Thursday, February 10, 2011
Zodiak Action Plan Update Thread
I'm starting this thread to track all posts related to what you have done with your Zodiak action plan. Remember, the key is to apply it! Do something and let us know how it went by posting a comment under this post. Then we all learn! I look forward to seeing what we get.
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Okay - here goes. My ideas last week centered around the themes of doing more, cross training personnel, and increasing revenue. As our college's grants coordinator, to help increase cash in I need to help my college's faculty submit more and more external funding proposals. But for more than a year now I've been struggling (not always successfully) with an ever increasing work load. This has resulted in my not being able to spend much time tracking down and vetting potential funding opportunities; and if I don't find the opportunities its likely my faculty won't either and we therefore can't submit.
ReplyDeleteI communicated with my bosses very early fall, but of course there weren't resources available then, and certainly not now, to add staff. However, there was one position in the college that was bit of a hybrid (in that she supported varying persons/offices). In theory she was assigned to assist in the funding oppty hunt a few hours per week but for an every growing list of reasons that never came to fruition. So I decided I needed to tackle this head on ... either get the assistance started or learn definitively it wasn't going to happen. Well, yesterday morning I spent two hours with this individual to begin "teaching her the ropes" of hunting down and vetting funding opportunities.
It will be interesting to see where this leads. But it sure as heck wasn't leading anywhere before this past week.
My focus has been on process improvement. With the theme of doing more with less, we're looking at many of our processes and looking at how we can more streamline them. An example is processing Personnel Action Forms (PAF) when paying a part-time employee; I have been combining them when possible, which creates less paperwork for me, and our executive director to sign.
ReplyDeleteWe're also looking at streamlining our A/R processes and A/P tracking by using Quickbooks. This should help us keep track of exactly where we're at with our budget at any point in time. It will also help us pinpoint areas where we can look to save additional resources.
Great session this week; opened my eyes of the many things I can do to effect the bottom line.
Two awesome posts, thank you Michelle and Corianne. That is spot on. Keep us updated.
ReplyDeleteMichelle - hopefully you can identify some metrics to help this person gauge how effective they are being. They don't have to be dollars brought in, although that is a good one to. There are many ways to measure it. The question to ask right now is, how do we define success or to put it another way, "we'll be thrilled if X happens".
I am in the midst of a study of research software at Kent State. I am exploring how we can find efficiencies and capitalize on economies of scale. I presented some preliminary results of my study to the Provost's weekly operational meeting this morning. There is still a lot of work to do, but there appears to be keen interest in further exploring these opportunities.
ReplyDeleteOur Zodiak session was helpful in sparking us to examine ways we can each contribute to the financial health of KSU.
As part of my position, I coordinate all captioning/transcribing services (closed captioning like you see of your t.v., but only in the classroom) for deaf and hard of hearing students on campus. This academic year we had four new freshman deaf/HOH students which, of course, increased the number of transcribing classroom hours. Captioning is a very costly service for my office.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of additional ways to reduce costs for the service after the Zodiac session and decided that I would take on the majority of the sub requests rather than farming those out to an agency, which charges double the hourly rate of what I typically pay. Doing so has cut into my "face time" in the office and I have had to rely on my grad assistant a little more than I typically would and come into the office earlier, but I have been able to save a good amount of money so far. I am also looking into the possibility of hiring graduate students to train/get certified to provide captioning services rather than recruiting seasoned providers who charge high hourly premiums.
Julie this is very cool. I love the way you are thinking! Is it a good tradeoff so far and how do you think you will measure if this approach is working?
ReplyDeleteJulie,
ReplyDeleteAs much of a challenge as I imagine it is to reduce your face time and rely more on your grad assistant, I imagine that your GA is getting some great experience. Likewise, hiring and training GA's to provide captioning services could be seen as another avenue for providing meaningful work for graduate students. What a great opportunity for them to obtain "on-the-job" training. Good luck.