2011 Archive - Lane Community College - Process Redesign Project

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Process Redesign Project

This is an archive of the Process Redesign web pages - for historical and reference purposes only

Final Report Logo

APPENDIX D:
Students First!
Proposed Services to Students Organization

SITE VISITS TO OTHER COLLEGES

QUESTIONS ASKED	CHEMEKETA C.C.	CLACKAMAS C.C.	LINN-BENTON C.C.
Staff Cross-Training	Business, Administration and Registrars offices are all cross trained	In process of training additional staff so they can rotate people in the "help center"	Departments are cross trained enough that if a dept is closed, another dept takes over for them
Use of New Technology/Plans for updates		Consider themselves very automated, but always ready to grow	Want to be on the Internet
Interdepartmental Cooperation/Cross Departmental Functions	Have combined staff meetings among all student services members	With the implementation of the new "Help Center" design, where a member from each work area was cross trained in all facets of services to students, cross training between departments is a must	Within this office, by opening up doors and taking down walls between offices, there is now more of a feeling of "we" now. There are staff meetings that combine Adm., Rec, F.A., & the Bus. Office
Connections between Student Services and Instruction		Redesigning faculty's offices to include space for sudents to be in close proximity	Customer Service Survey
What do they like about current set-up?	They like the offices where there are no barriers between desks	Student Help Center has all services for sudents in a perimeter building and all in one place	They give extra TLC touches with their present design, there is a whole new philosophy in place. They have also been able to change and integrate forms.
What do they dislike about current set-up?	Hard for first time students to find some essential services, Admin., F.A.	Need more space	Want to implement more technology and need more space
What would they do differently?	Would like all services to students to be located in a perimeter building	They would have designed for more room to grow and allowed more space for additional computers	Currently only have drop box in student services area available for students. The business ofc. is in another bldg. They would like to see it in with them.
What do they wish they could have?	A one stop for services to students	They do not wnat to loose the "human touch". They also would like to see more food areas available to students in the lounge areas	Have business office moved over with the other student services
Which colleges have they heard about that are doing a good job with Student Services?	Central Oregon CC and Linn-Benton CC	Central Oregon CC and Linn-Centon CC	Central Oregon and Clackamas CC
What kind of planning/decision processes did they use?			It was a four or five year evolution, and they just changed as needed. There was some committee involvement and a Title III Grant
Chat with students if possible. "What was their opinion?"
How do students get referred from one are to another?		They are led personally if it is an area outside of the Community Center	The student is walked to the next step if needed. They will always cover for each other to allow this.
Who do the Child Care facilities serve/Community? Students?			Child care facilities are for staff and faculty
Do you have a floor plan or map available?

OUTSIDE COLLEGE BENCHMARKING KEY MESSAGES: Maricopa Community College District

Change was driven by technology
Change effort spans over several separate colleges
Have implementation plan for computer purchases and training plan for users - make training on computers an expectation to those provided with technology.
Change of school philosophy to an organization of learners - provide instructional support, counseling, reentry - for staff
Face to face communications works well
Much of the communication will be on the Web - have set up some boundaries
They are non-union
Lessons learned
Innovations that you may not be currently able to do - capture them for future reference
Start staff development two years ahead of scheduled changes
Organizational changes should drive technology not change driven by technology - they are already outgrowing some technology
Need a good implementation plan
Need to choose well-functioning teams
Wish they had more time to create recommendations
Don't bounce back ideas - even if the college is not ready to accept the recommendations, doesn't mean that you have failed.

Central Oregon Community College

Implementation is the most complicated part of redesign
Great resistance and suspicion by staff
"Top Down" approach - process owners were not involved in creating the recommendations
One Stop Generalists are pleased with the job change
Manager is a resource - teams are generally self managed
Students have shorter waiting times
Faculty advising
Technology has improved information dissemination
When walls between departments are torn down, departments can move freely to help one another
Critical to have redesign team member(s) part of the implementation plan
Enrollment Steering Team is effective - help advise - no reporting function
Lessons Learned
Staff needs to be trained/prepared for self management before they can self managed
Staff uninvolved in the recommendations caused great resistance and suspicion
No joint vision cause no future
Start up at low service need time was a positive experience
Choose generalists through interviewing process and job criteria - not department head picked
Have teams train together

Linn-Benton Community College

Student employment and career counseling are cross-functional
"First Stop" service
One database for all student information
consistent look for all main student publications
student handbook used to inform staff
Faculty advisors - no classified advisors
Orientation is required for new students taking 12 or more units. They also have an orientation video (20 minutes)
registration prioritized by number of units taken and whether or not a student is admitted
Cross-training among Admissions, Records, Financial Aid, Counseling, and Advising
Modular Furniture
payment required at registration
non-admitted students do not get services - advising, orientation
Lessons learned:
Modular furniture a big benefit
All student services need to be close in proximity
Student Employment and Career Center work well together
Lebanon Outreach Center:
Counselor rotation between main campus and outreach centers
Uses same database as main campus - no shadow data bases
Have greeter/secretary/screener at the entrance
Outreach staff do almost all processes including registration, cashiering, transcripts, financial aid and most testing
Make use of technology to avoid unnecessary travel between campuses
Offer programs that apply to the community's business needs
Use self- governance model
Lebanon Center Continued...
When campus makes changes, there is often an information breakdown - not involved in decisions that can have major impacts on outreach center work
Lessons learned:
Student break areas are a benefit
open spaces can cause confidentiality problems
making campus work by "proving it's need"
barriers for self-governance - getting buy-in from the front line people who think their jobs are on the line for every decision and top managers unwilling to relinquish control

Clackamas Community College

Have Help Center that does -

general campus information
student ID
admissions
makes counseling and advising appointments
enrollment (registration) verification
sends out admission letters
switchboard
scheduling

Student work areas

Help center employees are from student service departments and serve as liaisons for information flow.

Help Center acts as a self-managed team

Offer one free credit orientation course

One mainframe database

Catalog and class schedule are a student services function
Lessons learned:

Need to have versatile or somewhat modular furniture/signage

Involving administrators into the work of the help desk employees was a "eye opener"

Longer hours of operation have benefited students

Clarifying function of Help Center - make boundaries clear

Need staff with "people before paperwork" attitude at help desk

Cross-train staff from other departments as backup

Prepare for growth

SELCO VISIT

second SELCO visit

June 20, 1996

GATHERING INFORMATION

Team members Edna Grass, Jane Scheidecker, and Ray Smith met with Selco leaders, Ava Milosevich, CEO, Jean Webb, VP Marketing, Gerald Rainey, VP Finance, and Edward Lee, Intern for smart card research to inquire further about possible collaboration between Lane and Selco in the financial aspects of services to students.

clientele:

Our clientele is identical--Lane Community College students as a primary target market and LCC employees as a secondary market.

values:

We share many values around providing services that our students need when and where they need them. We emphasized Lane's value of serving ALL people who want an education and finding ways to enable ALL students to attend, even if they could not currently pay.

core service:

LCC is providing education, but we are spending a lot of the institution's resources on financial services for students and staff members.

Selco's core service is providing financial services to LCC students and staff members. We believe there may be a better match here to be created than currently exists.

BOND MONEYS

Selco cannot currently provide services on state-owned property. LCC property would qualify as that. Selco might, however, be able to lease land to build on. As an example, as part of the building project involving bond moneys and services to students, SELCO could pay for the part of the building and/or drive-up window that it would use. These could be keyed differently from the LCC parts of the building. The UO is using an approach like this to build the riverfront research park on property that UO owns. The lessee takes a long term lease on the building (like 99 years). At the end of 99 years, the ownership of the building itself reverts to the University. But the building was paid for with private funds. Selco is open to ongoing discussions around the building project.

CREDIT FOR LANE STUDENTS

Lane is one of very few colleges which provides credit for students. It may be the only college providing credit to everyone with no questions asked. This policy, begun years ago when the world was a different place, is now causing unfavorable attention from our accounting firm. Student Accounts Receivable has gone up 35% in 3 years. There has been an increase in aging of accounts receivable. 57% of our AR are over 210 days old. It is time to review our credit policies and ask, should Lane provide credit at all?

With Selco, we discussed:

Automatic deposit of financial aid to students' accounts
All Lane student credit being handled by Selco

benefits:

Lane gets out of the credit business and concentrates on its core processes.
Lane is no longer the 'bad guy' with locks on classes for people who have not paid off their bills. Selco handles the billing. Lane can let anyone register who can pay.
Lane employees can transition into Selco if they stay in credit
Selco employees will be cross-trained to handle registration and other LCC front line skills.
LCC will no longer write off millions of dollars periodically

drawbacks:

Lane loses some 'float' gain. This is not $$ lost to the college. This is currently $$ that circulate in financial services.
Change will be difficult for some LCC and Selco employees

UPDATE ON SPECIFIC INFORMATION

The maximum level of service anticipated to be provided to students through a card needs to be planned and engineered in right from the start. It is more costly to try to add unplanned-for capacity in the future than to plan for it and expand into it.

The card can be used for debit, ID, cash, loans, security clearance, building entrance, etc. The college needs to decide which features are critical and which would be nice to have.

Edward Lee is spending the Summer researching smart cards and their uses.

UO will start using a limited smart card in the fall of 1996. They call it the 'one card'. It will provide library and gym access, merchant credit, and possibly the student's health record.

UMICH also is using a smart card

NEXT STEPS

Selco is investigating whether they could handle all our corporate as well as our student credit.

Lane needs to:

investigate and articulate its commitment to the technology necessary to provide smart card services.
determine what the needs are for right now and what they may be in the future. Set priorities for what services will be offered first and when and how will they be phased in.

The STUDENTS FIRST! TEAM:

Will provide the July 26 report and any additional related information to Selco (as appropriate) so that they will know where the college is headed in the areas of mutual interest.

OREGON STATE EMPLOYMENT DEPARTMENT

Questions Asked During Benchmarking Session

Company: State of oregon Employment Department	Date: June 5, 1996
1. Are your employees, for the most part, able to answer more generalized questions or is their knowledge more focused in specific areas?	Fourteen Job Service Representatives rotate through the information desk. Most questions can be answered there. Unemployment forms are taken in and telephones with direct lines to the Springfield office are near the information desk. Each JSR has a specialized job plus the general knowledge needed to staff the information desk.
2. What is your philosophy concerning customer service?	The customer needs to be served when the customer requests it.
3. How did you design/redesign the work space to accommodate your philosophy?	The Eugene and Springfield offices were remodeled using modular work areas. the 1991 Customer Service and Automation study recommended design and colors to make the office look less bureaucratic.
4. How do you handle your busiest times?	Customers sometime have to wait up to an hour to be served. Everyone helps customers and other work waits.
5. What do you do specifically to improve employee morale and to promote teamwork and cooperation?	Staff were part of the planning process.
6. How do you motivate, retain and involve individual employees?	No specific plan.
7. How do you help your employees adapt to a changing work environment?	A stand-up meeting is held every morning at 8AM to keep everyone informed. The staff is involved in as many decisions as possible.
8. Do you employ technology to improve customer service?	Self-service computers for job search and resume writing activities. Kiosks with information and self referral to open jobs are located at LCC, Lane County Courthouse, two Safeway stores, Dairy Queen in Veneta and Carl's Junior in Cottage Grove.
9. When you make a customer service change, how do you measure its success/failure?	Measure number of customer transactions. Verbal staff satisfaction survey. Customer Survey.
10. What changes have you implemented in the past 3 years to improve customer service?	Comprehensive redesign titled 'Customer Service and Automation: Keys to the Future' implemented November 1993
11. How did you determine what to implement?	Design team established October 1990.
12. How did it work and what impact did the change have?	More customers are served with the same number of staff. Staff did not gain more control of their workday. Customers still require staff time to instruct on self-service equipment.
13. How did customers respond?	Only positive responses.
14. How did staff respond?	Staff was anxious about changes. Some hoped and believed nothing would change. After two years, morale is the highest ever and staff feels more empowered.
15. What would you do differently, knowing what you know now?	Fund ongoing technology and maintenance. Have alternative information source so some work could be done when the computer system was down.
16. What didn't work and why?	Electronic receipt of job orders from employers. Employers want to talk with a person.
17. If you could tell me to do one thing regarding improving providing service to customers, what would it be?	Have research and development budget for updating technology. Have everyone involved.
18. If you could tell me one thing not to do regarding customer service improvement, what would it be?	Do not implement too much too soon. Otherwise staff can never get caught up.
19. Is there anything I have not asked you that you think has been critical to your success?	Need zero down time when you rely entirely on automation.

JERRY'S HOME IMPROVEMENT

Questions Asked During Benchmarking Session

Company: Jerry's Home Improvement Center	Date: June 12, 1996
1. Are your employees, for the most part, able to answer more generalized questions or is their knowledge more focused in specific areas?	The staff is organized into teams, according to service areas (e.g. paint, electrical, garden). Teams are expected to be expert in their specialty areas and to respond to general inquiries about other services of the store. A customer can frequently have all questions answered by the first employee s/he encounters, but is sometimes referred to someone on another store team.
2. What is your philosophy concerning customer service?	Employees are at Jerry's to help customers find the products and information that will help them succeed in their projects.
3. How did you design/redesign the work space to accommodate your philosophy	The store currently is being remodeled to increase room for product displays. The store is organized into areas (e.g. paint, plumbing, electrical, gardening). with two check-out areas: one for purchases of merchandise located inside the store and a second when a combination of inside and/or lumberyard merchandise is involved. There is a large information desk at the front of the store and smaller services desks in specific areas (e.g. bathroom fixtures).
4. How do you handle your busiest times?	Busy times are handled by scheduling employees for peak periods and cross-training some employees so they can work in other areas of the store.
5. What do you do specifically to improve employee morale and to promote teamwork and cooperation?	Teamwork is emphasized and there is the opportunity for mobility and raises for long-term employees. Scheduling is flexible.
6. How do you motivate, retain and involve individual employees?	Employees complete an introductory training course when they are first hired. Training (in technical skills, interpersonal and customer skills, and team-building skills) is continued through reading, video and seminars. In addition to receiving training, employees sharpen their skills present workshops for customers on a variety of home improvement topics. Jerry's employs a full-time Director of Training.
7. How do you help your employees adapt to a changing work environment?	Employees receive help through supervision, working in teams, and continuous re-training.
8. Do you employ technology to improve customer service?	Some aspects of stock control are computer assisted. Cashiering functions are computer assisted. Video tapes are used for some staff training sessions.
9. When you make a customer service change, how do you measure its success/failure?	Records on customer transactions, feedback through teams and supervisors.
10. What changes have you implemented in the past 3 years to improve customer service?	Increased training of employees and major expansion of the building.
11. If you could tell me to do one thing regarding providing service to customers, what would it be?	Hire employees with a customer service orientation and provide continuous training for them both in terms of products and interpersonal skills.
12. Additional Comments	It may be helpful to interview Jerry's Director of Training.

ACT SURVEY

1. Summary of Responses for Redesign Team Questions:

Responses to questions listed in the chart below are grouped into three categories.

a) 'Satisfied' or 'Very Satisfied' with service;
b) 'Neutral' about the service they received;
c) 'Dissatisfied or 'Very dissatisfied with service.

Respondents who reported 'Does not apply' to questions were excluded from percentage calculations.

2. The ACT Student opinion survey was administered to credit students enrolled in a randomly selected sample of class sections on Lane's main campus during spring term 1996. A total of 412 credit students responded to the survey (1000 surveys were distributed to the instructors of the randomly selected class sections; students were asked to complete the surveys outside of class and to them return them the next time the class met). Respondents corresponded to the total credit student population on characteristics of:

Summary of Findings:

Overall, there appear to be no glaring problems with services provided to students. A vast majority of students reported satisfaction with:

1. Services received from staff in various offices or areas (i.e. Financial Aid, Admissions/Student Records and academic advising).

2. Accuracy of information received from staff in various offices or areas.

While the responses for each question in the cross-tabulation reports provide detailed information about particular offices or areas, responses to the following two questions effectively represent the overall perception of students regarding services to students:

Only a small percentage of respondents rated the quality of services for students or the ease of access in obtaining services as being inadequate. The vast majority of respondents perceived services as being both high quality and easily accessible.

ACT Student Opinion Survey (Northwest Edition)
Summary of Responses for Redesign Team Questions

% of Respondants Rating Item

ACT Student Opinion Survey Summary Graphic

OSRL SURVEY

The Oregon Survey Research Laboratory Survey is available online at the following location:
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~osrl/lccrpt/lccrpt.htm

Part Two of Appendix D

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