Irina Pavlova at a strategic session dedicated to the back-office modernization program
Irina Pavlova, deputy head of ANR-Lab, took part in a strategic session dedicated to the program for modernizing the administrative support system (ASS).
The main goal of this event was to develop a common understanding of how the administrative support system can create additional value for HSE. For this purpose, the current image of the ASS and its inherent limitations, the ideal image of the future and directions for implementing change projects that will allow this were formulated.
Irina Pavlova shared her impressions of participation:
I am a member of the Administrative Talent Pool and as members of the program we were invited to participate in a strategy session to identify opportunities to improve the university's back-office. The back office is various functions of economic, personnel, financial, etc., supporting the main activities of the university. And the quality of operation of this administrative support system is determined by the seamless integration of various functions and the uninterrupted operation of system processes.
The strategic session was focused on assessing the evolution of the administrative system and was held under the motto of searching for created values. We worked in teams and our task was to highlight some process with which we are familiar and try to form an image of the present for this process.
Since I hold the position of senior researcher, we took on the process related to staffing in the process of employment and re-registration of scientific employees. For this process, we described the goal, decomposed the process structure through a step-by-step algorithm, and identified three key problems. Next, we carried out an analysis for compliance with the values – customer focus and economic efficiency, and also assessed for compliance with a given level of risk and correlated the parameters of the HSE back office with similar parameters of other universities.
We are currently trying to digitize many processes. It would seem that this is the privilege of commercial organizations, usually large and major ones, that develop and implement digital transformation strategies. However, we note that Russian universities are actively implementing various automated support systems for the main and supporting processes of the university. We can now even talk about the best administrative practices in academic organizations. I wish HSE success in the effective implementation of change projects related to improving the work of the university’s back-office.
On the importance of the administrative support system
The administrative system also affects the reputation and HR brand. Today the situation on the labor market is such that competition for quality specialists is intensifying: corporations and other universities are raising salaries. Therefore, the administrative system becomes a more significant factor on the basis of which employees can decide whether to work at HSE and whether to recommend it to their friends.
Thus, the need for continuous improvement of the HSE administrative support system becomes obvious, the basic principles of which have been embodied in the modernization program.
In short, the goal of implementing this program is to make an additional contribution to the reputation of the National Research University Higher School of Economics and create a new competitive advantage by providing administrative services of the best quality within the given resource limits and taking into account the acceptable level of risk.
You can read about what results have already been achieved at the strategic session, what projects are under implementation and what steps are planned in the future in the report.
