Situation
Censeo’s client, a public university with a lean administrative staff and tight budget constraints, was looking for opportunities to reallocate personnel in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its administrative units. A commission for the state that provides legislative oversight had recently issued guidance that all state universities should be assessing their organizational performance with respect to spans and layers. Complicated by inaccurate HR data and a workforce that experienced unusually high turnover, university leadership brought in Censeo to analyze the current state of the organization and work with individual unit leaders to optimize resources.
Approach
Over the course of nine weeks, the Censeo team met with key members of 19 different administrative units across campus to gain a baseline understanding of the personnel challenges faced in each organization. The team updated the available HR data to create an accurate picture of the current state of the university, while identifying areas that were particularly lean or represented long-term goals that hadn’t been pursued due to financial limitations. By working with unit leaders to understand not just how efficiencies could be created, but also where they could be reinvested, the team was able to generate excitement and buy-in across the university.