journey.

• Clery & Youth Protection designs and develops USC’s Clery compliance program and implements robust and compliant processes for programs serving minors, which includes outreach and program support.

◦ Clery Compliance provides timely, accurate, and complete information about safety policies and crimes reported on campus to students and employees.

◦ Youth Protection and Programming oversees and promotes compliance with the university’s youth protection policies and applicable child protection laws. This team also serves as a

centralized resource for all who engage with minors at the university through collaboration, guidance, and support.

• Compliance Strategy oversees work to ensure OCEC has a robust process for goal setting, measurement of progress, team building, and reporting.

• Institutional Accessibility and Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance partners across USC to ensure programs and services are accessible to individuals with disabilities, which includes accommodations, barrier removal, digital accessibility, and events.

• Institutional Compliance addresses compliance risk; implements a university compliance framework to assess and monitor compliance implementation across functions; and reviews conflicts of interest, policies, codes, and procedures, providing advice and assessment.

◦ Institutional Policy Management focuses on ensuring that all policies and related resources are communicated and managed in a manner that is compliant and consistent with legal and regulatory requirements, higher education leading practices, and USC’s culture and values.

◦ Privacy Compliance oversees the identification and tracking of privacy compliance standards and requirements, which includes building responsive programs, investigations, and breach responses.

◦ Political Compliance oversees political, lobbying, and campaign finance compliance, and designs and implements risk mitigation strategies and controls to advance USC’s ethical political practices.

• Organizational Change (Culture) empowers USC to live and cultivate behaviors that support the university’s Unifying Values – an effort supported by community input, engagement sessions, and collaboration across all areas.

• Research Compliance oversees the identification and tracking of research compliance standards and requirements and complex research compliance investigations and coordinates with research sponsors.

◦ International Activities and Export Controls ensure USC faculty, staff, and students abide by export control regulations and international laws when engaging in activities related to research, instruction, healthcare, student outreach, and other strategic partnerships and affiliations.

• University Clinical Services (UCS) (Healthcare Compliance) provides governance around clinical services outside of Keck Medicine and is accountable for developing the compliance practices for the 16 UCS entities/operations.

HREC’S SUPPORTING UNITS

• HREC Strategy and Business Operations perform two main functions that enable staff to keep business running smoothly and deliver on our university mission.

◦ The Business Operations function provides HREC with support in the areas of financial accounting and planning, facilities and IT (provided by Provost Shared Services), and emergency planning.

◦ The Strategy function serves as a resource to partners inside and outside of HREC, offering strategy and data analysis with design methodology to help discover new possibilities, address critical issues, drive value, and achieve operational success.

• HREC Strategic Communications supports all HREC communication efforts keeping staff, faculty, retirees, and prospective employees aware of all that USC offers. This team also manages the Employee Gateway website and the Gateway Connect weekly newsletter. Through written and creative strategic communications, user experience, and web design services to HREC offices, departments, and units, HREC Strategic Communications ensures that division communications reflect our customer-first and inclusive tone.

SUPPORTING OUR PEOPLE

As the division that houses human resources, our departments oversee the traditional reasons to interact with HR – like performance and benefits –but we go beyond them to elevate compliance, respond to community needs, create a safe and welcoming environment, and enable our entire organization to thrive.

HUMAN RESOURCES

Our UHR office supports USC faculty, staff, student workers, and postdocs through our Total Rewards and wellness programming, employment screenings and talent acquisition compliance programs, TrojanLearn course offerings, HR systems management (i.e., Workday), and the HR Service Center. Benefits administration and HR systems management are among the employee-wide services that also support staff at Keck Medicine of USC.

Additionally, while collaborating with HR professionals across all schools, UHR provides dedicated client services guidance and support in HR matters and practices to provost and senior vice president administrative units, as well as Iovine and Young Academy, Roski School of Art & Design, and the School of Architecture.

EQUITY AND COMPLIANCE

The work of our EEO-TIX, OPE, and OCEC offices reaches beyond faculty, staff, student workers, and postdocs, extending to the entire campus community – from employees to visitors to

patients across our campuses, medical enterprise, and sports arena. Equity and compliance are important in nearly every sphere of university life. Often in partnership with HR, these offices set consistent standards; provide informed, thoughtful, and coordinated policies; train, track, and assure the quality of those responsibilities; and nimbly adjust in response to community needs and new regulatory requirements.

This design reflects a deep understanding of the inextricably intertwined nature of HR leadership, effective compliance, and positive culture. Performance management is an integral element of demonstrating internal controls for compliance and risk management. HR serves as a vital part of the check and balance approach to compliance, and it leads to trust in the institutional responses and, in turn, a positive culture.

More details on the impactful work of EEO-TIX and OPE in past years can be found in the 2024 USC Responds Report. Information on the USC Culture Journey, led by OCEC, can be found in the 2022 Culture Report.

Through this integrated structure, HREC serves to empower and care for the university’s greatest resource: our people. And, we do our part to position USC as the destination of choice for the best and the brightest talent – talent that is reflected by the numbers on the following pages.

*Headcount and demographic numbers represent the entire USC population as of Feb. 12, 2024. This date was selected to provide a single point in time that reflects the university at full employment during fiscal year 2024 (July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024).

1Includes Adjunct and Clinical Faculty and

students.

Delivering More Impact Than Ever Before

During fiscal year 2024 (FY2024) –between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024 – HREC teams achieved significant milestones. What follows are many of our featured accomplishments from this past year, all of which contribute to the realization of our division’s strategic pillars and the advancement of USC’s mission.

Elevating Our Employees’ Experience

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Enhanced Total Rewards and the Total Rewards Experience

One reason why our people are proud to work at USC is the total rewards offerings, including: compensation; childcare; health and welfare benefits; medical, dental, and vision benefits; retirement benefits; vacation and sick time; tuition assistance and tuition exchange benefits; the coaching and wellness through USC WorkWell Center; and learning and development through TrojanLearn. Through USC’s Total Rewards program, our UHR teams are bolstering the USC Competes moonshot.

New long-term disability insurance for all Historically, only individuals enrolled in USC’s Supplemental Short Term Disability insurance could access the university’s Long Term Disability insurance. On July 1, 2023, following successful negotiations with a new provider, UHR introduced Long Term Disability insurance through MetLife to all USC-eligible faculty and staff. Given additional term agreements, our negotiations also reduced costs to USC.

As a result of this new benefit, approximately 11,000 additional faculty and staff – double the number of previously enrolled individuals – were automatically eligible and enrolled (at $0 cost to them). These individuals now receive coverage of up to $15,000 per month in the unanticipated event of a disability.

Ongoing inclusivity efforts further inclusion at USC

To help make sure our employees feel appropriately represented, USC Benefits Administration partnered with our insurance carriers to include inclusive terminology throughout their systems. This is a continuation of the work we have been doing to expand inclusive gender options available for faculty and staff to choose from in Workday (e.g., male, female, non-binary).

Expanded wellness programming deepens well-being

During FY2024, our USC WorkWell Center continued to listen to community feedback, which expressed interest in deepening behaviors supportive of USC’s well-being value. By collaborating with campus experts, we supported dozens of wellness events and activities for USC faculty and staff. As part of USC Healthy Campus — a long-term strategy empowering employee and organizational health and well-being — we kicked off another offering with nutritionally-balanced EatWell meals developed by USC Hospitality’s Registered Dietitian Lindsey Pine.

Look for the EatWell logo on campus menus, ordering kiosks, and in the USC Campus Dining app!

WORKWELL PROGRAMMING

12 events on nutrition, sustainability, mental health, and financial wellness

24 weekly

WalkUSC walks

6-week

Mission: Possible wellness challenge

90% satisfaction rate from faculty and staff participants in WorkWell programming

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Strengthened and nurtured our staff through talent development

We are committed to ensuring that our staff supervisors possess the skills and support they need to develop their people and succeed at USC. In addition to existing organizational development programs and onboarding events, in FY2024, our Learning & Organizational Development team began to roll out Management Essentials – an eight-week management skills development program covering key knowledge, skills, and performance processes for managers with direct reports. Managers in Enrollment Services, University Relations, and our own HREC division participated in the program, and we are now preparing to extend it to additional groups.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Collaborated on threat assessment trainings in the healthcare enterprise

Our Office of Threat Assessment and Management created a Healthcare Steering Committee to provide recommendations on the management of threats and to promote the delivery of safe, effective, patient-centered health care. This included facilitating a security assessment and providing recommendations for all four Keck Medicine of USC hospitals. We also distributed a TrojanLearn training on Threat Assessment awareness and completed a DHS Grant-funded, virtual reality active shooter training for the healthcare enterprise.

In the spirit of collaboration, our Client Services team supported the administration and negotiation of collective bargaining agreements.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Leveraged technology and teamwork in support of service to our faculty and staff

Our teams are committed to providing best-in-class service, and we work together cross-departmentally to continually assess our operations, identify areas for improvement, and implement enhancements.

In HR Information Systems (HRIS), we made a total of 52 enhancements to Workday during FY2024, each taking 1-3 months to complete and deploy, to support improved user experience and efficiency for faculty and staff. HRIS also partnered with our HR Service Center (HRSC) to establish routing rules in ServiceNow, our faculty and staff customer service case management system, which streamline incoming questions and delivers timely responses.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Engaged and recognized our community

Our Strategic Communications team redesigned and relaunched Top-Notch Trojans, USC’s peerto-peer recognition program that spotlights exemplary performance and our values. As of July 2024, as seen in this one-year anniversary video, more than 180 faculty and staff were nominated to be featured on the Employee Gateway’s Facebook page, which increased the social media channel’s engagement by 1,000%.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Upheld our

commitment to assess and improve our culture

In January 2024, more than 15,000 Trojans responded to the USC Culture Survey. Findings revealed one of the highest-rated survey questions is the community’s belief that USC provides resources for mental health and wellbeing support – a testament to the programs offered by our division. Already underway this year, our Culture team in OCEC is hosting a series of university-wide and school/unit-specific sessions to dive deeper into the survey data as a community.

Instilling University-wide Cohesiveness

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Continued knowledge-sharing bonds HR and university partners

One of the ways we deliver more impact than ever before is by bringing together nearly 100 HR team members serving administrative and academic units in our monthly HR Business Meetings. These sessions facilitate information sharing and discussion with subject-matter experts on the latest trainings, legal requirements, and protocols. These meetings also foster HR cohesiveness university-wide, empower HR Partners to accurately and appropriately support faculty and staff, and identify opportunities for actions to align with our values.

Among the many topics covered in our HR Business Meetings during FY2024 were the following:

• Campus Security Authority Training

• Compensation 101

• EEOC’s Strategic Enforcement Plan

• Employee References

• Environmental Health & Safety Updates

• Leave of Absence Templates

• Merit Guidelines

• New California Employment Laws

• Performance Management

• Policy Review Process

• Remote Office Allowances

• Reporting Responsibilities

• Reproductive Loss Leave –Policy Updates and Protocols

• Search Firm Engagement Guidelines

• The ADA: Managing Intersections Between Disability and Conduct Performance Problems

• Transformation in Higher Education by Deloitte

• Wage and Hour Updates

• Workplace Violence Prevention Plan Training

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Bolstered background screening requirements and offerings

Committed to upholding the highest standards of safety and integrity, and mitigating employment risks, we updated offer letter templates to reinforce, university-wide, the policy requirement that our employment (background) screens should be successfully completed prior to new candidates starting work at USC.

Shortly thereafter, new Los Angeles County restrictions that limit the use of common identifiers (i.e., month and year of birth, social

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

security number) to verify a candidate’s identity for electronic criminal background checks in California made it impossible for our background check vendor to promptly process the needed screens for individuals with common names. To support our schools and units experiencing delays and needing roles filled in a timely manner, we began offering two supplemental employment screening options, provided by new vendors that either physically access information at court locations or through fingerprinting.

Continued the centralization of license and certification renewals

We continued to build out a uniform License and Certification program to ensure USC employees are appropriately licensed and certified for their roles. In FY2024, we onboarded the Department of Public Safety, Fire Safety & Emergency Planning, Office of General Counsel, School for Early Childhood and Education, and Transportation – adding to the FY2023 rollout to serve the five Health Science Schools (Dentistry, Gerontology, Keck School of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Social Work). The impact: 2,263 license and certification renewals, increasing the number of centralized licenses by 52%.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Expanded Meyestro to units that respond to non-protected class concerns

In the prior fiscal year, we implemented Meyestro, a stateof-the-art, cloud-based, enterprise-wide compliance and coordinated incident response management system that would streamline and simplify how community members can report concerns and locate supportive resources. The first groups to use the tool were EEO-TIX (for protected class concerns), our HREC response and compliance offices (e.g., OPE, OCEC, Athletic Compliance, and Employee & Labor Relations), and Audit. In FY2024, we onboarded all HR Partners, Faculty Affairs Partners, and other identified “need to know” partners in schools and administrative units to use the system, the result of which improved and enhanced workflow, communication, and effective response.

Additionally, our OPE team worked closely with our partners in Provost IT to clean, map, test, and evaluate the migration of approximately 7,000 historical cases from our previous case management system, iSight.

To learn more about the culmination of this work, including the data from EEO-TIX and OPE and the types of reports from our community, refer to the inaugural USC Responds Report

Among the cases are reports related to employee relations and workplace concerns, in which our new dedicated Employee & Labor Relations team actively managed or provided support to facilitate conflict resolution and conduct investigation fact-finding as needed. Committed to addressing concerns in alignment with USC’s Unifying Values and informing practices that build a healthy work environment, this team revised processes, engaged in policy reviews, and provided consultations to HR Partners as they supported their faculty and staff to resolve interpersonal conflict.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Staff performance management redesign saw continued development

As part of a multi-year effort to reimagine the annual staff performance review process, we brought together HR professionals university-wide to audit and evaluate performance management protocols, core competencies, time periods, and tools. With this Reimagining Staff Performance Management project, we aim to provide university-wide consistency to remedy the historical and varied performance management systems designed within each school and unit so that every staff member can have an elevated performance management and coaching experience.

One result of these efforts is the launch of a Staff Performance Management website on the Employee Gateway, which was promoted to the HR community. Made available during the Annual Performance Review (APR) timing for many schools and administrative units, the site supports staff and managers through the APR process, as well as the year-long performance life cycle. It hosts toolkits, worksheets, and curated courses on performance management skills-related topics.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Advanced our Unifying Values with the Integrity and Accountability Code

In June 2024, our OCEC team refreshed USC’s Integrity and Accountability Code (the Code), our university’s summary of shared standards and Unifying Values, to keep it relevant, aligned with topics of importance, and continuously enhanced. Updates include additional guidance on data protection and information systems, as well as the protection of freedom of expression.

Over the course of FY2024, a total of 6,535 new USC faculty and staff were trained on the Code.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Job Structure Project established a foundation for the future

We continued foundational efforts of a planned multi-year, university-wide project to redesign USC’s job architecture to deliver a future state that would enable leaders to better structure and manage their organizations by providing:

• Clear job titles, descriptions, and levels to give employees and managers clear role expectations, career progression, and opportunities for growth across the university;

• Job profiles aligned to the external market leading practices; and

• Market competitive ranges for clarified roles to enhance the retention, progression, and attraction of the overall workforce,

ultimately strengthening USC’s positioning as the premier destination for top-tier talent.

In FY2024, Phase 1 was completed, through which we made laudable milestones ranging from the technology implemented for collecting and completing staff position questionnaires (PQs) to exemplary communications and job analyses. With a framework developed, we completed PQs for Athletics, Athletic Compliance, and the Investment Office, and transitioned select Investment Office employees into new job profiles. Other units eager to engage in this work with us include Enrollment Services, Student Life, University Advancement, and University Relations.

Integrating and Implementing Legal Requirements

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Introduced new Report & Response website to provide a front door for the USC community to report concerns

As part of USC’s commitment to create an environment where the community feels safe, heard, and protected, we replaced the former Help & Hotline reporting website with an enhanced centralized Report & Response portal. The portal is fully integrated into the previously described Meyestro incident response management system.

The site was designed to create an easy-to-use experience for the USC community to report concerns and get the support they need. It is also home to a list of confidential and supportive resources and frequently asked questions.

Students were introduced to the site through the USC Student Handbook, student-athlete orientation, and a message on building a culture of consent. Faculty and staff were provided information through the Gateway Connect newsletter and reminders on reporting responsibilities.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

EEO-TIX delivered community-wide support during nationwide university protests and global conflict

We work to cultivate a learning and work environment where our community is heard and supported daily. In FY2024, EEOTIX provided more than 2,500 supportive measures to the USC community, up from 1,600 supportive measures in FY2023. This increase resulted from an uptick in overall year-over-year reporting that was related to the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, valedictorian decision, or encampment protests.

The university’s ability to effectively respond and provide supportive measures to this level of an influx in reports is only possible because of the decisions made to ensure that EEO-TIX has the resources necessary to care for our people. USC provided the resources to create EEO-TIX and invested in EEO-TIX-related training, internal protocols (including the Intake and Care Team, which oversees supportive measures, and the Initial Assessment Triage Team, which coordinates institutional response under EEO-TIX leadership), and implementation practices, all of which have benefited our community and fulfilled the requirements of USC’s Resolution Agreement with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

For support in addressing concerns that did not reach the level of protected class matters, our Employee & Labor Relations team partnered with HR professionals to resolve these at the earliest point possible, reducing escalation and helping to build and maintain a healthy work environment.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Developed the USC Responds Report and delivered required reporting to OCR

In addition to providing OCR with our 15th production of completed items under the Resolution Agreement, we designed and delivered our inaugural report to the USC community, USC Responds, which summarizes the university’s multi-tiered, multi-year set of initiatives to redesign and build systems to consistently assess,

equitably address, and remedy the impacts of sexual and gender-based harassment and violence on university climate and culture. The report was completed in FY2024 and shared as part of our annual message on Title IX updates with all faculty, staff, and students in August.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Digitally-accessible working and learning environments received ongoing improvements

We dedicated ourselves to auditing roughly 1,855 USC websites and around 1,000 social media accounts and to driving the remediation of accessibility issues to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards across the university. Our Office of Institutional Accessibility and ADA Compliance incorporated an Accessibility Statement throughout our websites, deployed 10 digital accessibility trainings via TrojanLearn, worked in partnership with all schools and administrative units to remediate key websites, and contracted with Deque as an auditing tool to aid in remediation efforts and for access to an extensive on-demand training program.

With the support of our HREC Strategic Communications team, and in support of deepening inclusion and equity across USC, we also promoted awareness of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, which was on May 16, 2024. To help our faculty and staff improve the digital accessibility of USC websites and digital assets, we curated and shared tips and resources, as well as provided customized Zoom backgrounds made available through the Gateway Connect weekly newsletter.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Deepened awareness of compliance, reporting, and people and employee data protection obligations

To support the safety of the USC community, our HREC teams ensured that university-wide trainings met our compliance standards, as well as provided training to equip students, faculty, and staff with the knowledge to perform actions and behaviors that support legal requirements, including:

• The Office of Athletic Compliance prioritized proactive rules education through increased trainings for our stakeholders, efforts which yielded a 45% decrease in reported secondary violations (33 in FY2023; 18 in FY2024).

• In response to an increase in requests for prevention and education training, EEO-TIX provided tailored trainings to more than 6,300 members of the community, including faculty and staff in various schools across the university. EEO-TIX also provided trainings to students during Undergraduate New Student Orientation, 1L Law Student Orientation, and to various student groups.

• EEO-TIX and UHR implemented the staterequired, biennial Harassment Prevention Training as part of our continued efforts to cultivate a welcoming and safe environment.

• OCEC and UHR established an enhanced process to better track Mandated Reporters and Campus Security Authorities (as required by TIX and Clery Act) in Workday, including updating job descriptions and offer documents to make clear the designation when appropriate and ensuring employees are aware of and provided the training to uphold their responsibilities.

• OCEC and UHR launched Safeguarding Employee Data training to approximately 1,800 faculty and staff identified as having elevated privileges in Workday and access to sensitive employee data.

• UHR partnered with Environmental Health & Safety on the development and rollout of Workplace Violence Prevention Plan training, as required by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

• We organized youth protection activities, including fingerprint and background checks for program organizers and training, to keep safe the approximately 36,000 participants involved in university programming both on and off campus.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Advanced USC’s Research Moonshot with launch of new conflict disclosure system

In alignment with our Conflict of Interest and Commitment Policy, faculty and staff are required to disclose conflicts of interest in research and submit annual disclosures to certain sponsors; relationships with industry in healthcare; and/or any personal or business conflicts of interest or conflicts of commitment. In support of this policy, our OCEC team launched diSClose, a new, easier-to-use online platform that enables faculty and staff to report possible conflicts of interest in compliance with university policy and research sponsor requirements.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Implemented university policies and business processes

To stay current with Federal and State laws and regulation changes, we introduced and updated policies including, but not limited to: School Activities Leave, Funeral and Bereavement, Leave for Victims of Crime, Family and Medical Leave Act/California Family Rights Act, and Election Leave Policy.

We also launched an HR Policy Review Committee, comprising subject matter experts, to regularly review all HR policies to identify needs, address risks, and revise them according to legal and regulatory requirements.

Advancing USC’s Academic and People Missions

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Accelerated time-to-hire even in a difficult hiring market

We supported the expansion of USC’s talented and diverse workforce with greater efficiency in managing high-volume and specialized staffing. As a result, 855 positions were filled and our average Time-to-Hire (TTH), which begins the date that the request to fill a job (job requisition) is created and ends the date a candidate accepts an offer, decreased by 32 days since the previous fiscal year. We also piloted a new model of bringing in a specialized recruiter for University Advancement who filled stale requisitions immediately and drastically reduced the TTH from 160 to 54 days.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Increased applicant traffic to Careers at USC website

Supporting our university’s goal of attracting diverse and robust talent, we focused on the integration of keywords within job descriptions, boosted our activity on LinkedIn, and leveraged data analytics to optimize search results and attract talent to the Careers at USC site. This resulted in a 58% increase in visitors year-over-year (1.2 million visitors) and roughly 52,000 applicants through the site.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Boosted our capabilities for continual updates and improvements to job descriptions

As part of a multi-year effort, our Compensation team completed the migration of all of USC’s approximately 2,300 job descriptions to an automated job description management tool, JDXpert. This effort sets a foundation for more seamless updates to job descriptions, which were historically hosted in a manually updated environment. JDXpert offers the ability to

better track the various requirements across roles for compliance management and enables integrations with other systems across USC, making processes more efficient and reducing manual steps. Looking forward, we will partner with HR teams to collaborate and provide an increased line of sight to the review and validation of their job descriptions.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Extended resources for our formal transition into Big Ten Conference

Our USC Trojans are preparing to face some new, big-name competitors this season thanks to our Office of Athletic Compliance. To ready USC for integration into the new conference, we hosted the Big Ten compliance staff on campus and participated in the annual Big Ten compliance retreat. Additionally, this summer we completed the inaugural “Big Ten Standards for Safeguarding Institutional Governance of Athletics,” a required Big Ten document that outlines the standards relating to the allocation of authority, responsibility, and accountability for the athletics program.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Collaborated to support campus safety initiatives

Our Office of Threat Assessment and Management recognizes that early collaborative assessment contributes to better allocation of resources and personnel at campus events. That is why we hold weekly meetings with internal university partners; hold quarterly intelligence meetings with external partners; meet regularly with local law enforcement agencies to learn about community events that may impact campus safety; and gather with our Big Ten counterparts monthly to review common concerns and intervention practices. During FY2024, we completed more than 700 assessments of individuals, including for persons engaged with the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, on-campus protests, and encampments at Alumni Park.

FEATURED ACCOMPLISHMENT

Prepared to welcome Arcadia Hospital employees into USC benefits and Workday

We made laudable strides in migrating Arcadia Hospital employees into the USC health system, a transition that will bring the population from a manual to an automated work environment on Jan. 1, 2025. As part of this transition, we revised and/or transferred Arcadia Hospital employee benefit plans to incorporate them into USC and converted 1,800 health system employees, 250 contractors, and 500 data fields into Workday.

Living Our Values Through HR, Equity, and Compliance

As shared in this report, our division has been unwavering in our commitment to deliver more impact than ever before to USC and the Trojan community. We have done this with care-driven initiatives that mitigate risks and through people-first service that enables USC faculty, staff, students, and postdocs to learn, work, and thrive.

The decision to combine the university’s key, central people teams was intentional, seeded deeply from an understanding of past events and experiences and with the resolve to shape a positive future for the university and our community. Since the formation of HREC in late 2019, and as reflected in the achievements shared, University HR, EEO-TIX, OCEC, and Professionalism and Ethics have made significant and transformational contributions to the practices, policies, and systems that prioritize the experiences and safety of our faculty, staff, students, patients, alumni, and guests.

Examples of our work beyond the time period of this report include the USC Culture Journey, Employee Relations Advisory and Consultative Groups, and Healthy Campus Initiative, as well as the implementation of legal requirements related to Pay Transparency.

As a division, we are fueled by the university’s mission, and we are committed to exemplifying our Unifying Values of Integrity; Excellence; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Well-being; Open Communication; and Accountability in all that we do.

We are excited by what the future holds, and we look forward to continuing to service, support, and safeguard the USC community now and always.

We are HREC.