UniForum

��ֱ��’s global benchmarking program enters its third year

ksoobria — Wed, 18 May 2022 13:16:54 +0000

��ֱ��’s global benchmarking program enters its third year ksoobria Wed, 05/18/2022 - 09:16

The University of Toronto has entered the third year of its participation in UniForum, a global benchmarking data collection program. The data is used to enhance administrative and support services at the University of Toronto.

More than 50 universities from around the world are participating in the program, including 7 from Canada, and more are preparing to join in the near future.

Last year, the university collected information about the services and activities of more than 20,000 employee records. This was a decrease from 2019 due to COVID-19 and campus closures. There were significantly fewer casual employees during the 2020–21 fiscal year, but there is hope that the employee levels will return to pre-pandemic levels as the return to campus continues.

The data collected through the UniForum program is used to develop a more detailed picture of work across the university, as well as how it compares to its peers. Among the key findings thus far are that the university has more generalist than specialist roles relative to peer institutions, and is also more decentralized.

“The data we’ve received helps us better understand the high-quality services employees across our three campuses provide to support teaching and research,” says Kelly Hannah-Moffat, vice-president of people strategy, equity & culture. “As well, by comparing our data with that of peer institutions, we can identify where we are leaders and where we might reimagine our processes and explore new ways of working.”

Additionally, the Service Effectiveness Survey, which was administered for the second time in fall 2021, reported a 13-point increase in satisfaction since it was last administered in 2018. The survey also yielded feedback that will be used to further enhance university services.

“Based on the data collected so far, the UniForum Steering Committee is proposing that the next step be to select specific university-wide services and engage divisions in a collaborative end-to-end process review,” says Scott Mabury, vice-president of operations and real estate partnerships.

“We’re also working to build a service transformation team and hope to be able to share news on this in the coming months.”

The 2022 data collection will continue to provide more trendline data and help the university better compare itself with other research-intensive universities in the UniForum program, such as the University of Cambridge, University of Melbourne and University of British Columbia. The key window for 2022 activity data collection will be from May 30 – July 8, 2022.

��ֱ��’s global benchmarking program enters its third year

Kevin Soobrian

Off

Global benchmarking program at ��ֱ�� to continue second year of data collection

sungjimi — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 14:21:20 +0000

Global benchmarking program at ��ֱ�� to continue second year of data collection sungjimi Tue, 04/06/2021 - 10:21

UniForum, the global benchmarking program used to enhance administrative and support services at the University of Toronto, is set to resume this spring after a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Launched at ��ֱ�� in 2019, the multi-year initiative involves the rigorous collection of data that is then compared to information gathered from more than 50 universities around the world, most of whom have been part of the UniForum initiative for more than a decade.

In its first year at ��ֱ��, UniForum collected information about the services and activities that more than 20,000 employees – including casual employees, work-study students, part-time and full-time employees – completed in fiscal 2018-2019 year in support of the university’s academic mission. The initiative provided a significant amount of detailed and big picture data across the university. The information will be used as a baseline as ��ֱ�� enters the second year of data collection.

Information collected in 2021 will generate more trend-line data and provide insight into how the university adapted the delivery and resourcing of its services during the pandemic.

“Our employees have gone above and beyond this year and it’s important that we capture how things may have shifted in light of exceptional circumstances,” said Kelly Hannah-Moffat, vice-president of human resources and equity. “The continuation of UniForum will help us more deeply understand how we deliver our services, identify under-resourced areas and inform how we grow as an organization.”

Since ��ֱ�� joined UniForum in 2019, more Canadian universities have signed on to the program to collect data and share administrative processes and practices alongside other research-intensive universities such as the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and the University of Sydney.

“We’ve learned quite a bit from the first year of data and have established a strong foundation in this benchmarking process,” said Scott Mabury, vice-president of operations and real estate partnerships. “We have already seen opportunities to improve our systems and reimagine some of our transactional processes so that employees can focus on their priorities.”

“I am encouraged by our community’s commitment to the process and want to thank our divisional and administrative leaders for their partnership and continued support.”

To better understand the perspectives of ��ֱ�� staff, faculty and librarians about the university’s core services, this year’s data collection will include a second Service Effectiveness Survey, similar to the survey conducted in 2018.

Global benchmarking program at ��ֱ�� to continue second year of data collection

(photo by Daria Perevezentsev)

Off

��ֱ�� launches global benchmarking program

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 13:42:08 +0000

��ֱ�� launches global benchmarking program Anonymous Tue, 04/09/2019 - 09:42

There’s strength in numbers – at least when it comes to pooling data to help the University of Toronto improve its services.

A new global benchmarking program set to launch in May will compare ��ֱ�� to 48 other universities around the world based on resources for administrative and support services.

“The program uses rigorous data collection across the university to see the big picture,” said Scott Mabury, vice-president of operations and real estate partnerships. “The information will tell us, at an institutional level, how we resource the activities that support our academic mission.”

The data will be used to benchmark ��ֱ�� against other research-intensive universities participating in the program, including the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and the University of Sydney.

“The data alone can’t tell us how to improve or which institutions to emulate, but it will give us an idea of how we can grow more seamlessly as an organization,” said Kelly Hannah-Moffat, vice-president of human resources and equity, who is co-sponsoring the program with Mabury.

The program, called UniForum, is designed to be adopted for multiple years, and the University of Toronto has committed to a four-year period. Mabury stresses that any budgetary decisions being made now are not the result of UniForum.

“Year one of UniForum is really about establishing the data set,” he said. “Subsequent years could identify areas that are under-resourced, as well as areas where we could reimagine the process.”

For Mabury, the end goal is to maximize service effectiveness across ��ֱ�� campuses.

“We are a world-class university, but also an old university. With our age comes processes that haven’t been looked at or updated in many years,” he said.

The data collection process will involve all administrative directors and department managers over a three-week period beginning in June. Training for staff leading collection areas will start in April.

“Ultimately, UniForum will allow us to make more informed decisions about where to invest in the future,” said Mabury. “We have experts in our own university who provide this type of data collection and benchmarking for outside organizations, yet we haven’t done the same for ourselves – until now.”

More information is available on the ��ֱ�� UniForum website.

��ֱ�� launches global benchmarking program

Photo by Laura Pedersen

Off

UniForum

����ֱ��’s global benchmarking program enters its third year

Global benchmarking program at ����ֱ�� to continue second year of data collection

����ֱ�� launches global benchmarking program

��ֱ��’s global benchmarking program enters its third year

Global benchmarking program at ��ֱ�� to continue second year of data collection

��ֱ�� launches global benchmarking program