SUPPORT SERVICES AND OPERATIONAL REVIEW

Huron Administrative Activity Study (HAAS) FAQs

PSU is partnering with the Huron Consulting Group to conduct a comprehensive review of our University support services and operations. This project is a direct response to the pressures and challenges we have all felt in our work over the past several years—and our aim, ultimately, is to recognize and augment the vital work of our University staff in pursuing PSU’s core mission.

We want to find ways of facilitating smoother service, stronger outcomes, and a better experience for our students and staff—but to do so, we must start from a clear and complete understanding of the current state: What are the demands of our time and energy?

We understand that our employees have been working under significant pressure, especially during the pandemic, and often times have been doing more with less. The Activity Study will give you an opportunity to document and communicate what your workload really looks like, highlighting how much time you are spending across a variety of administrative tasks.

Why we are doing this:
The PSU Support Services & Operational Review project will evaluate administrative operations across the University to surface opportunities for improved efficiencies, identify cost reductions, and capitalize on efficiencies realized during the past year of remote work.

The outcome of this process will be a business case that outlines options for cost savings, opportunities to reimagine operations in support of the academic mission, and recommendations for maximizing PSU’s administrative resources to ensure financial sustainability.

What to expect:
Huron Consulting Group will deploy the Activity Study, which is a proprietary tool tailored to higher education workforces that estimates individual and combined administrative effort across the organization. By completing the study, we will get an institutional sense of how much time we are spending across the University on certain administrative tasks in order to help us target improvements.

When we are doing this:
Monday, November 8 – Friday, December 3.

Activity Study Details

Time to complete the Activity Study:
Your Activity Study should take, on average, 30 minutes to complete but could take longer depending on the complexity of your job duties and functions.

How to return to the Activity Study or change your response:
Your Activity Study link will remain open until the close date communicated in the study announcement email or until you click “submit.” Progress is not saved until you reach the final “Review & Submit” page of the study. We recommend you complete your Activity Study in a single sitting. If you accidentally submit and want to have your Activity Study re-opened during the response period, simply email the project team at PSU.HAAS@hcg.com and they can re-open your study.

I cannot remember everything I do throughout the year:
That’s ok – the Activity Study is designed to capture your activities throughout the year to the best of your ability. We recognize this is a challenge as certain activities often have different levels of importance and effort throughout the year. We recommend that you spend time reflecting on your annual duties before you begin your response to provide the best possible estimates. Sometimes using prompts like a calendar, available in the Activity Study application, can help jog your memory as to what you spend your time on during the year.

Estimate hours worked during a typical week (including if you work more than 40 hours a week):
You will be asked to estimate your average hours worked per week as part of your submission. You will then be able to provide a more detailed breakdown of functions and activities performed, either in percentages or hours.

Allocating time if you perform work for other departments outside your primary department:
You should allocate all time work is performed as part of your regular employment with PSU, regardless of the department in which it is performed. The Activity Study is an accounting of how you spend time on regular functions and activities, regardless of unit or department. For example, an employee who works in the Communications Department may spend time regularly performing activities that are categorized under IT.

Allocating less than 1% of time or less than 1 hour on average per week to an activity on the HAAS:
You can allocate fractions of percentages or hours in the Activity Study. This will likely be the case when you describe activities that you only do for a short time over the course of a year. For example, you may only perform end of year close-out activities for a couple of weeks per year. Taken over the course of a year’s time, that may result in a fractional percentage when you estimate a weekly average.

Submitting responses during the study period:
Participants are encouraged to submit their response during the period as they are the most knowledgeable about their job responsibilities.

Starting and stopping your response:
Your Activity Study link will remain open until the close date communicated in the study announcement email or until you click “submit.” Progress is not saved until you reach the final “Review & Submit” page of the study, at which point you can access your response in-progress via your unique link. This said, we encourage respondents to try and complete their Activity Study in a single sitting.

Updating the department or supervisor listed on the Activity Study:
At the beginning the of Activity Study, you will be asked to verify your department, job title, and supervisor. If any of this information listed from your institution’s HR file is incorrect, you may update that directly in the application. You may then proceed to complete and submit your Activity Study; the updated information you provided will be sent to HR for review and validation.

Accounting for time spent teaching, researching, or performing clinical work:
At the beginning of the Activity Study, you will be asked to indicate whether you spend any time teaching students for credit, performing research, or providing clinical care for patients. If you select “yes”, you will then be prompted to note how many hours or what percentage of time you spend doing so. However, since the Activity Study is designed to gather information about administrative activities specifically, you will not be asked to provide any further detail regarding teaching, research, or clinical work.

I just started in a new role:
Participants should estimate time spent on various activities in their current role, even if it is new. For individuals who are newer to their roles, we recommend that they refer to their position description and related onboarding materials, in addition to having conversations with their supervisors, to complete the Activity Study as best they can.

The supervisor position in my area is currently vacant:
Unless otherwise assigned, employees should go up the leadership chain in their organization (i.e., input the name of their supervisor’s supervisor).

The Activity Study is accessible to individuals who have low vision and use assistive technology to navigate the web:
The content in the Activity Study is generally compatible with most screen readers (e.g., Jaws).

My job activities are not listed in the Activity Study:
The Activity Study tool does not allow for attachments. There is an opportunity to enter “Other” activities throughout the study, although it is intended only as a last resort. The details in the catalog are intended to help define the activity to which employees map their time; they are not intended to be an exhaustive list of specific tasks / duties. Participants should do their best to map to the available activities. Note: If you having difficulty identifying where an activity you perform should be categorized, please use the search function on the catalog PDF (Ctrl + F) to look for key words or phrases.

Participation in the Activity Study:
We strongly encourage your participation in the Activity Study in order to obtain a comprehensive view of activity within the organization. Broad participation ensures that we receive an accurate and holistic view of administrative activities across all units of the institution.

The Activity Studies’ impact to annual performance review or for potential merit increases:
The Activity Study is not an evaluation of an individual’s performance or in any way associated with a classification or compensation review.

How the project team will use this information:
The Activity Study will be used to gain a better understanding of distributed administrative operations through the organization which will be key to understanding our potential for operational efficiency and to help guide discussions about alternative administrative models. The project team will aggregate the Activity Study responses and look for broad themes to further review. Individual results will not be made publicly available.

Contacts for technical difficulties or accidentally submitting the Activity Study too soon:
Please reach out to the project team at PSU.HAAS@hcg.com and detail what technical issues you are experiencing. We will reach out to you as soon as possible.