August 2022
Starting this summer, the College of Arts and Sciences will embark on a study intended to help us better understand the current state of staffing across our four divisions to ensure that we are consistently meeting the needs of students and faculty and providing high-quality service across units. We are partnering with a local consulting group, “ProjectCorps” on this assessment. Importantly, we are not looking to reduce the number of staff through this project, and the assessment is not focused on individual performance.
ProjectCorps
Headquartered in Seattle, ProjectCorps is a consulting organization. They provide a range of services that support the analysis and improvement of structures and systems within complicated organizations like the University of Washington. In other words, they excel at helping complex, large institutions take a look at the ways they work to help them become the best they can be, including supporting those who work for the institution. Each of ProjectCorps’ team members have a minimum of twenty years of experience with expertise spanning multiple sectors including higher education.
Project Overview
Throughout autumn, ProjectCorps will conduct a comprehensive study of specified staff positions within the College. This project will review the current functions and structures of staff members within CAS to understand responsibilities, workloads, allocation, and deployment. In the first phase of the project, the team will review current job descriptions and other documentation about staff duties and assignments to get a broad and specific sense of how well these are aligned with actual work performed. Next, ProjectCorps will conduct one-on-one interviews with a set of staff and leadership across the College. Based on the data gathered through interviews, ProjectCorps will design an online survey to capture feedback from staff and their supervisors. In the final phase of the project, ProjectCorps will conduct focus groups and additional in-depth interviews, as needed.
Project Scope
The College has over 700 staff positions across our academic and non-academic units. The scope of this assessment includes approximately 200 staff in academic (degree-granting) units whose responsibilities fall into one or more of the following broad areas: student advising and support (sample job profiles include Academic Services Director, Academic Counselor, Counseling Services Coordinator); finance and HR (sample job profiles includes Fiscal Specialist 2, HR Manager, Administrator, Assistant Director); and general department administration (sample job profiles include Administrative Assistant, Program Assistant, Assistant to the Chair). Staff whose roles involve duties that support on-going research (job profiles such as Research Scientist Engineer) or support of discipline-specific instruction (job profiles such as Instructional Technicians) or IT (job titles such as Senior Computer Specialist or Web Developer) are not included in this assessment.
This project focuses on the type of work responsibilities performed by staff in the College, and not where the work is performed (telework, hybrid, in-person). Current telework arrangements will not be impacted. Importantly, we are not looking to reduce the number of staff through this project, and the assessment is not focused on individual performance.
Goals
ProjectCorps assessment will focus on helping the College:
- Provide consistent, high-quality service to faculty and students across the College
- Ensure staff workloads are appropriate and that they match job descriptions
- Make the best decisions possible about where our resources are allocated
- Maximize efficiencies given our need to be wise, strategic, and conservative with resources
- Provide staff with clear career paths whenever possible and ensure professional success