Surprising Service without selling your soul

1. Surprising Service without selling your soul Registrar & Information Services – Student Services

2. Surprising Service without selling your soul Registrar & Information Services – Student Services

3. Surprising Service without selling your soul Registrar & Information Services – Student Services

4. Surprising Service without selling your soul Registrar & Information Services – Student Services

5. SFU Enrollment? 30,000 (approx) # of Front Counter Staff? 12 Total Term Tasks? 50,000

6. Surprising Service without selling your soul Darren Francis, BA, MS Manager, Registrar & Information Services, SFU Vancouver Andrew Armour, BFA Manager, Registrar & Information Services, SFU Burnaby

7. Eliyahu M. Goldratt

8. “If we reduce batch sizes by half, we also reduce by half the time it will take to process a batch. That means we reduce queue and wait by half as well. Reduce those by half, and we reduce by about half the total time parts spend in the plant. Reduce the time parts spend in the plant and our total lead time condenses. And with faster turn-around on orders, customers get their orders faster.” - quote from The Goal

9. Agenda Why we strove for change? How we got started? The importance of Mission Statements “Office Culture Change” Resistance Our accomplishments Where are we going next? Questions/Discussion

10. Why Change? - Increasing student line ups - Students want better service - Office moral at an all time low

11. How we got started? We started with our strategic plan Strategic plan was the catalyst for guiding our improved service initiative We evaluated our view of a student? Reassessed the role of a Registrar’s office Mission statement was essential in our move forward

12. The Importance of Mission statements? “A mission statement is a formal, short, written statement of the purpose of a company or organization”(Wikipedia, 2010) In reviewing our strategic plan we saw a clear direction. We had a disconnect between our goals and actions Our actions had to replicate our statements about service

13. Mission Statement: We foster transformative student experiences by collaboratively anticipating, facilitating, and providing services, programs and environments for student learning and success.

14. “Office Culture Change” We learned from staff that with so much volume “saying no” was the only way to cope We had to be more purposeful about following our strategic plan As a management group we needed to model the behaviour we wanted to see from our staff

15. “Office Culture Change” We asked our team what they needed from us. Most common request “freedom to use discretion to help students” We encouraged everyone to ask “why”

16. “Office Culture Change” Had to be clear with team members that a “yes” culture did not mean saying “yes” to everything Framed as “what can we do for students”

17. An example of Change Management Kris Magnusson, Dean, Faculty of Education

18. Resistance Some team members have not yet embraced our new culture Some team members with more seniority have struggled with the change we were proposing Most difficult aspect of implementing our new direction was having staff change their behaviour New team members helped influence the resisters

19. Resistance We continue to work to ensure our respective offices do not slide back to a “no” culture Each progressive change helps solidify our new “yes” culture Complete transition won’t take place until all the stakeholders embrace the new culture.

20. Small nudges get the greatest change over time (or how to turn a supertanker) An example of Change Management Kris Magnusson, Dean, Faculty of Education

21. Some of our accomplishments: Removed $100 enrolment deposit Self-serve Confirmation of Enrolment Letter Online transcript requests & fees for transcripts Self-serve statement of accounts Early release of ID Cards and Transit Passes Front Counter renovation

23. Eliminated manual production of approx. 9750 letters annually Saved approx. $20,000.00 annually Enabled us to provide better service overall

24. Eliminated manual production of approx. 1200 statements annually Saved approx. $7,200.00 annually Enabled us to provide better service overall

25. Currently producing approx 100 transcripts a day Generated over $150,000.00 since May, 2010 Enabled us to provide better service overall

26. Resulting in a 17% reduction in start of term demand for ID & bus passes

27. CallCentre Admissions

30. Other accomplishments: Extended hours Online grade submissions Scheduling policy Cross-training of team – new position Student Services Assistant (Generalist) Take-a-number

31. Projects we are working towards: • Self Serve advising appointment bookings • Smart phone apps • Self-serve photo uploads • Encoding Magnetic Stripe on ID cards • Eliminating cash for tuition

32. The Next Big Challenge • We have to formalise (codify) our culture and start working hard with our staff to give them the skills they need to be able to execute a formal plan for student services delivery. • Includes more team building events • Customer Service Training • External benchmarks

33. In Closing • We have made all of these changes for the following reasons: • To provide a better student experience • Improve staff morale • Create the infrastructure for continued improvements • While not compromising our responsibilities: • Student privacy and diligent records management • Fiscal responsibility • Adhering to institutional policy

34. Questions & Comments