Position Management Community of Practice

Past Meetings:

09/04/2026: Position Maintenance Focus Group

Session Summary:

• Planning for what comes after the cleanup: Participants discussed how units can maintain accurate position data after the Vacant Position Data Cleanup Initiative and pressure-tested a proposed maintenance framework focused on Ownership, Database, Decision Workflows, and Ongoing Maintenance.
• Position Management looks different across campus: Unit size, staffing models, employee populations, transaction volume, and department–Region relationships vary significantly. Participants emphasized the need for a flexible framework that provides structure without prescribing one workflow for every unit.
• Clear ownership and handoffs are essential: Position Management often requires collaboration across HR, Finance, managers, Regions, and other subject matter experts. Clear roles are needed for who makes decisions, provides information, and completes transactions.
• Units use different tools to maintain visibility: Participants shared approaches ranging from regularly refreshed CalAnswers Position Roster reports to local tracking tools and integrated dashboards. The appropriate tool and review cadence depends on each unit's needs and complexity.
• Different populations may need different pathways: Staff, student, academic, and other employee populations can require different expertise and workflows. Participants emphasized that multiple pathways can still share clear structure, criteria, and documentation.
• Additional opportunities surfaced: The discussion identified questions and pain points extending beyond the maintenance framework, including potential future CoP topics, system and process improvement opportunities, and questions requiring additional campus or SME follow-up.
• Next steps: Findings from the focus group will help inform the October Position Management Community of Practice, where the broader community will continue the conversation about sustainable position maintenance practices.

Session Materials:

• Focus Group Notes
• Focus Group - Maintenance Framework Example

06/16/2026: Vacant Position Cleanup Initiative

Session Summary: 

• Campus-wide initiative launched: In partnership with the Vice Chancellor for Finance (VCF), Berkeley is launching a one-time Vacant Position Cleanup Initiative to improve data accuracy, strengthen position management practices, and support more informed budget planning.
• Focus on truly inactive positions: Departments were asked to review long-term vacant positions that are no longer needed and determine whether they should remain active or be inactivated in UCPath. The goal is to improve the quality of position data, not to reduce approved staffing levels.
• Department expertise drives decisions: Local departments know their operational needs best. Position Managers, HR, Finance, and departmental leadership should work together to determine whether each vacant position should be retained for future hiring or inactivated.
• Standardized review process: Participants walked through the campus review process, including how departments will receive their position lists, complete the review, and submit recommendations for inactivation.
• Key timelines and expectations: The initiative timeline, departmental responsibilities, and available support resources were reviewed, along with opportunities to ask questions throughout the project.
• Long-term position management: Regularly reviewing vacant positions helps maintain accurate data, improves reporting and budgeting, and reduces future cleanup efforts by making position review part of routine business practices.

Session Materials:

• Slide Deck — Vacant Position Cleanup Initative
• FAQs —Vacant Position Cleanup Initiative
• Guidance Document — Vacant Position Cleanup Initiative
• List of DFLs by division
• Job Aids:
  • How to Reactivate Position Numbers

02/02/2026: Vacant Position Management Best Practices

Session Summary: 

• Positions are foundational to financial planning: salaries, wages, and benefits make up ~60% of the campus budget (and up to 90% in some divisions), making accurate position data critical for budgeting and decision-making.

• Too many vacant positions obscure insight: with ~67,000 vacant positions in UCPath (many student-related), the challenge isn’t reporting,  it’s identifying true vacancies.

• Intentional cleanup works: a Haas spotlight showed how clear workflows, stakeholder buy-in, and HR–Finance collaboration enabled a large-scale position cleanup and better cost visibility.

• CalAnswers supports smarter decisions: download your department’s data from the Position Roster report in the Position Management Dashboard in CalAnswers, and add a new column  “Position Review.” Label each position to decide whether vacant positions should be recruited, reused, or inactivated:

• Filled - ‘In Budget’

• Vacant - ‘Recturing’, ‘Re-use for __’ or ‘Inactivate.’

• Shared ownership matters: breakout discussions emphasized partnering with managers and reviewing positions regularly to keep data accurate and sustainable.

Session Materials:

• 02/02/2026 Slide Deck
• 02/02/2026 Notes
• CalAnswers Position Management Dashboard
• Job Aids:
  • How to Inactivate Position Numbers
  • How to Reactivate Position Numbers

10/29/2025: Position Lifecycle Workflow

Session Summary: During this session, we explored how clear communication and intentional collaboration keep Position Management workflows running smoothly across units. Participants shared tangible practices like using shared Smartsheets or Google Sheets for real-time updates, scheduling regular check-ins with partners, and manually verifying data in Service Hub when needed. Spotlight presentations from the School of Public Health and Student Affairs highlighted the power of streamlined structures, centralized oversight, and proactive coordination between HR, Finance, and departments.

Session Materials:

• 10/29/2025 Slide Deck
• 10/29/2025 Notes
• School of Public Health & ProS Workflow
• Student Affairs Workflow

9/22/2025: Project Charter & Position Lifecycles Framework Introduction

Session Summary: We discussed the mission, objectives, scope, and stakeholders for this Community of Practice. We defined the Position Lifecycle framework and, in breakout rooms, discussed our role(s) with the Position Lifecycle as well as where communication handoffs within the lifecycle, between units, break down.

Session Materials:

• 9/22/2025 Slide Deck
• 9/22/2025 Notes
• Position Lifecycle & Workflows webpage