Take a moment to think about your team of coworkers. Some may have been there for decades; others may have just been hired last week. Some are ambitious and driven; others may be content to do well at their jobs but don’t care about promotion.
An effective administrator in such a dynamic—and very human—system has a management plan that takes the big picture into account. With the right tools, it is possible to engineer a cooperative workplace environment—and create continuity through inevitable staffing changes.
Have shoes to fill?
In the current workplace climate, the workforce is more mobile than ever before.
“Not many employees are likely to stay 25 or 30 years, so you have to plan for a certain amount of attrition and turnover,” says V. Shelby Stanfield, vice provost and registrar at the University of Texas at Austin. “But if you have an overall scheme of true succession planning—not just replacing people when they leave—you can ensure continuity of service when you do have turnover."
To be sure you’re hiring or promoting the right person for the job, you may need to shift your attention away from an exclusive focus on subject matter expertise, he says.
“Traditionally, we look for people with experience—people who know how to do the job,” Stanfield says. But the emphasis on subject matter expertise overlooks other considerations that are crucial to choosing the right person for the position.
A complete perspective, Stanfield says, would also assess a potential employee’s aspirations, aptitude, motivation, discipline and interpersonal skills, such as communication and conflict-handling.
“In a competency-based workforce planning model, we’re looking at behavior and traits and aptitude right alongside function and technical knowledge,” Stanfield says.
Oh, the places you'll go...
Where can competency modeling and performance management take your office?
Find out at the full-day preconference workshop held by Stanfield and co-presenter Reta Pikowsky, registrar, Georgia Institute of Technology, at this year’s AACRAO Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
The workshop will highlight ways to instill a culture of excellence in the registrar’s office, expand on the concepts discussed above, and teach participants how to:
• Utilize various performance management tools, data and methodologies.
• Develop and implement a performance management plan that is scalable, effective and economical.
• Manage staff performance at different levels, including student employees, hourly, professional and managerial staff.
The workshop, Core Competency Modeling and Performance Management in the Registrar’s Office, will be held Sunday, April 14th, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
By: AACRAO Connect