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This version of NSU News has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of NSU News, visit news.nova.edu.
This version of SharkBytes has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of SharkBytes, visit sharkbytes.nova.edu.
Two Years of Increasing Staff Giving
NSU’s Office of Innovation and Information Technology (OIIT) has something to boast about. In the last fiscal year, the department nearly doubled their staff giving from the previous year. In fact, they were close to 50 percent participation, a statistic that Jaime Gentile, B.A., director of employee services, is really excited about.
“Our giving hovered around 8 to 10 percent before the 2016 announcement of NSU’s campaign. Once Realizing Potential launched, we realized we wanted to give more. Last year, department giving went up to 21%. Now, we
’re at 46%. It’s amazing. And you’ve got to remember, we have about 240 full-time employees, so that makes it a lot more challenging,” said Gentile.
To motivate employees, Gentile and her colleagues created a tiered incentive program. They announced the program via email to all employees. The email outlined the rewards that employees would receive at different percentages of participation. For example, once the department reached 15 percent of staff giving, they were allowed to wear jeans for one month. At 25 percent, they could wear jeans for two months.
Gentile said that excitement grew with the percentages, especially as the department got closer to the 50 percent participation level. If they reached that level, they would be rewarded with the opportunity to throw pies at Thomas West, vice president of information technology and chief information officer. Unfortunately, the department didn’t reach that goal, but Gentile has high hopes for next year.
“We’re thinking of creative ways for next year. We’re definitely going to have to roll out a whole new plan. Our goal is to get to 50 percent. And we’re hoping that [employees] will see how close we got this year, and really try to get there next year.”
Gentile joined NSU after working for the School Board of Broward County for 10 years. It was her love of education and the university’s reputation that brought her here. Regarding her role in OIIT she said, “This is the best department I have ever worked for. I am surrounded by truly amazing leaders and an amazing team.”