Reinventing HR

at School District of
Philadelphia
Presented By: Group B
Nimish Joshi PGP08163
Nitin Wannewar PGP08164
Pankaj Tewari PGP08165
Pavankumar S PGP08166
Pooja Goyal PGP08167
1
 Case Summary

 The School District of Philadelphia (the “District”) is the 8th largest public
school system in the country system and the largest in the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania
 The District had a $1.9 billion annual budget and enrolled approximately
217,405 students in its 274 schools
 In December 2001, the District faced a hostile state takeover due to
chronically low academic achievement and a $200 million operating deficit.
 The Republican Governor Mark Schweiker and Democratic
Philadelphia Mayor John Street created a new five-member governing board,
the School Reform Commission (SRC)
 In July 2002, the SRC appointed its first CEO, Paul Vallas, the head of Chicago
Public Schools from 1995-2001

2
 Case Summary
 Vallas enacted a series of large-scale reforms aimed in improving academic
achievement throughout the District.
 Student performance on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA)
tests improved steadily from 2002, with the District’s annual achievement
gains outpaced state averages
 120-person HR office was responsible for developing and implementing all
personnel and employment policies
 Over 50% of teachers left the District within three years and persistent
comments relating the HR department’s lack of customer service suggested
problems in HR’s effectiveness

3
 Case Summary
 Primary challenges for improving HR’s effectiveness
 Strategic and operational issues: leadership’s attitude toward HR and the absence
of a direct reporting relationship between the CEO and HR worsened the problem
 Relationship with the teachers' union: HR leadership had not fostered more
collaborative relationships with the District’s unions, particularly the PFT
 Highly centralized and cumbersome teacher hiring process: HR interviewed,
hired, and assigned all new teachers centrally
 In August 2002, Vallas appointed Tomás Hanna as his special assistant for
recruitment and retention, a newly created position independent of the HR
office

4
 Case Summary
 Hana designed “Campaign for Human Capital” (the Campaign) aimed to
position the District as “the employer of choice for prospective and
experienced teachers.”
 The number of teacher applications rose 44% between 2002 and 2004.
 91% of new teachers completed their first year compared to 73% in the previous
year
 On January 11, 2005 , Hanna was appointment as the senior vice president for
HR
 Hanna reorganized the department into three new areas
 Employee entry,
 Employee service operations
 Employee relations

5
 Major Actors
 Natalye Paquin - COO
 Tommas Hanna – Earlier director of teacher recruitment and retention- Now
SVP HR
 Ted Krish : PFT President
 Paul Vallas – CEO
 Arlene Kempin: Chief personal officer
 Philadelphia Federations of teachers(PFT)
 Sandra Dungee Glenn: SRC commissioner

6
 Major Actors
 Shawn Crowder: Executive director employee entry
 Susan Gilbert : Executive director employee support operations
 Andy Rosen: Executive director of employee relation

7
 Major Problems
 Lack of communication between employees of HR and other departments
 Executives of HR department lacked proper vision
 Lack of leadership of the HR department due to frequent changes
 Differences between the HR department and PFT union
 Poor and Unresponsive customer service
 HR was viewed as an operational not a strategic department

8
 Challenges
• To implement site-based selection process throughout the entire 274
schools
• Arresting the high turnover rate of teachers
• Ensuring diversity in the hired pool of new teachers
• Proper coordination between site-based selection committees of
different schools
• Improving the teacher satisfaction and retention levels across the entire
chain of schools
• To implement a systemwide human capital management plan to maintain
quality workforce

9
Alternative courses of action
By segregating the HR department from the generic
control of COO and transferring the line-management
to the CEO so as to smoothen the reporting process

To involve the HR department in the training

activities as well as encourage their active
participation in the managerial and strategy meetings
This will only help the team operationally

Continuing the campaign’s “Human Capital

Management” recommendation. This will help
10
revamping the HR performance
11