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Transformations UCLan - TSAP

Project Name: Transforming School Admin Processes (TSAP)

Lead Institution: University of Central Lancashire

Project Lead: Lisa Banks  

 


See the full Transformations programme playlist

The University of Central Lancashire undertook a project to help administrative staff in academic school offices to break down bureaucratic problem areas and review and refine core business processes. The project evaluated a number of processes, implemented consistent working practices and shared areas of good practice. By the end of the project, we developed a model for future business process reviews.Transforming School Admin Processes fits under the category ‘Improved efficiency and cost savings’ and drew upon the experience of other JISC projects, particularly in the area of change management.

 

This project worked with schools to:

 

  • review and refine core business processes
  • develop standard processes with proper documentation and variance boundaries
  • reviewed roles and responsibilities between schools and services
  • developed staff’ business analysis skills in order that they can undertake their own business process reviews in the future – increasing capacity to drive business efficiency 

 

Project aims/goals

 

This project worked with schools to review and refine core business processes, developing standard processes with properly documented variance boundaries. We also supported school staff to develop their business analysis skills in order that they could undertake their own business process reviews in the future, dramatically increasing capacity to drive business efficiency. In addition, an overarching review of roles and responsibilities between schools and services was undertaken to provide a framework, within which the revised business processes will operate.

 

Context

 

In 2008, UCLan completed a major restructuring exercise, removing its faculty layer and devolving greater responsibility to its 16 schools. In an attempt to streamline activities and improve business processes, faculty services such as marketing, programme administration/validation, finance, etc. were moved to existing central services that provided support across all schools. A standard staffing structure was created for all school offices to create unison between them. In addition line management of the school offices passed to Student Academic Support Service (SASS) (the central service responsible for student support). Since the re-structure there has been a growing trend for schools to request the creation of new roles, to undertake duties that should be completed centrally. These requests are arising because schools are not homogenous, e.g. Nursing students require significant placement support, while lab-based students require greater technical supervision. The requests for new posts have been turned down on the basis that the work should be undertaken centrally, but this has led to concerns around workloads for school staff who are continuing to support these non-standard activities. An initial workshop was held with school office staff to try to identify the key issues. This highlighted; business processes not being updated following the re-structure, lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities of schools and services and increased demands on school staff from ad hoc tasks being delegated by the services etc. There are varying opinions as to whether standardised structures and business processes across schools work. Services note that they have to do the same task a variety of ways depending on the schools’ demands and schools themselves admit that some of the variance is down to personal preference. While there seems to be agreement that there needs to be some consistency with business processes, there also needs to be flexibility, allowing for school variances where there is a genuine business reason to do so. Results of the initial workshop suggest that a significant proportion of the variance is not for business reasons and thus change management will be key in this project. 

 

The business case/key drivers

 

The reasons for doing this project were clear. The sector as a whole is facing increasing demands from students to offer higher levels of value for money in light of the increased fee structured initiated in 2012. To deliver this, we have to re-focus our staff (away from back-office admin processes that do not add value) to front-facing services that provide the support and advice demanded by students. This project is not only a response to student demand, but also a recognition that student recruitment and retention is also directly impacted by the staff in the school offices who can identify and resolve issues at the point of origin and also provide an excellent ‘front of house’ service for enquiries. This project is also particularly important as it offers us the opportunity to spread the expertise in business analysis across the organisation, helping us to reduce or banish bureaucratic processes.

 

JISC resources/technology used

 

We evaluated all of the appropriate JISC resources at the start of our project and many are referenced in our methodology:

 

SLAP – used a similar methodology to TSAP. Of particular interest was the ESIA approach – eliminate waste, simplify, integrate (reduce hand off/move decision points earlier),automate – which has been used to inform our workshop design. The success of SLAP was that it did not focus on technology alone, instead triangulated technology, process and people. We learned from that and used it to re-engineer our methodology for large-scale IT project developments and also to inform our development of a consistent approach to business process review across the organisation.

 

Cascade – key points that we have found in our own project:

 

  • Identifying where technology does not add value is as important as identifying where it does
  • Technological innovation can be a catalysts for wider change
  • Influencing involving and engaging the right people is one of the most important factors to success or failure
  • Reducing costs by increasing efficiency can also improve quality of service
  • Despite seeming tangential to mainstream teaching and learning, administrative process reviews should not be overlooked as they are significant factors in student satisfaction and retention
  • Staff are more open to using technology than ever before but need support to capitalise on this

 

Service Design – We took special care in our workshops to put students at the centre of everything we did. We have carefully shaped our As Is and To Be phases to take the Service Design principles in to account:

 

  • Identify student journey throughout a service process
  • Detail each touch point (front and backstage) known as blueprinting
  • Identify fail points, excessive wait times etc
  • Prioritise fail points/ewt to identify where focus should be invested in improvement
  • Process enhancement plan, implementation and monitoring

 

Role Landscape Study

 

  • The vast majority of functions are generic across HEIs e.g. admit student, develop T&L strategy etc
  • Enables accurate process mapping for change management projects
  • The importance of maintaining a library of business processes that show inter-relationships

 

JISC Infonet – Process Improvement – The infoKit on process review has been really useful when working with the School admin staff themselves. Especially in creating the right mind set at the start of the project e.g.

 

  • Do it once
  • Do it right
  • Do it quickly
  • Keep it simple
  • Trust me
  • I am accountable

 

As mentioned in our blog, UCLan’s new Chief Operating Officer has been using our TSAP methodology to re-design what the Services do to support the business. He has also been very interested in the Productive Support Department Checklist and has created his own version of the model, which he is now using with the Directors of Service to agree a shared vision for our support services. The TSAP project team has also utilised the Working with IT resources a lot. In particular, building some of the change management resources such as stakeholder strap lines, change checklist and DICE in to our project scoping meetings.

 

We’ve also ensured that we have joined up our thinking with other JISC projects running at UCLan, in particular the Business Upgrade project which has looked at the way we manage strategic ICT development. This has led to a joint review of how we communicate customer needs and scope projects effectively to ensure we get the best possible outcomes from any change initiatives. Of course the JISC infonet on change management has also been really useful here too.

 

Activities

 

Project activities included:

 

  • An introductory workshop for scoping purposes with all School Admin Officers and Service representatives
  • Agreed project aims, activities, outputs and outcomes
  • Developed, submitted and agreed reporting mechanism for the Chief Operating Officer (Project Executive)
  • Attended Senior Management Team meeting to gain buy-in
  • Secured project team resources
  • Drafted, evaluated and finalised the TSAP business process methodology
  • Drafted, discussed and agreed roles and responsibilities between schools and services
  • Undertook business process analysis on 10 projects
  • Implemented new refined processes
  • Undertook skills transfer in relation to business analysis
  • Implemented an agreed change management methodology for future activities within UCLan

 

Outputs

 

 

 

Outcomes

 

A key element in the TSAP methodology has been the relationship we have built up through our network of School Senior Administrative Officers (SAOs). Using their knowledge and experience, we have really been able to get to the root of issues and find resolutions that benefit staff and students. When a new project was being established, four volunteer SAOs were sought. These four acted as representatives for all of our 16 Schools, ensuring that each project was connected with all Schools, but also with the added benefit of sharing emergent ideas and practices. The four collected views from right across the Schools. ‘Giving people a very good listening to’ was an important part of the TSAP methodology, as people have been much more likely to negotiate and find a way forward when they know they have been heard and understood.

 

The other important success factor in the project has been tackling the right project improvements in the right order – in other words, starting with early quick wins. These show progress being made, and lead to improved relationships, which in turn make it easier to achieve progress in more challenging areas. Not only have we used JISC resources to inform our practice on change management, we have also drawn on experience from ACAS (one of our team is a mediator), using conflict resolution skills on the more difficult projects, e.g. shuttle diplomacy to move people’s positions towards a solid agreement. A summary of outcomes includes:-

 

  • Improved efficiency as measured by business benefits of each review. As an example of business benefits, the Customer Service Helpdesk Review produced the following benefits:- a) reduced the abandoned call rate from 3.6% to 0.3%, b) improved customer satisfaction from 88% to 90% and c) reduced the call waiting time from 14 seconds to 7 seconds.
  • Increased capability to manage change at UCLan through a defined and agreed model which is familiar and deliverable by a wider set of staff (through skills transfer) - see the example of the School of Health upskilling.
  • Greater understanding of the barriers to adoption of change and the existing successful models of change management within the sector (using JISC resources)
  • Improved student/staff satisfaction as measured by the organisation and management element of the USS and staff feedback mechanisms . Due to the timescale of the project we do not yet have a further set of NSS/USS data to compare the results to. However qualitative data from internal staff and student feedback mechanisms (through the Student Union and Student Liaison Officers) evidence a direct improvement in the quality of service seen in the Customer Service Helpdesk and the exam arrangements for students with disabilities.  Staff have been particularly impressed with the rapid application development of e-Ethics and the various SharePoint offerings for sharing information with colleagues at Partner institutions. 
  • Release of staff from back office duties to focus on greater student support - The eEthics project received external recognition, being short-listed for Times Higher, Outstanding ICT initiative of the Year, saving 50% in staff time.
  • Greater understanding and rapport between Schools and Services

 

Achievements

 

One of the major aspirations of the project team was to develop business analysis skills in those that attended the formal business process reviews. It was not anticipated that these staff would become fully qualified Business Analysts, but that the knowledge and experience they gained from undertaking TSAP business reviews could be used within their day to day environment to positively impact other processes in the future. There is significant evidence that this up-skilling has occurred and that School Admin Teams have worked together to implement consistent working practices and share areas of good practice across teams. Indeed that our approach is now also being adopted by senior change agents such as the Chief Operating Officer.

 

Of particular interest was the significant achievements the team made in developing a network that built trust between them. The team structured expectations from the outset in terms of needing a positive, solution focused approach to issues. Prior to this, there was a tendency for operational units to blame each other (rather than work together to reach solutions) and this solution focused attitude has been particularly important to the success of the project.  Of particular value was the workshop design which enabled 4 staff from the 16 schools to act as the representatives for the group. Not only did this make facilitating workshops much more effective, it also gave the School staff a clear understanding of what it is like for the Services to try to satisfy 16 differing opinions.

 

Benefits

 

UCLan now has a defined methodology for reviewing and improving business processes. The funding from Jisc enabled us to pilot the model and work with it over a period of time to refine and enhance it. This refined product not only gives the methodology more credibility, it has also created many participants who can support us moving forward - explaining the benefits to others, thus increasing use, acceptance and impact.

 

The drawbacks detailed below have also helped us to identify early indicators of where issues may arise and have given us the experience to identify and implement appropriate coping strategies.

 

Drawbacks

 

The majority of the drawbacks relate (as expected) to the small size of the initial project, resulting in the project team having to work particularly hard to draw a sufficient number of senior staff on board to encourage participation. However once some ‘quick win’ projects had been completed, we had operational success stories that engaged many more staff.

 

As with many institutions, UCLan suffers from communication issues when working with such a large organisation and across numerous operational boundaries. Implementing a model that applied effectively to all of these groups and communicating effectively to ensure appropriate levels of participation proved challenging at times, but the project team learned to successfully adapt the model when appropriate e.g. a lighter touch in small processes.

 

Key lessons

 

  • Change management cannot work effectively without staff buy-in and an understanding of what the benefit is for them
  • Lack of understanding leads to negative attitudes to the project, thus significant up-front investment is required in explaining and supporting staff
  • The model needs to be simple, easy to understand and transferrable to participants’ own environments
  • Existing Jisc material has meant that there was no need to re-invent the wheel, simply make it work for UCLan!
  • Change agents are expected to utilise strong facilitation and coaching skills, but conflict management skills learned from ACAS have also been extremely useful
  • Putting staff ‘in each others shoes’ and ‘giving them a good listening to’ have been extremely good facilitators for change
  • The value of securing the right stakeholders and delivering good communication at the right time

 

Looking ahead

 

As stated above, the project has enabled us to develop a clear methodology for business process review in the future. There is significant change at UCLan and a new programme of business process review recently announced, which will use both the methodology developed through TSAP and the skills of those staff involved.

 

Sustainability

 

Business process review has led to a significant increase in the automation of processes, leading to a reduction in paper, for example the e-Ethics project mentioned in the blog. Not only does this reduce our reliance on paper, it also reduces the number of meetings we have, thus reducing staff travel, meeting refreshments etc. UCLan has won many awards for its sustainability agenda and the TSAP project has utilised the principles of the UCLan Green Team in its work.