Far-reaching survey measures satisfaction with administrative services
Administrative managers are studying the results of a survey designed to help them improve customer service and balance the tension between providing good service and complying with legal obligations and university policies.
Randy Livingston, vice president for business affairs and chief financial officer
Stanford faculty and staff think highly of the advice they get from Human Resources, but aren't crazy about many purchasing and research administration processes.
Those are among the findings of a far-ranging survey that explored customer satisfaction with many of the departments under the auspices of Randy Livingston, vice president for business affairs and chief financial officer.
The survey, Livingston said, was designed to help Business Affairs staff members improve customer service – and to better understand how to balance that customer service with the department's compliance obligations.
"We have to balance two goals simultaneously," said Livingston. "We strive to deliver outstanding service that helps the academic side of the institution achieve its mission, while ensuring the university complies with all relevant government and university policies."
Modeled on IT services survey
The survey, administered between Oct. 20 and Nov. 9, 2009, was overseen by Susan Weinstein, assistant vice president for business development. The survey attracted nearly a 30 percent response rate – a pleasant surprise for Livingston. The survey covered such diverse services as research administration, purchasing, human resources, invoice payments, expense reports and reimbursements, travel services, web-based services, the help desk and the Administrative Guide.
It was modeled on an annual survey done by Information Technology Services.
"IT Services has used survey results to pinpoint areas for improvement and launch new projects," Livingston said. "I am hoping we can use this survey for the other parts of Business Affairs in the same way. It helps us create a baseline and, over time, see the same kind of improvements."
See the full results here. Highlights are outlined below.
Human Resources
Results revealed that 74 percent of faculty and staff are generally satisfied with the quality of advice and service from Human Resources (HR), with 73 percent expressing satisfaction with the timeliness of help. People generally like HR's online services. A hearty 95 percent, for instance, applauded the online pay stub.
"It shows that, sometimes, moving from paper-based processes to electronic ones works really well," Livingston said. "We are moving more and more toward eliminating paper – paper forms, paper reports. It's nice to see support for that."
After analyzing their results, HR managers said they now plan to review the process of screening resumes online, which many respondents said takes too much effort. HR also will investigate dissatisfaction expressed by 26 percent of faculty and staff with job classification assistance, 24 percent with recruiting help (including fee-for-service assistance) and 26 percent with conflict resolution services.
Purchasing and Contracts
Purchasing and Contracts, Livingston, said, is a department in transition. So he said he wasn't surprised by the dissatisfaction expressed with some departmental processes. Initiatives such as SmartMart, the university's new one-stop shopping source for Stanford vendors, should improve satisfaction in the future.
Survey results show that 86 percent of respondents perceive that their orders made through SmartMart are processed correctly. In addition, 82 percent are satisfied that their invoices are processed through SmartMart correctly.
Livingston said he was surprised that nearly 25 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with their ability to easily find items. However, since SmartMart was implemented just four months before the survey was administered, Livingston believes the results will improve as familiarity increases. Purchasing and Contracts managers plan to continue developing training programs so users can learn faster search strategies. Livingston has high hopes for SmartMart.
"Ultimately, SmartMart is very efficient administratively," he said. "So in this year when we are striving for greater efficiency, we believe that moving a higher percentage of purchasing transactions to SmartMart will yield savings for both departments and central offices."
Managers in Purchasing and Contracts told Livingston they also are concerned about dissatisfaction with the services provided by the buying staff. Survey results indicated respondents found services to be inconsistent and turnaround times too slow. Less than 40 percent were satisfied with the department's timeliness.
Service should improve with the recently launched Buying and Paying Support Center, a 12-person customer service center designed to quickly resolve issues related to the buying and payment processes, he said.
Research Administration
Livingston said survey results show Research Administration has room for improvement in its services, with less than 50 percent of respondents expressing satisfaction with the process – from proposal submission through closeout.
Research Administration managers reported to Livingston that they are particularly concerned with survey results showing 43 percent of respondents are unhappy about the speed of negotiating research contracts and 31 percent are unhappy about the adequacy of communications with principal investigators and their staffs. Livingston expects that the new Stanford Electronic Research Administration (SeRA) system will increase transparency into the grant proposal process and will allow faculty and research staff to better track proposals.
"The first SeRA module – the Proposal Development and Routing Form (PDRF) – was delivered just after the survey was administered," Livingston said. "That form is circulated to indicate that a research proposal has been approved by all the various parties that have to sign off. It replaces a process that took eight to 12 days to circulate. The new PDRF is happening in a matter of hours. I think it's going to be a big success, and it reflects what we hope to achieve with other parts of the SeRA project."
Survey results also suggested widespread dissatisfaction with expenditure reports.
"That was particularly disappointing because we have revised the report format four times since Oracle went live, and included changes based on lots of faculty input," Livingston said. "So to see even after several attempts that we have not gotten it right was disheartening. But it tells me we have to come at that with a fundamentally different approach. So we are going to launch a project to re-architect the whole concept of the expenditure report."
Website tools
Livingston said he was pleased that the survey results indicated many Business Affairs online tools are valued by users.
In addition to the 95 percent approval for the online pay stub, approximately 85 percent of respondents were satisfied with ordering a W-2 and updating their W-4 online, and 70 percent were satisfied with accessing online benefits information and enrollment. About 90 percent of users find the tools on the Gateway to Financial Activities website to be useful.
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