Administrative Services Strategic Plan

Becoming A More Excellent Division

VISION

  • Customers are delighted with our products and services and students are viewed as the primary
    customer.
  • Employees are eager and proud to work for Administrative Services and Weber State University.
  • Stakeholders view us as an "Excellent Organization."

MISSION

We are partners in achieving the mission of Weber State University through creating a quality
environment where students are served.

VALUES

  • We strive to provide extraordinary service.
  • We constantly improve ourselves and the quality of our services.
  • We accept responsibility for our actions.
  • We are ethical and honest in our work.
  • We show respect and courtesy to all individuals.

Planning Assumptions

  • Limited financial resources from the legislature.
  • Increasing technology advancement will provide challenges and opportunities -- reduce some
    service demands, increased costs to support, install, license and support employee learning.
    Increase Internet usage. Divergence of technologies into many options.
  • Increasing customer demands -- faster, more convenient, personalized.
  • Increasing cost of doing business.
  • Additional federal/state regulations -- more of them, more complex, more restrictive, more risk
    and rarely funded.
  • More reporting and accountability requirements by Legislature and other governing bodies.

Strengths

  • Devoted and loyal personnel.
  • Quality orientation and support.
  • Good leadership.
  • Good working environment - good people to work with, beautiful campus, and stable environment.
  • Planning oriented.
  • Access to education and training.
  • Committed to students and other customers.
  • Willing to make changes.

Weaknesses

  • Insufficient communication with each other, customers, and stakeholders.
  • Non-competitive salaries.
  • Lack of funding to obtain or update equipment.
  • Lack of employee training.
  • Insufficient employee involvement in quality improvement.
  • Too much bureaucracy.
  • Lack of benchmarks of performance and measures of improvement.
  • Insufficient reward/recognition systems.
  • Resistance to change.

Opportunities

  • Restructuring of work processes for increased effectiveness/efficiency.
  • Facilitate customers' ability to serve themselves through technologies, etc.
  • Sharing of resources - equipment, personnel, etc.
  • More use of faculty to aid in the training of staff.
  • More use of students in internships for pay or class credit.
  • Assist customers in finding service alternatives.
  • Better planning.
  • Celebrate successes -- go further with financial rewards and add more social.
  • Utilize turnover in employees at all levels to leverage greater change and foster new ideas.
  • Improve methods to tap employees and customers for ideas.
  • Better measurements of progress and benchmarking against best in class.

Threats

  • Increasing demand for service and declining funding from the state.
  • Difficulty in obtaining and retaining good employees.
  • Difficulty in keeping up with technological change.
  • Inadequate funding.
  • Micro-management by the Legislature and other governing bodies.
  • Increased competition for students.
  • Negative perception of higher education.
  • Enrollment declines.

MOTTO
Working Together to Create a Quality Environment where Students are Served

 

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

COMMUNICATION

I. Objective: There is effective and efficient communication among employees, customers and stakeholders.

II. Strategies

A. Continue to conduct Open Forums with departments/employee groups each year.

B. Improve employee accessibility to PCs and Weber Web site.

C. Develop better communication and training for customers (i.e., current information, new hires, procedures, processes, and guidelines).

D. Implement a periodic written communication from the vice president to employees and other appropriate constituencies.

E. Host events to improve communication among employees, i.e.;

  • Annual Back-to-School Celebration
  • Mid-Year Communications Fair
  • Quality Fair
  • Summer Social

EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT

I. Objective: A continuous learning environment that strengthens the quality of the workforce.

II. Strategies

A. Establish a formal, required and structured education and training program.

  • Establish a training function to help organize and oversee employee training and development.
  • Identify required training for employees (i.e., safety, quality, civil rights, communications, etc.), including orientation for new hires.
  • Establish and use an Intranet to provide training opportunities.
  • Develop a management and supervisory training program within the Division.
  • Develop budget which can be utilized for employee continuing education on specialized and/
    or new technology.
  • Identify specific job skills and training for each position, along with future expectations.

B.  Develop a system to support and reward job-related learning.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

I. Objective: The Division is organized in a way that facilitates quality service, cooperation, teamwork and communication and is flexible and adaptable to changing conditions.

II. Strategies

A. Consolidate all facilities departments (Physical Plant, Architectural Services) into one department.

B. Evaluate appropriate placement of Electronic Systems in the university organizational structure
between Administrative Services and Information Technology.

C. Clarify the role of Quality Management Teams.

D. Reassess the role of the Division Quality Council.

E. Evaluate potential of alternative organizational structures, such as:

  • Self-directed work teams
  • Outsourcing
  • Consolidation
  • Career paths

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS

I. Objective: A balanced performance measurement system that provides continuous feedback on perfor-
mance and progress.

II. Strategies

A. Continue the Employee Satisfaction Survey and clarify its use as an improvement tool.
Evaluate use of additional data to help gauge employee satisfaction (i.e., voluntary turnover,
absenteeism, stress-related illnesses, focus group research).

B. Develop a customer satisfaction measurement system, such as

  • A customer satisfaction survey.
  • Response cards on specific jobs and random telephone surveys.
  • In-depth personal survey/interview at point of service (moment of truth).

C. Continue to establish critical process measures and assess effectiveness/efficiency.

  • Hold a 1/2-day retreat for each QMT to share their measures.
  • Adjust measures based on feedback received at the retreat.
  • Consider inviting a consultant to evaluate measures.
  • Evaluate Division participation in national/regional Benchmarking Programs such as
    NACUBO.

D. Adopt a consistent process of Employee Performance Evaluation utilizing goal setting
and feedback from customers, peers, and supervisors.

E. Develop a stakeholder satisfaction measurement system.

PLANNING

I. Objective: The Division and its individual units are guided and directed toward their Vision by
prioritized  planning.

II. Strategies

A. Develop and implement a Division Strategic Plan.

1. A planning team (the directors of the Division) is put in place by the vice president.

2. A two-day planning retreat is conducted to begin the plan's development.

3. Planning team completes the plan and assumes accountability for implementation.

4. Planning team develops process for implementation of the plan that involves broad employee participation throughout the Division.

5. The planning team communicates the plan throughout the Division and the campus as appropriate.

6. Planning Team develops a process for keeping the plan updated annually and for monitoring progress.

B. Develop and implement an annual planning (goal setting) process for each department/unit
of the Division.

- Be customer driven
- Be consistent with the Division plan
- Include a section on improvement projects
- Include a process for monitoring progress
- Include service standards, such as:

- The first individual contacted by a customer is responsible for seeing the customer is served.
- Respond promptly to telephone and E-mail messages.
- Answer the telephone promptly
- Appropriate use of voice mail

- Contain broad departmental objectives and specific strategies to be achieved within
each objective.

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT/INNOVATION

I. Objective: Every employee has a commitment to and is engaged in continuous improvement and
innovation in the quality of services.

II. Strategies

A. Develop an effective customer/employee/stakeholder suggestion system.

B. Develop a process that periodically reviews each area/department with the goal of getting
ideas for improvement initiatives and benchmarking performance.

C. Develop a plan for the use of automation and technology to enhance customer service.

D. Promote more use of and broader participation in process improvement teams.

E. Define and establish a process for identifying, prioritizing, and implementing innovations.

F. Develop a "Help Desk" concept for Administrative Services functions.

G. Establish a system to keep policies and procedures updated.

- Identify ownership and accountability
- Measure progress

RESOURCES

I. Objective: Resources are increased and better utilized.

II. Strategies

A. Develop programs to supplement the workforce, such as:

  • Apprenticeships
  • Employee exchange
  • Employee sharing
  • Student interns
  • Volunteers
  • Retirees
  • Physically challenged workers
  • Job Corps workers
  • Resource pooling

B. Identify and evaluate opportunities for additional funding, such as:

  • Develop use of a full cost concept which will include administrative support costs in
    institutional program funding requests
  • Develop a system to improve awareness of the value of Administrative Services to
    WSU and the need for additional funding
  • Evaluate potential savings alternatives, such as:

    - Flex spending (use of 125b accounts)
    - More use of student employees (students are FICA exempt)
    - More 9, 10, 11 month contracts
  • Seek more participation in university overhead, such as:

    -Auxiliary overhead
    - Federal reimbursed overhead
  • Evaluate the opportunity to charge fees for unfunded services. (New funding)
  • Evaluate the potential for obtaining funding from grants (federal, state, private).
    (New funding)
  • Participate on the Capital Campaign Committee and submit Administrative Services'
    needs to this committee

REWARDS/RECOGNITION

I. Objective: Individual, department, and team performance is rewarded and recognized.

II. Strategies

A. Continue to address internal and external compensation equity.

  • Develop a system within the Division for base salary recapture through turnover to
    improve salaries.

B. Develop system of awards for outstanding performance in achieving goals/objectives.

  • Spot awards (one-time pay and gifts in kind).
  • Awards where employees "recognize each other" for providing good service.
  • Additional training opportunities.
  • Recognize participation and achievement in national/regional improvement/innovation
    award programs.
  • Tie base merit pay allocations directly to performance in achieving annual goals/objectives.

DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT

I. Objective: Everyone values and promotes a diverse1 and inclusive2 environment.

II. Strategies:

A. Review division strategic plan and make recommendations, if needed, to the planning team
for changes to more explicitly promote a diverse and inclusive environment.

B. Regularly assess the inclusivity of the environment and develop strategies to address obstacles  identified.

C. Incorporate into the annual employee survey feedback on the inclusivity climate in the division.

D. Integrate diversity and inclusivity material into employee development training.

E. Establish hiring and retention strategies in departmental plans to encourage and produce a
more diverse work force.

F. Identify strategies that are unique to Administrative Services that will contribute to a more
inclusive institutional environment.

1. Integrate into campus facilities planning improved pedestrian traffic flows and more opportunities for places for people to congregate and verbally interact.

_______________________________

1A diverse environment should be understood in its broadest sense to include everyone on the basis
of the infinite ways in which humans vary and which contribute to each individual’s uniqueness. "These
differences include age, geographical background, ethnicity, gender, religion, politics, sexual orientation,
language, biological attributes, skills, abilities, and all other features resulting from physical endowments
and experiences."  (Source: WSU Administrative Standing committee on Diversity, Autumn 1995)

2An inclusive environment is one in which everyone feels valued, respected, and included.

 

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Weber State University

Ogden, Utah 84408