Operational Excellence - Optimizing Administrative Services

The Huron Support Services & Operational Review identified that one of PSU’s key challenges in reviewing our support services is our highly decentralized operational structure. This structure has yielded, per their analysis, duplication of effort, significant reliance on generalists as opposed to staff trained in functional areas, inequity in service delivery, and—ultimately—less effective service to students, academic and support units, and the institution. It was further acknowledged that the structure has limited career growth opportunities, increased the feeling of burnout, and contributed to low employee morale. One of the resulting recommendations is to optimize administrative services by adopting an operating model(s) that incorporates elements of sharing administrative resources to provide centralized support and expertise to a group of units while maintaining the ability to provide tailored, localized, dedicated support. (See page 33 from Huron’s Executive Summary and below for an illustrative example).

Academic Affairs engaged Huron in the design phase for this future optimized model(s). Huron’s design efforts will support PSU in deliberating about the administrative services and structures that can contribute to increasing the effectiveness of our work in Academic Affairs. This design phase will take about thirteen weeks from project kick-off. With key findings from the design phase, we will decide on a model(s) for implementation and develop an implementation plan, including identifying needed service-level agreements to support the model.

Note: We have moved away from the term "federated service centers" as this caused confusion about the project.

What Administrative Services Will be Included?

While the previous work from Huron provides some examples of administrative services that could be included in an optimized model, this design phase is intended to explore and inform what services should be considered, given PSU’s needs. We will focus initially on services most commonly provided across units, such as HR, finance, and communication. Stakeholder input will determine our priority areas to consider including in a future model(s). It is important to note that while Research was not included in the areas assessed by Huron previously, the Assistant Vice President for Research Administration will be a work team member as we recognize that there are opportunities to explore.

Engagement Opportunities

• Share any feedback, questions, or comments via the Shared Administrative Service Model Feedback Form.  
• Complete this Administrative Service Delivery & Process Improvement Survey to share your feedback on what services are being performed efficiently and effectively and which services could be performed more efficiently and effectively.
• Share your thoughts on optimizing administrative services with Huron in one of the listening sessions below. Register using the Optimizing Administrative Services - Listening Session with Huron Registration Form.
  • Tuesday, May 16, from 2:00 p.m. to 2:50 p.m. (In-person - KMC 318)
  • Tuesday, May 16, from 3:00 p.m. to 3:50 p.m. (Virtual - Zoom link to be shared upon registration)
  • Tuesday, May 23, from 9:00 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. (Virtual - Zoom link will be shared upon registration)
  • Wednesday, May 24, from 10:00 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. (Virtual - Zoom link will be shared upon registration)
  • Thursday, May 25, from 1:00 p.m. to 1:50 p.m. (Virtual - Zoom link will be shared upon registration)

This website will be updated through this design phase.

Project Timeline

The design stage of this project will take approximately three months to complete. A high-level timeline of tasks is outlined below. Introductory meetings to the project were held with the Working Group and Advisory Council on March 16, 2023.

Frequently Asked Questions

PSU moved some services to a centralized service model, such as central Advising and services under SPA. What are we doing to learn from those models?

We are gathering lessons learned documents from these units to share with Huron. Additionally, those involved in the Work Team will be able to provide perspective from these models.

Given the financial constraints of the University, why pay for a consultant to do this work?

The cost of this consultant fee is one of the strategic investments that the university is making toward long-term financial sustainability. We have an opportunity to intentionally re-envision a model that ensures operational excellence, supports of our employees in their career growth and job satisfaction, and ensures our operations are optimized to support our mission and values.

Project Team Members