SHARED SERVICE CENTER: Preparing for success

by Dave Jones
February 11, 2011

We all know a shared service center is coming for five administrative units, but what can employees learn now about working in a shared service center and how can they better prepare for the transition?

As promised, the Davis campus is rolling out a program to answer those questions — to help educate employees about the shared service center work environment, to help them recognize whether they are a good fit for shared services, and, whichever the case, provide tools to help them better prepare for change.

The answers will come via a seven-part certificate series, Shared Services: Preparing for Success in a New Service Model. Registration is limited, at first, to select job titles in the five affected units; see details below.

The 22-hour series includes an overview of the shared service center project, and professional development in the areas of
organizational transitions and how to navigate them, shared service customer service strategies, creative problem solving and preparing for career transitions.

Staff Development and Professional Services is coordinating the certificate series, but created it in collaboration with the campus’s Shared Services Implementation Team.

“It is truly a partnership,” said Carina Celesia Moore, director of Staff Development and Professional Services, or SDPS.

‘What do employees need?’

The series has been in the works for six months, during which time SDPS and the Shared Services Implementation Team conferred at length with unit leaders, supervisors and employees “to get a sense of what was needed.”

And not just what the service center needed for its work force, Moore said, “but what do the employees need?”

What could the university do to help ease the transition, help ease the stress and prepare employees to work in the shared service center? Or, alternatively, for employees who decide that shared service work is not for them, to help them prepare for other jobs around the campus.

“If the shared service center is not for you,” Moore said, “it doesn’t mean UC Davis is not for you.”

Customized courses

The certificate series is mostly based on tried-and-true staff development courses, customized for the shared service center project.

For example, in addressing customer service strategies, the series acknowledges that the shared services model requires employees to build and maintain customer relationships from a remote location. In other words, you may not be running down the hall anymore to complete a transaction — you are more likely to be doing it by phone or computer.

“Shared services require that customer service is delivered in ways that are very different from our current organizational structure,” reads the course description for Customer Service Strategies in a Shared Services Environment.

“This interactive course offers practical, positive customer service strategies for a variety of situations.”

The instructor, Susan Christy, has been teaching customer service on the campus for 17 years.

Likewise, many of the other instructors in the shared services certificate series are veterans of Staff Development and Professional Services.

Mark Guterman, for example, will teach Creative Problem Solving. He will address problem solving as it pertains to one of the goals of shared services: to empower front-line employees to solve problems and make appropriate decisions.

Constance Stevens and Andrea Weiss, career counselors with SDPS, will lead Career Transitions I: Maximizing Transferable Skills and Career Transitions II: Demystifying and Preparing for Job Interviews.

Besides teaching SDPS courses, Stevens and Weiss are available for individual career counseling sessions.

Plenty of time for questions

The shared services certificate series includes two overviews led by representatives from the Shared Services Implementation Team.

The first provides an update on the UC Davis project and will give employees an opportunity to talk about what a shared services work environment might be like and what employee attributes will be necessary for success.

Lisa Terry, director of organizational development and communications for the Shared Services Implementation Team, is scheduled to lead the first overview. And she is due back, with colleagues Mike Iadanza and Jeffrey Bertany, to give the second overview — in the middle of the certificate series.

“And it won’t be just three hours of presentation,” Moore said. “There will be ample time for people to ask questions.”

Navigating Through Organizational Transitions, led in part by Beth Cohen and her colleagues from the Academic and Staff Assistance Program, comes right after the first overview.

“Let’s face it — change can cause stress!” reads the course description. It goes on to say how the course will help participants with coping skills and in being resilient during change. Other topics include self-care techniques, communication skills and UC Davis resources to help with stress reduction.

Registration

Online registration is open now, with eligibility limited to employees in job classifications that are more likely to be affected by the implementation; i.e., people with specific job classifications within the participating divisions: Administrative and Resource Management, the Offices of the Chancellor and Provost, Information and Educational Technology, Student Affairs, and University Relations.

The eligible titles: administrative assistant I-IV, administrative assistant supervisor, analyst I-III and computer resource specialist.

Come Feb. 21, enrollment for the training program will open to the general campus.

You can register for as many of the courses as you wish to attend, but you must attend all seven to receive a certificate.

Three seven-course sessions are scheduled from Feb. 28 through mid-May. You need not limit yourself to all seven courses in one session; if the dates do not work out, you can switch from one session to another.

A fourth session is waiting in the wings, and the university is fully prepared to add more if necessary. In fact, Staff Development and Professional Services will be closely monitoring the registration lists and the waiting lists, to make sure everyone is accommodated.

Online registration (search for “SSC”). The registration system requires a Kerberos log-in. Up until Feb. 21, only those employees with eligible job classifications will have enrollment access to the new certificate series.