Adjusting to the Prevailing Culture: Why 10 is Better Than 1 for Emory University's SSO

Kathleen Bienkowski, AVP for Research Administration at Emory University, will lead a discussion on meaningful metrics at SSON's Shared Services & Process Improvement for Higher Education & Government conference, next month. In her role, Kathleen will build and lead a shared services model that provides pre- and post-award research administration services. SSON asks her about her strategy What type of performance metrics are you using that focus on increasing customer satisfaction? We send out monthly customer satisfaction surveys for pre-award services and bi-annual satisfaction surveys for post-award services. We launched the monthly version a few months ago and the first bi-annual survey just went out this month for the previous 6 months. We ask the customer to rate our service on a 5-point scale: 1 – very dissatisfied to 5 – very satisfied. We also ask open ended questions to obtain details and suggestions for improvement from our customers. What role do balanced scorecards play in your shared services model? We are implementing a monthly balanced scorecard to present metrics to our customers and key stakeholders. We are early in the process. Scorecards will be used for performance management against target KPIs, communication with stakeholders, resource utilization/assessment and understanding capacity/volumes. [eventpdf] How do you plan for shared services investment in light of the economic changes that impact universities? Many of the departments previously performing these functions were understaffed in the past. As we launch these shared service units, we are getting funding to add staff to put us in a better position to succeed – still not at the ideal levels, but more resources than before. What does the future of higher education shared services look like to you? I have only been in higher education and with Emory for just over a year. However, it seems as though most universities operate under tight financial constraints and the landscape does not seem to be improving (in the research community it may even be getting worse), with smaller awards and the same or more administrative work required. Shared services models can bring the same benefits to universities as they have to corporate/private industry/for profit organizations – the ability to leverage resources, do more with less, improve compliance, standardize processes, etc. Higher ed institutions could definitely benefit from implementing shared services and re-evaluate redundant support functions that exist in schools/departments – HR, Finance, IT, Research Administration, etc. The culture of a university (as with a corporate) will have a large impact on the ability to successfully implement these models (e.g., centrally-driven/top-down vs. schools/depts., etc.). At Emory, we are building 10 Research Administration Services units across campus, essentially providing the same services to different groups of depts./schools. Culturally, it likely would not have worked if Emory tried to move to a single shared services organization, so this is where we are today. There is quite likely a greater cost to having 10 units versus 1, but acceptance by faculty/departments was a critical factor in the design of the initiative.

Adjusting to the Prevailing Culture: Why 10 is Better Than 1 for Emory University's SSO

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Adjusting to the Prevailing Culture: Why 10 is Better Than 1 for Emory University's SSO

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