As far as the College of Engineering is concerned, administrative systems expert Cheryl Fanning is a jewel, honed, polished and ready to shine in any setting among its departments.

She is the college's first designated "administrative floater," trained to handle at a minute's notice high-level transactions for the campus online financial information system, DaFIS, as well as the Payroll Personnel System.

Although other departments have had cross-trained support staff, Fanning's high-level expertise at the "blank" assistant III level represents a new concept at UC Davis to improve workload.

The fact that Fanning has high-level security clearance to use both the payroll and accounting systems makes her invaluable to engineering departments. At that level, she will be able to immediately step in to keep departmental business running when support employees are ill, retire or take another job.

"The campus has a significant problem with turnover that we didn't have before," explains Lucy Bunch, assistant dean in the College of Letters and Science. "Using a floater is one possible solution to really make a difference for departments."

Bunch chairs the Service Center Consultant Team, one of a handful of teams working on the Staff Workload and Compensation Action Plan approved by the provost last June. Campus managers who struggle to fill the void created each time they lose an employee with payroll and accounting duties suggested the idea. The team created a set of guidelines for colleges, schools and departments to consider.

Here's how the guidelines work in the College of Engineering:

• Fanning is fully trained in all campus systems and will have ongoing duties assigned in order to remain active when there is no need for services by departments
• If more than one department needs the services of the staff, her time will be split as appropriate.
• The position is funded by the dean's office so no charge will be made to the departments for her services.
• Fanning, a 10-year campus employee who has worked her way up the ladder from senior clerk, was recruited at the "blank" assistant III level to reflect the complexity of serving multiple units.
• She is expected to be flexible and able to fit into different department environments and procedures.

According to Bunch, other units may be able to profit from the College of Engineering's example.

The campus faces several problems in hiring replacements. Regional unemployment is low and the Sacramento job market is attracting job seekers to higher paying jobs off campus. While statewide unemployment in December fell to 4.6 percent-the lowest in 30 years, Sacramento's jobless rate was the lowest ever at 3.2 percent, according to figures from the state Employment Development Department.

But UC Davis has an even bigger problem, according to Fanning's supervisor, Cathe Richardson, the engineering college's analyst for academic personnel work

"The university is so specialized that we can't easily hire from the outside and our internal pools are dwindling," she says.

One might look for a solution from the Temporary Employment Pool, but those employees don't have the high level of training and certification to handle the confidential departmental personnel business.

Besides, temporary employees who obtain such training are often quickly hired into a permanent job, according to Deb Weimerskirch, manager of the Temporary Employment Pool. In fact, she reports that during the first six months of this fiscal year, more than 30 percent of the campus's temporary clerical/administrative workers transitioned to positions elsewhere on campus or in the UC Davis Health System.

The idea of a floating support employee is not new. Five years ago, Student Housing's management created a entry-level "blank" assistant I position to float between the various offices within its unit, says Emily Galindo, assistant director for Student Housing.

Since then, members of this "Specialty Team for Administrative Relief and Support" have been hired with basic computer skill aptitudes, customer service skills and some exposure to accounting and bookkeeping work. Once on the job, they have been trained on Student Housing's computer programs, DaFIS, Banner and other systems. But because of confidentiality and other control requirements, STARS don't handle the payroll and personnel system, Galindo says.

But the hot California job market has had an impact on the STARS strategy.

"Unfortunately, over the past 18 months or so, the rate of turnover in the department has increased significantly," Galindo says. "I think this is reflective across the campus. We were investing a lot of time in training and then losing them to other higher positions on campus."

Using a strategy borrowed from the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, Galindo received approval from Human Resources' Compensation Unit to reclassify the STARS and others in Housing. Based on certain criteria and acquired proficiencies, the employees were boosted to the "blank" assistant II level, thus creating a financial incentive for employees to stay in their positions.

Meanwhile, the College of Engineering's Fanning just took her first "field assignment" in the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering this week. She is finding herself deep into payroll, travel and entertainment reimbursements, and direct charges. Fanning says she loves the idea of being a Jill of all administrative systems for the College of Engineering.

"I like the challenge and the sense of accomplishment being able to go into different departments and figure out how to help them operate and meet their business needs."