[Cas-allemps] Shared Services in CAS

[CAS Dean]

Dear CAS faculty, staff, and GEs,

Last May, I created a task force to explore the possibility of shared services for the College of Arts and Sciences.  In a message (https://blogs.uoregon.edu/cassharedservices/task-force-deans-message/) to all of you at the time, I laid out the motivation for this and the potential gains that such an organization of our administrative services could bring to the College.  As I asserted then, and this continues to be true, creating efficiencies and opportunities through prudent use of shared services is not a means to cut staff and services and reduce costs, but to allow us to provide greater consistency in services across the College, as well as the capacity to do more unit-specific work in our departments/units with our existing highly qualified and experienced staff.

The task force, led by Connie Brady, Associate Dean for Finance and Administration in the Lundquist College of Business, and Sherri Nelson, Assistant Dean for Budget in Finance in our College, undertook two main tasks:


  *   First, and most importantly, they provided many varied ways to hear from all of you and listen to your concerns, questions, and recommendations.  Indeed, we extended the timeline for a report by three months so that they could have more time to gather your feedback.  In the end, they offered surveys to all faculty and staff in the College, had six listening sessions with staff and four additional town halls open to all faculty and staff, and maintained a website (https://blogs.uoregon.edu/cassharedservices/task-force-home-page/) providing information and a further opportunity to provide comments.
  *   Second, the task force undertook analysis of a number of models of shared administrative services at comparable institutions, as well as an initial evaluation of all the tasks that our staff members currently provide to the College.

At the end of winter term, the task force delivered its final report, which you can access here: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/cassharedservices/files/2021/04/CAS-Recommendation.pdf.  I am so very appreciative of the task force members (https://blogs.uoregon.edu/cassharedservices/task-force-home-page/#OurTeam) for their excellent work.  The report further details what the task force did and also provides a recommendation for a model of shared services that has the potential to work well for our College.

The case for pursuing shared services in the College is extremely compelling for a number of reasons, including:


  *   It would ensure much greater consistency of processes and work product, allowing for greater efficiency and reduced operational and audit risks.
  *   It would create experts in key areas so that work can easily be covered when a staff member is out for an extended period, such as a medical leave.
  *   It would provide more advancement opportunities for staff.

Given these opportunities for improvement for the college and the staff, I have decided we will go forward with developing and implementing a new shared services model in our College. This will not happen overnight but will likely be an 18–24-month effort.  We need to further refine our understanding of tasks that are best centralized and those that are best provided at the local level.  Once this is done, we will need to design and implement a transition plan that works to match staff to positions, putting our staff in a situation to thrive and causing as little disruption as possible.  Many staff may continue in their current roles.

I understand that this initiative may seem like a difficult and daunting task, and I recognize that change is hard.  I’m sure it will have its ups and downs as we proceed.  But I want to assure you that:


  *   There will be no cuts to staff due to our transition to shared services.  We are currently at very low staffing levels due to the financial uncertainty we face and the resulting hiring freeze.
  *   A primary goal of the reorganization is ensuring that services for faculty and students are not harmed; indeed, we aspire to improve them significantly.

  *   We will be vigilant to avoid organizational changes that unfairly disadvantage any employee or groups of employees.

We will also be providing timely and frequent updates on the transition and maintaining a website with updated information to help address and mitigate the natural uncertainty this process engenders.

As recommended by the task force report, the next step is the formation of a steering committee, as well as some teams that will work on various aspects of the transition.  We will be announcing a call for nominations for the steering committee and teams in the coming days and look forward to having many of you participate on these groups or in other ways to help this initiative succeed.

Bruce

Bruce Blonigen
Tykeson Dean
Philip H. Knight Professor of Social Science
College of Arts and Sciences
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403
Ph: 541-346-4680
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