The University of Alberta conducted its most recent UniForum Service Effectiveness Survey in November 2023. Administered by Cubane Consulting approximately every two years, the survey measures end-to-end satisfaction with administrative services and provides a key data point to inform initiatives that support a culture of continuous improvement.
Overview of survey results
The UniForum Survey solicits feedback on 70 different university administration activities that roll up to 13 distinct functions. Operations functions reflect core services across the institution including communications, student recruitment, facilities and operations, finance, general administration, institutional management, human resources, IT, libraries, research and teaching administration and student support.
Findings from the November 2023 survey show that overall satisfaction for administrative services has declined when compared to satisfaction levels from the previous iteration of the survey conducted in November 2021. At the functional level, consistent with the overall results, satisfaction fell for all functions except for library services.
Though not what we aspire to see, these results are not unexpected. The university has experienced significant change over the past few years and service delivery has been challenging as a result of these changes. Cubane Consulting has found that other institutions participating in the UniForum program that have gone through similar transformation initiatives all experienced declines in satisfaction.
University leadership have received consistent feedback from faculty and staff regarding the challenges with our administrative processes including: inconsistent business processes, long wait times and uncertainty around how to request services.
Prioritizing people
We understand these are not ideal circumstances in which to work; university leadership is prioritizing a number of institutional initiatives focused on supporting our people. People are at the heart of what we do at the university and we endeavour to do better.
The University of Alberta strategic plan, Shape: A Strategic Plan of Impact, is grounded in people and identifies our people as the cornerstone of our ambitions for the next decade. To bolster this commitment, the university is undertaking development of a People Strategy to support a culture and environment where University of Alberta faculty, staff and all employees can flourish.
The People Strategy will provide a roadmap to create a culture and environment that supports our people to do their best work, and to thrive, personally and in their careers. A draft of the strategy was released on April 18. The People Strategy will prioritize alignment with Shape; Forward with Purpose; Braiding Past, Present & Future; and the current work guiding the university’s revamped strategic plan for EDI. The People Strategy will also link with and reflect other related work, such as the Healthy University Strategic Plan and the Culture of Care.
Work to improve the delivery of administrative services is well underway through the Continuous Administrative Service Improvement Program (CASIP). CASIP is a program of work coordinated by the University Initiatives Office to improve and streamline finance, information management and reporting and human resources administrative processes and the underlying technologies that support these processes. Research Administration will soon be a new workstream within the CASIP program. The stream will be sponsored by the Office of the Vice-President (Research and Innovation) with the overarching objective to improve the research experience.
A large portion of work through the CASIP program is focused on fixing foundational challenges that have persisted through years of disparate business processes. Alongside improving foundational administrative processes, the CASIP program is progressing improvements to many front-facing administrative processes. Two examples of these improvements include the recruitment process and the process for medical leaves and general illness.
The Recruitment Pilot, launched in February 2024, will add dedicated resources to help streamline recruitment activities and create consistency, administrative efficiency and better overall end-to-end support for hiring managers throughout the hiring process.
The Medical and General Illness Leave process has been redesigned, with a focus on enhancing and updating guides, checklists and web pages that support this process. A pilot of the changes will be facilitated through two faculties and one portfolio (ALES, Engineering and Facilities and Operations) beginning on April 1, with an institution-wide launch planned by July 1.
We hear you and continue to listen
University leadership is committed to you and to addressing your feedback. Our talented faculty, staff and students are the foundation for our university’s past achievements and our future ambitions.
Every day we advance meaningful changes through our strategic initiatives to further strengthen the university as a desired place to be. Thank you for your ongoing commitment and your open and honest feedback to make this a great university.
Todd Gilchrist
Vice-President, University Services and Finance
Interim Vice-President, Facilities and Operations
Verna Yiu
Provost & Vice-President Academic