This is a perfect opportunity for institutions to incorporate career development and succession planning initiatives into their strategic priorities. Oftentimes, institutions have failed to capitalize on the talent that’s already available to them. I don’t just mean existing employees—I’m also referring to current students, temporary employees, and more. Succession planning helps them look at their current talent pool to identify and develop high-potential workers for key roles when they arise or become vacant.
A well-executed succession plan benefits both the institution and the employee: it helps organizations focus on the future, ensuring teams are staffed with competent and well-trained workers; in tandem, the growth and development of emerging talent is nurtured, increasing employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention.
A bit of a personal anecdote: I worked at a higher education institution for more than a decade… and the story of my exit is one that tends to surprise people. When I was interviewing for work outside the institution, I was transparent with my supervisor throughout the entire process. That’s because I trusted my manager, who was a true leader–one that invested in the personal and professional growth of each team member, even if that meant going outside of the institution. If that same level of care and long-term investment were applied to higher-ed workers everywhere, the culture would be magnetic.
Less time on process, more time on people
I’ve always been a fan of Annie Dillard’s well-known quote: “How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.” If you were to observe some higher-ed leaders and teams, you may get the impression that they’re spending their days, and therefore their work lives, on paperwork.
To free up time to pour into their people, leaders must embrace change and support innovation to enable their teams to move away from redundant, manual administrative work. This would create a win-win scenario since many workers want to do more high-value and fulfilling work that contributes to the greater good.
Fortunately, technology exists to tackle most menial tasks. Not sure what processes should be automated and streamlined? Consider some of the following questions:
- Where can self-service be put into practice?
- Where do bottlenecks exist?
- Where have we introduced needless complexity into our processes?
- Where do we have potential for inaccuracy or inconsistency?
- Where can proactive services be delivered?
By minimizing lower-value manual work such as entering paper timecards, inputting invoices, and processing paper contracts, leaders can refocus resources on the far more important task of taking care of people.
The good news
Higher education institutions are already in the business of professional development and mentoring. If leaders can apply the same listening skills and level of investment put forth for students toward their workers, they’ll be well on their way to a more intentionally caring culture… one that attracts, develops, and retains top talent for the long haul.
Jen Landon is the Director of Strategy and Business Development for Higher Education for Oracle.
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