Through two separate surveys, Finance and Administration is continuing to gather information that will help guide the establishment of a Service Center of Excellence (SCE) for the division.
One survey focuses on the specific tasks Finance and Administration employees perform in their work areas. The other is designed to gauge the overall level of satisfaction employees have with services they receive.
By the end of November, some 200 employees in the division-focused finance, human resources (HR), information technology (IT) and communications areas had participated in the task assessment survey.
Those findings will help the SCE planning team understand how staff members are allocating their day-to-day activities in support of finance, HR, IT and communications efforts within the division. The information will be instrumental in mapping specific tasks, a key step toward determining which services will move to the SCE and those that will remain in the departments.
A new satisfaction survey, to be distributed to all staff in early 2016, will seek to gauge their satisfaction with the services they receive in those four core areas, whether or not people within the division perform those services.
That assessment will establish a baseline for perceived service quality and matrix for success, explained Meredith Weiss, senior associate vice chancellor for finance and administration, during the Nov. 9 SCE Advisory Committee meeting. The survey is intentionally designed to solicit broad feedback on services in general, not to pinpoint areas where any breakdown in service might be occurring.
“We want a relative measure as a starting point,” she said. “We are trying to assess trends by gathering a snapshot in time now that will be measured against what we find a year from now. It’s one benchmark among about 20 we’ll use. It isn’t intended to be diagnostic; it’s our baseline.”
Once the data from both surveys are collected, Weiss said, the next step is to hold strategy discussions. She thanked members of the SCE Advisory Committee for their patience and their partnership as the center takes shape, and she asked them to continue to share information with staff in their departments.
The committee, which has met monthly since September, was formed to provide a strong customer voice in developing the SCE. Committee members, who represent every department in the division, help shape priorities and ensure that the SCE implementation responds to the needs of the departments as well as the employees in Finance and Administration.
The next SCE advisory committee meeting is scheduled for Dec. 14. Read meeting minutes.