Administrative and Educational Support Unit Review Guidelines

Introduction

Completion of an F&O Unit Review Self-Assessment and Planning Guide will permit F&O unit leadership, in conjunction with senior F&O leadership, to plan and provide rationale for implementing continuous improvements that support unit and FO Divisional strategic goals. This assessment and plan satisfies the requirement to complete a unit review every five years. It is recommended that the assessment or activities that support it, such as strategic planning, utilize input and feedback from unit employees and supervisors. Units may also analyze previous unit review reports, recommendations, and action plans, recognizing successes and unfinished items that are still pertinent.

In addition to completing the self-assessment and planning guide, units may choose to engage in further review activities, such as a lean/business process improvement event, external or peer review or customer satisfaction survey/feedback activities. Units are encouraged to submit a final report of such activities with the self-assessment and planning guide as documentation of their completed unit review.

Unit Name:______

Unit Leader:______

Senior Leader:______

Calendar Year of Scheduled Review:______

A. Organizational Profile

1.  Unit Functions

a.  Briefly describe the functions of your unit. Specifically, what programs, services, or products do you provide?

b.  Please include/ attach or describe your mission, vision, and values if applicable.

2.  Unit Culture

a.  What are the norms of behavior and underlying shared values and beliefs of your unit.

b.  What are the practices and behaviors that both exemplify and reinforce the norms and shared values?

3.  Staffing Profile

a.  Please attach an org chart of your unit.

b.  Gather, analyze and describe data about your workforce that might identify challenges including: risk factors based on age, turnover, difficulty recruiting, specialized skill set and any other factors that are relevant to your unit.

c.  Are you able to recruit and keep employees with needed skills?

i.  _____ Yes

ii. _____ No, please describe the challenges:

d.  What are the major competencies (skills and abilities) needed to perform the Key Areas of Responsibility (KARS) or to complete projects going on in your unit, which enable you to fulfill the function of your unit? (Possible data sources include HRIS employee personnel file/classification view tool, FO Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s).

e.  What type of professional development that supports your key services, new initiatives and/or employee competencies (offered through My Training or external sources) has occurred within the unit in the last five years? How do you identify and prioritize training opportunities? Are there any required certifications or licenses for staff?

f.  What types of innovation, creative work/research, projects, conference presentations, publication of articles or other major accomplishments have occurred in the unit in the last 5 years? How do you support these efforts?

g.  What is the satisfaction/engagement level of the employees in your unit? How do you assess this (e.g. Working@Iowa, pulse surveys, employee surveys)?

4.  Organizational Structure

a.  Are all of the positions, roles, responsibilities, and expected qualifications for positions in your unit well defined and necessary? How are they documented and updated?

b.  Are additional personnel or different skill sets needed for most efficient functioning of the unit?

i.  _____No

ii. _____Yes, please describe the need:

c.  Are the lines of responsibility clear and do employees know where they can go for support, training and resources?

i.  _____Yes

ii. _____No, please describe the challenges:

d.  Do supervisors have a workable number of direct reports, e.g. can they manage performance adequately? What are the factors that influence the right balance for your unit? (e.g. how much oversight is needed vs. autonomous employees, how much work is assigned to the supervisor, etc.)

i.  _____Yes

ii. _____No, please describe the challenges:

5.  Work Environment

a.  Are there any safety or special occupational health considerations in your unit?

i.  _____No

ii. _____Yes, please describe and then share how manage them.

b.  Is the current space allotment adequate for your unit?

i.  _____ Yes

ii. _____No, please explain:

c.  What are the regulatory requirements under which your unit operates? What regulations, if any, imposed by an agency or organization outside your unit do you deal with on day-to-day basis? (Examples: OSHA rules, Federal Financial Aid Regulations, Building Codes, etc.). How do you track and report on these?

6.  Relationship and Alignment

a.  Please describe how the functions of your unit are in alignment with the University’s mission and more specifically how they are aligned within the Division of Finance and Operations.

b.  How does your unit contribute to FO strategic initiatives? Attach unit strategic plan and demonstrate how it aligns with the FO strategic plan found at F&O Strategic Plan .

c.  Do you receive input from an advisory group (perhaps external to the unit, but internal or external to F&O or the UI) and if so, how is this input used?

7.  Strategic Partners

a.  List the partners (internal to F&O, UI and/or external) that are most critical to your unit’s success .

b.  What works well for communicating with them?

c.  How do you know the partnership is working for both parties? What would be your plan if this partnership dissolved?

B. Unit Opportunities and Challenges

1.  Business Environment

a.  What tools are you using to understand your unit’s business environment?

b.  Who are your customers?

c.  Are your customers consistently satisfied with your services? Do you collect data from customers about usage and satisfaction? If so, please attach any customer service surveys or other examples of relevant assessments. How do you manage and/or share this information with others? How do you make changes based on the satisfaction/usage data?

d.  How do you determine future needs of customers? How do you plan for and then make decisions about meeting customer needs?

e.  Understanding that some F&O units are not allowed to compete with local businesses, are there non-UI businesses that offer products and services that are similar to what your unit provides?

i.  What are the possible ramifications if your customers are dissatisfied or elect not to use your service?

ii. How do you ensure you are providing the best level of service possible at the least cost possible?

iii.  Are there options for partnering with non UI competitors in some way?

2.  Strengths, Weaknesses and Opportunities

a.  Internal Strengths such as: the experience of your people, the equipment and infrastructure already in place, the power of your brand, etc.

b.  Internal Weaknesses such as: aging workforce, lack of funding to expand, lack of a pipeline of employees with relevant competencies (knowledge, skills and abilities) for the future, etc.

c.  External Opportunities such as: new services can be provided uniquely suited to the needs of your customers, working with your customers to develop services and products meeting their needs, etc.

3.  Strategic Context

a.  What specific challenges are you facing that may threaten your unit’s functioning? How do these impact the strategic initiatives of F&O, or the University?

b.  Are there any major professional, legislative, regulatory or other predictable developments on the horizon related to the functions of your unit?

i.  _____No

ii.  _____Yes, please explain:

c.  What are the expectations for service growth/expansion or service reductions in your unit?

d.  How would the above challenges or growth impact staffing needs?

e.  Are there educational or specific skills that your employees will need in the next five years to meet project business needs?

i.  _____No

ii. _____Yes, please describe and then share how you would bring staff up to speed or recruit for needed skills.

4.  Continuous Improvement

a.  How do you foster an environment to encourage constant improvement?

b.  How do you periodically review processes (work) for efficiencies, effectiveness and alignment to mission and goals?

c.  What measureable savings (in terms of $$, productivity, efficiencies, etc.) have you realized through process improvements since your last review (Five years)?

d.  What are the potential process improvements that need to be addressed? What cost savings or cost avoidance might you realize through process improvements over the next 5 years?

e.  What changes might improve unit productivity or effectiveness?

f.  Is there duplication of effort anywhere or do shadow systems exist?

g.  How could the unit engage unit employees and supervisors in both planning for and implementing improvements? (e.g. strategic planning, setting goals that align work to priorities, creating opportunities for employee feedback)

h.  What is your plan for dealing with anticipated facility, technology, and equipment needs?


C. Summary and Planning

1.  Organizational Strengths and Challenges

a.  After completing the Organizational Profile and Unit Opportunities (p.1-5), please list the top three to five strengths or best practices you want your unit to sustain and the top three to five challenges or issues your unit needs to overcome.

i.  Strengths or Best Practice

1.  –

2.  –

3.  –

4.  –

5.  –

ii. -Challenges or Issues

1.  –

2.  –

3.  –

4.  –

5.  –

2.  Planned Improvements and Expected Outcomes:

a.  Based on the identified strengths and challenges, please indicate what improvements your unit will implement over the next five years and the expected outcomes of those improvements? (Please select or identify any of the activities you plan to engage in as a result of your unit review process and include how outcomes will be translated into quantitative data).

i.  _____Lean/Business Process Improvement event:

ii. _____ External/Peer Review :

iii.  _____Customer Satisfaction Survey or Focus Groups, etc.:

iv.  _____Other:

Please submit a copy of the completed Self-Assessment and Planning Guide (and final report of any additional planned improvement activities when completed) to Suzanne Hilleman F&O Senior HR Representative, 105 Jessup Hall.

For Unit: ______

Unit Leader: ______Date ______

Senior Leader: ______Date: ______

© 2011

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