Business and Finance survey planned to maximize service

Updated 12:30 PM May 16, 2007

Business and Finance survey planned to maximize service

By Catherine Lilly
Office of the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

To continue its high level of support for the campus community, the Business and Finance (B&F) organization again will seek input from University employees on the job it is doing today.

"The customer feedback we received in 2005 was tremendously helpful in giving us a focus for our improvement efforts," says Tim Slottow, executive vice president and chief financial officer.

"Our organizational vision is to provide deep expertise to the University community, to understand the University's businesses and to serve as the fiduciaries and stewards of the University's assets," Slottow says. "B&F employees strive to 'Make Blue Go' with our focus on being a high performance organization over the long term. Partnership with campus in all 38 services and feedback on our contributions and opportunities for improvement are key to achieving our vision."

Under the direction of Slottow and his leadership team, action plans were identified and managers were held accountable for making a number of major improvements following the 2005 Customer Survey. Their actions include:

• The Custodial Services Process Improvement Team, a partnership between Plant Building and Grounds Services and 12 facilities managers from schools and colleges was convened. The group recommended improvements in coordination and provision of custodial services, a majority of which are being implemented;

• Parking and Transportation Services reorganized and hired a customer service manager to improve overall customer interaction, in direct response to survey and focus groups data;

• MAIS increased its consulting efforts on campus. To this end, the unit hosted the first MAIS Connection Conference for users of the enterprise systems. More than 182 attended the half-day event to share knowledge and experiences in leveraging the University's technology;

• The Human Resources Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) implemented the Campus Commitment Program to raise awareness of harassment and discrimination issues; and

• Work Connections held more than 120 department meetings and presentations to clarify the program's services, benefits, roles and responsibilities.

Many B&F units also observed that efforts to respond to the survey data yielded positive results, such as:

• Developed more clearly defined and published responsiveness standards for staff (e.g. turnaround for phone calls, e-mails, requests) and increased the use of service level agreements;

• Conducted additional brief customer surveys and focus groups and acted immediately on specific concerns customers identify;

• Increased the amount of training B&F departments provided to faculty and staff to help them understand B&F procedures; and

• Enhanced B&F unit Web sites based on customer feedback.

B&F departments include Financial Analysis; Financial Operations; University Human Resources; Investment Office; MAIS; Occupational Safety and Environmental Health; Parking and Transportation Services; Architecture, Engineering and Construction; Plant Operations; Public Safety; Procurement Services and the Treasurer's Office.

"This is our second ever University-wide customer survey of all B&F services and we are excited to measure our progress," Slottow says. "We truly value our customers' experiences and hope that if you receive a survey, you will share your perspectives to help Business and Finance better serve the University community." On-line surveys will be distributed starting in mid-May.

For more detail about the B&F organization go to www.umich.edu/~busfin/plan.html. For information about the customer survey, contact bfcsc07@umich.edu (B&F Customer Survey Committee 2007).

Business and Finance survey planned to maximize service

More Stories