Staff Input Needed for Development of Administrative Services Center
Georgia Tech staff members who perform administrative, IT, and grant administration duties are being invited to participate in the Administrative Excellence Activity and Opportunity Identification survey.
Administrative Excellence (AdminX) is an Institute-wide initiative focused on creating positive experiences for faculty, staff, and student employees in completing routine administrative activities. The establishment of an Administrative Services Center (ASC) for Georgia Tech is foundational to meeting this goal. The ASC will support campus users by handling requests to fulfill routine, high-volume administrative transactions, enabling units to focus more time and attention on mission-critical and strategic activities.
Some, but not all, administrative, IT, and grant administration tasks and processes (or portions of processes) will be transitioned to the ASC. Some work – especially work that is highly complex, specialized, and unique to a unit (whether a central or distributed unit) – will not be well served by a shared services model. For that reason, the AdminX team is carefully evaluating which processes and functions will be moved to the ASC, and will be reaching out to those who are closest to this work to better understand the activities they typically perform and the time required to complete them. This information will also help to determine appropriate staffing levels within the ASC to support the anticipated level of activity.
“The success of this project will depend upon how well we understand the routine tasks that are performed today,” said Kelly Fox, executive vice president for Administration and Finance. “This survey is an important step in helping us improve our processes and better serve the Institute as a whole.”
To collect this information, the AdminX team will survey classified administrative staff (across RI, the IRIs, and GTRI). The Activity and Opportunity Identification survey will be open from July 21 through Aug. 6.
About the Survey
The survey is made up of two parts. The Activity assessment captures the level of effort being expended on administrative tasks. Then the Opportunity portion gathers open-ended input that will help with the planning and rollout of the ASC. The survey will primarily focus on the following functions:
- Human Resources
- Finance (e.g., accounting, budgeting, etc.)
- Grant administration (post-award)
- Information Technology
- General administrative activities (e.g., scheduling, customer service, policy management, people management, etc.)
While there are some parallels between this survey and the assessment conducted for the Comprehensive Administrative Review (CAR) in 2019, there are several key differences. The Activity and Opportunity Identification survey will include the task-level of transactions, while CAR stopped at the activity level. In addition, CAR was conducted before the Workday and OneUSG Connect implementations, which have significantly affected the day-to-day activities of administrative staff. This effort does not negate the work that has been done over the past few years, but will provide more up-to-date and detailed information for planning.
The team is excited to begin engaging with the campus to get more information about the administrative work performed across the Institute. For more information about this survey, visit the Activity and Opportunity Identification Survey page on the Administrative Excellence website. In addition, information sessions will be offered to provide tips on how to prepare for and complete the survey:
Attending an information session, which will be conducted virtually, is optional.
If you have any questions, send an email to adminx@gatech.edu.