HR Story on Epidemic Prevention and Control (January - April 2020)

Human Resources office has been closely working with the university working party for epidemic prevention and control to implement epidemic prevention and control measures, including but not limited to organizing staff information collection, preparing for returning to Suzhou, returning to campus, and assisting with information sharing of quarantine and community management, etc.

Picture 1: Staff Information Collection

During the process, HR has built up a loop-locked process management on the epidemic control. While maintaining HR operations, HR colleagues also took different roles focusing on government policy updates on Epidemic Control closely, communicating with staff in a timely manner, driving staff information collection, providing support to staff on the port-entry and airport area, clarifying quarantine and community requirements, as well as guiding staff return to campus in order to make the process as convenient for staff as possible.  

Picture 2: Loop-locked Process Management on Epidemic Prevention and Control

It is definitely a collaborative effort of all leadership support, cross-functional collaborations, HR contacts and all departmental designated coordinators. We highly express our appreciation to all the contributors.

HR has been involving in the epidemic prevention and control since the beginning and have gone through a hard time together with our staff. Different stories and memories have been left between staff and HR, which turn out to be our treasures.

"Bill Boland" from Taicang Learning Mall

As an expat who has lived in Beijing for nine years and was moving to a new city in the middle of the crisis, I was incredibly anxious about the transition. As it turns out, the service and support of XJTLU’s HR Department turned out to be the best I have received in my entire time abroad in China. They kept me informed, guided me effortlessly through the complicated process, and reassured me that I wouldn’t run into any challenging situations.

"Peng Zhao" from Department of Health and Environmental Sciences

HR and my HoD did all their best to make it possible that I could start my job remotely. I was released from the pressure of my career and financial problem so that I was able to start my online teaching as planned.

I have been recently interviewed by a media, and I have written a series of posts with photographs about the impressive moments before, during, and after my trip. All are in Chinese. The list is as follows:

回国记：从德国美因茨到中国苏州
回国记：儿童漫画法语版
回国记：前传
隔离记：住宿篇
隔离记：测核酸
隔离记：餐饮篇
隔离记：带娃篇

"Marie Alexandra Beneteau & Andrew Harvey" from Language Centre

HR was helpful at keeping me informed on everything that I would need. I had to get special permission to return as I was in Thailand and would soon be too pregnant to travel on an airplane.

As the policies were always changing, HR kept me updated on the situation, which gave me some relief in a stressful time. As many teachers were speculating and commenting on heresay on social media, I felt very confident knowing that I had the most up-to-date and correct information from HR.

HR informed me of all the documents I needed to send, and communicated with the Suzhou government on our behalf. In the end, we were successful in getting permission to come back early. 

"Roberto Dona" from International Business School Suzhou

During my return trip to China, the role of HR was to provide the guidance to the things to be done, to provide a very clear definition of the process. So I was completely prepared in knowing what’s going on by arrival, which documents should I present, what I should not behave. Even if it was difficult, in reality, it was very simple. The great support I got from the HR was not only to solve the practical problems, but also to give me the complete and transparent guideline about how to deal with this situation.

"Li Yang" from Department of Chemistry

On my returning to Suzhou, the coordinator from HR responded very quickly to my concerns. After collecting the basic information, she reassured my worries, anxiety and provided immediate solutions. She also followed up on the date of my arrival to the Suzhou. I appreciated very much for her dedication and efforts in this special period.

"Mark Paul Leach" from Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

The functions/services provided by the university have been excellent throughout the period. Clear information has been provided as and when it becomes available and responses to queries have been made quickly. All of the departments I have engaged with have been especially helpful, offering solutions to problems on an as needed basis.

Effective immediately, we integrated Staff One-Stop Service Center and Foreign Affairs Team into one dedicated team, the HR Services Centre (HRSC).

HRSC serves as the first point of contact to provide HR core transactional services to all staff. It supports throughout all of employment lifecycle, including routine HR inquiries, as well as core transactional processing, administrative support and HR records management. (Please refer to more details in attached Service Manual) All the HR function modules will work closely with the HRSC. In order to provide employees with fast, accurate, and consistent access to HR information respond to the staff’s needs, the information will be exchanged continuously inside of HR Office. All the efforts will upgrade skills of HR professionals and improve HR service effectiveness.

Corresponding to the above change, Yun Zhang will be leading HRSC team as HR Service Manager, all HR Service Specialists reporting to her, they are Jingying Liu, Yun Zhao, Guangze Wu, Jieru Chen, Wenwen Ke, Ye Lan and Shiyi Guo. Yun Zhang will directly report to Haiyan Liu, Sr. HR Manager, XJTLU.

To ensure staff easily reach out HR for routine HR inquiries, we integrated previous HR public email staffonestop, and expat.hr into HR.Service@xjtlu.edu.cn as the ONLY dedicated email.

• Open Hours during the Epidemic Period

• Service Manual

Human Resources Office