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January 24, 2005
Employee Council plans strategically with Mandl

Mike Mandl, executive vice president for finance and administration, was the special guest at Employee Council’s Jan. 19 meeting at Yerkes. He commented on the council’s draft document on strategic planning for staff development.

The document had been submitted to Provost Earl Lewis, who passed it to along to finance and administration. Mandl said he was “thrilled” to see the contents of the council’s plan.

The council submitted the plan to Provost Earl Lewis on Dec. 13. It contains nearly three dozen bullet statements grouped under seven themes (leadership, community, work/life balance, internal career advancement, benefits, compensation and training), the sum of which, the council says, would make Emory a “destination employer.” Council Historian Woody Woodworth of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library was the primary author.

“Every time I finished a section, I was assuming the next section would be off base or asking for too much, but I didn’t find that at all,” Mandl said.

He spoke of the three areas where Emory requires excellence: people, infrastructure and facilities, and money. “I always put money last,” Mandl said. “It is what enables everything else.

“I always start with people,” he continued. “Emory can only be as good as the people we have. It is very important to have a deliberate plan geared toward the development, recruitment and retention of excellent people.”

Mandl said the ideas contained in the plan will be part of the conversation that leads up to the University’s final strategic plan, which will be released later this year. “Great things don’t happen in two months or even a year,” Mandl said, adding that real results of the strategic plan may not be felt for seven years. “We need to be about a set of principles. The key is to identify and articulate them, then begin the momentum toward them.”

Council President Susie Lackey said she was encouraged by Mandl’s positive reaction and pledged to continue revising the council’s plan. “He gave us much more than I hoped for,” she said. “He engaged our planning document and ensured that it will be at the forefront of many good things to come. This will take staff up to the next level.”

The next Employee Council meeting will be Wednesday, Feb. 16, at noon in Seney Hall at Oxford. Transportation will be available for council members, and Oxford College staff are invited to the meeting.—Eric Rangus

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