April 27, 1998

Staff HR project assesses campus service centers

By Barbara McKenna

"How can UCSC enhance its administrative nimbleness?" This question, posed by the Millennium Committee, is one that Staff Human Resources has also been asking. The question has taken the form of the Staff Human Resources Service Center Project--a far-reaching project to review the functions of the campus's service centers and identify both successful approaches and frequent obstacles.

Service centers, also known as business offices, support the operations of each unit. To assess these operations, Staff Human Resources Consulting Services conducted confidential interviews and surveyed staff at each of the campus's two-dozen-plus service centers, as well as unit managers and administrators.

Findings from interviews and subsequent analysis reveal the critical need to look not only at individual service centers, but to examine the overall administrative organizational functioning of the campus, particularly in the area of managing change. Among the key findings are the following:

• Obstacles to standardizing processes and training: Campus service centers vary greatly in their composition, resulting in differences in staff roles and responsibilities, services provided to customers, and the level of dependency on central offices from service centers and unit managers. These differences compromise the ability to standardize processes and training.
• Reporting of financial data: Reporting of financial data continues to be a major concern for service centers and unit managers. While a few users are experiencing success with Business Objects--the software utilized to develop reports from the data warehouse--most emphasized the need in this area for improved planning, communication, training, and user support.
• Needed improvements in administrative services: Constituents reported the need for improved leadership, planning, change management, coordination, and communication from executive management and central offices (e.g., Human Resources, Accounting, Purchasing) with regard to administrative services.

The report also offers summary information and recommendations for actions and further study as well as recommendations for opportunities to improve administrative infrastructure and optimize available resources. The complete report will be released later this spring and will be available on the Web, at Staff Human Resources, and at the McHenry Library Reference Desk.

Once the report is posted on the Web, it can be found by visiting the HR home pages at: http://www2.ucsc.edu/staff_hr/sc_project/index.htm. Questions and comments may be sent to Celena Allison, manager of Staff Human Resources Consulting Services and PPS, at: celena@cats.ucsc.edu.

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