Staff are more inclined to ask for and participate in facilitated discussions. These discussions generally end with situations being openly discussed and agreement on a plan of action. In some cases, people are clearly in mismatched positions, either because of personality, communication difficulties, or skills. The Ombuds office and Employee Relations continue to work together to facilitate personnel relocations to jobs which are more compatible. A large proportion of the work of the Ombuds Office is preventative and, for this report, is captured through the general area of consultations with others on the campus.
Consultations are with different individuals or with groups.
They deal with mostly with larger Institute issues. The numbers below reflect the first contact only. Some consults have cross-group representation. Most consults were done with groups of people rather than with individuals . Other colleges and universities have found such a program to be very helpful in the recruitment and retention of upper level management and new faculty.