What you said, what we are doing – Feel the Teal Service SWOT Workshops Report

In last month’s focus on Feel the Teal, I shared that more than 500 CCU employees to date have participated in the Feel the Teal Service SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) workshops, and, in doing so, shared candid and valuable feedback in regard to important service issues at Coastal Carolina University. Discussions during the workshops from October through January were lively, and there was definitely a consistent focus on several key issues. The top five perceived weaknesses shared were:

• “Faculty are not involved with Feel the Teal.”
• “Communication is poor from the top down.”
• “Decisions are being made at the top and are not including the implementers.”
• “Policies that were recently passed have affected service and morale, such as expenditure policy/student pay policy.”
• “Paperwork process is long and tedious, and requires too many signatures.”

The first three perceived weaknesses and updates were shared in last month’s issue of The Atheneum. This month, I would like to share the remaining two weaknesses and how we are addressing such issues moving forward.

Please share these updates with your area to acknowledge the feedback, open the lines of communication and address upcoming changes. It is with such open communication and transparency that we will strengthen our culture and service strategies at Coastal Carolina University.

Thank you to all of our employees who provide service and share suggestions for the good of Coastal Carolina University.

Sincerely,

David A. DeCenzo, Ph.D.
President

Weakness Response from Leadership Team

“Policies that were recently passed have affected service and morale such as expenditure policy/student pay policy.”

Important facts and information that are sometimes forgotten or unknown, but relate to this weakness.
• Policies are meant to keep the University in compliance, and do not reflect the level of trust administration has in all employees. The University is required to have policies to serve as internal controls.
• At times, decisions have to be made quickly, and it is not the intention of those making decisions to exclude people from providing feedback.
• Revision of all University policies began in July 2015, and the numbers of how many the University had and currently has are listed below:

     June 2015: 173 total policies

     February 2016: 188 total policies

     Additions include policies for the Office of Research Services, the implementation of New Employee Orientation and Exit Interviews, and taxes for student employees.

     Current: 182 total policies

      Restructure of policies is complete and live, including new categorizations and numbers.

• Project of bringing all policies up to date has begun:

    Since February 2016:

•          33 policies have been updated, bringing them in compliance with the Policy on Policies’ mandate of update and review every three years;
•           Six new policies have been added; and
•           12 policies have been deleted.

    Policies are now searchable by keyword, title, policy number and/or description.

What is being done and will be done.
• In response to the feedback about the meal expenditure policy change, President’s Council presented a list of approved meal options that has been well received.
• Enhance weekly policy update email by including rationale for updates and changes whenever possible.
• Strategic Plan Objective 3.1.6. The University will refine its process to support professional development and institute a reward program that recognizes achievement in professional development that benefits the University’s mission.
o Ensure that the reward program for professional development, as governed by the strategic plan, includes student workers.
• Strategic Plan Objective 3.3.2. The University will annually audit the current student employment and graduate assistant employment conditions and commitments to ensure effectiveness of purpose, equity in involvement, diversity in access and competitive market salary rates.
o This ensures that student worker conditions are annually evaluated by HR and CFO.
o It should be noted that some student positions on campus have been granted different pay as justified by the nature of their positions.
• The Steering Committee recommends rewarding students for completing Feel the Teal modules.
• Currently developing a mechanism that will allow for comments from all stakeholders prior to policies being presented for vote at Executive Council.

“Paperwork process is long and tedious, need too many signatures.”

Important facts and information that are sometimes forgotten or unknown, but relate to this weakness.
• Administration and the entire Feel the Teal Leadership Team acknowledge that there is an excess of paperwork and signatures that are required within current processes. Many of these processes are being reviewed.

What is being done and will be done
• HR recently implemented a survey to evaluate the hiring process and identify ways to better mainstream addressing continual improvements, such as the HR Decision Tree, mapping the foundation for what's to come.
• Assessing the efficiency of the following paperwork/forms: Special Permission to Add a Course, Course Caps, Repeat Forgiveness, Travel Authorization, Travel Expense (Reconciliation) Form, Visitors to Campus.
• Promote that we are working on the workflow process (approximately three years to complete).
• The University is working on implementing electronic form and workflow solution(s) to streamline essential document and form processes. The solution(s) will be implemented in phases, starting with key processes such as the graduation application, graduate admission, finance and HR, then increasing in scope to include other processes and departments. The solution(s) will allow employees to track the workflow of documents and include a chain of custody. The implementation milestones for the solution(s) will be completed by July 2018. Thereafter, additional forms and processes will be automated and streamlined accordingly.
• Implemented a digital process for contracts and procurement and created electronic invoices.
• Financial Services was receptive to changing forms that are perceived to be redundant or tedious and will be transparent with any changes made to the forms.