Structures and Approaches for Maximizing Outcomes

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Structures and Approachesfor Maximizing Outcomes

• Cornell University
• Workforce Planning Initiative
• Vice President Carolyn Ainslie

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The Initiative

• Initiated by President Rawlings in November
  2001.
• Led by VP of Planning and Budget, a Senior
  Project Director, and a small team of Deans and
  VPs.
• Completed first phase in spring 2005.

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Purpose

• To provide the resources to accomplish Cornells
  academic priorities, to organize work and jobs
  more effectively, and to ensure a long-term
  balanced operating budget.

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Outcomes

• Clarified roles and responsibilities.
• Streamlined financial and human resource
  transactions.
• Annual financial savings.
• Targeted changes in staffing levels.
• Staff compensation aligned with market.
• Foundation for a more agile and transparent
  support structure.

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Financial Savings by Area

• Estimated Annual Savings in 2006-07
• HR, Finance, and General Admin.
  Support 5,750,000
• Purchasing (strategic sourcing review) 5,000,000
• IT Support 1,900,000
• Facilities 1,000,000
• Library 575,000
• Student Services 750,000
• Other Cornell Business Services 750,000
• Estimated Total Annual Savings 15,725,000

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Support Costs vs. Mission Costs
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Staffing

• Overall staffing growth rate slowed from 2.0 a
  year to 0.5 in past 3 years.
• Reduced headcount in Human Resources, finance,
  and administrative job families by 120.
• Planned an addition of 88 positions in Alumni,
  Affairs and Development as part of workforce
  planning in support of the capital campaign.

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Drivers

• Historical increase in support costs at a faster
  rate than investments in core academic programs.
• Demand for investment in academic priority areas.
• Increase in interdisciplinary academic programs
  requiring flexible administrative structures.
• Budget pressures decrease in state funding,
  insufficient discretionary funds.
• Increased complexity requiring more skilled and
  trained workforce.
• Ever-growing external regulatory compliance
  requirements.

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Built Upon History

• Functional mergers between endowed and contract
  administrative functions, beginning in the late
  1980s.
• Reorganizations in colleges and units that
  achieved objectives similar to workforce planning
  goals.
• Development within colleges and central units of
  tools and reporting mechanisms to make processes
  more efficient (e.g. data warehouses).

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Built on the Past Learnings

• Systems alone wont drive work process changes.
  Instead, systems and technology are tools in
  implementing redesigned processes.
• The change effort shouldnt be viewed as a
  limited-term project outside of normal
  operations.
• Shared ownership by colleges and units in the
  process outcomes and participation in testing and
  reviews is critical to success.
• The language of the change effort needs to be a
  routine part of the Cornell culture.

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Why was Workforce Planning a Success?

• Priority of senior leadership and active
  involvement of deans and senior administrators
  over the life of the initiative.
• Firmness in fundamental recommendations, but
  flexibility in implementation.
• Primary focus on clarifying roles,
  responsibilities, and accountabilities as a
  foundation technology solutions were secondary.
• Broad functional review strategy to avoid
  differentiated and uncoordinated actions between
  operating units and central functional office.

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Key Principles Learned

• Unit-specific needs and university needs are
  inextricably linked, and neither can be fully
  satisfied in isolation from one another.
• The integration of support activities across
  organizational boundaries and functions should be
  optimized. Rigid, one-size-fits-all approaches
  are generally not the solution in Cornells
  environment.
• Accountability must be based on clear
  expectations jointly defined and regularly
  evaluated by all relevant stakeholders.

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Challenges of the Initiative

• Each functional area was at a different starting
  point, which made setting and managing review
  objectives difficult.
• Communication efforts were difficult to sustain
  workforce planning as a label fit at the
  beginning, but not as the initiative evolved.
• Emphasis and accountability for action are
  difficult to sustain.
• Continuing challenge of organizational trust,
  collaboration, and shared accountability.

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Future Direction

• Continue effort to ensure agile and responsive
  support systems at the most reasonable cost.

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Current Status

• New oversight committee of deans and executive
  officers.
• On-going leadership in the Division of Planning
  and Budget to ensure linkage with budget
  processes.
• Follow-up reviews on workforce planning
  recommendations to evaluate implementation status
  and accomplishments underway
• Targeted reviews of other job families

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