{"id":5069,"date":"2016-02-11T14:08:17","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T13:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=46020"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:18","slug":"usc-is-on-schedule-despite-concerns-about-workload","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2016\/02\/11\/usc-is-on-schedule-despite-concerns-about-workload\/","title":{"rendered":"USC is on schedule despite concerns about workload"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Judging from a first evaluation carried out half a year after the restructuring, the cutbacks on and improvement of the university\u2019s support services are going well. However, a large majority of the University Support Centre\u2019s staff feel that their workload has increased since the organisation was restructured.<\/p>\n

Last year in May, the university created a University Support Centre (USC). After thorough restructuring, almost all of the support services have been brought into one organisation. IT specialists, communications officers, the finance department and the people responsible for maintenance of your classroom; they are all part of the USC. One of the benefits is that every question or complaint arrives at the same place within the university. What is the progress on the USC\u2019s main goals \u2013 improvement and cutbacks \u2013 half a year since the restructuring?<\/p>\n

Additional costs<\/h3>

The objective of the cutback in expenditure was to save \u20ac1.7 million in staffing costs in 2015 and another \u20ac1 million in 2016. The USC looks set to achieve this target. \u201cOur capacity will be in line with our objectives, because we hired people on the basis of those objectives,\u201d said USC managing director Kees Lansbergen. \u201cWe will actually come in under budget as far as staffing costs are concerned, since a number of vacancies have not yet been filled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, the USC has significantly exceeded its budget, by approximately \u20ac 1.8 million. The excess costs were due to the fact that external agents had to be hired, especially in the IT department, several of whose projects, such as @wEURk2.0, required many additional staff members. \u201cIt\u2019s true that we exceeded the budget by a considerable margin because we had to hire so many external agents,\u201d says Lansbergen. \u201cHowever, that\u2019s a temporary situation which only applies to the IT department.\u201d According to Lansbergen, the need for additional IT workers was not caused by the restructuring, as the projects requiring more hands had been ongoing at USC before the restructuring.<\/p>\n

Increased workload<\/h3>

Workload is an issue to Lansbergen. A survey carried out by the USC\u2019s employee council showed that many USC employees feel that their workload has increased since the restructuring. About three in five USC employees feel that their workload has increased significantly. Says Lansbergen, \u201cI can\u2019t say I\u2019m surprised to hear it. With us being a new organisation with new ambitions and problems which really need to be solved, we\u2019re asking a lot of our people. I do believe we sometimes ask too much of them. Our managers will have to seriously look into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, Lansbergen feels that there is no structural solution which will reduce the amount of pressure employees are under. In some cases, he says, certain tasks can be dropped, or additional people can be hired to complete them, such as in IT and HR. \u201cBut we\u2019ll also have to make sure that our managers recognise when people are under pressure at work and need support, and that our employees have a good understanding of the tasks that need to be carried out and indicate their struggles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Improved level of service<\/h3>

Not much can be said at this point about whether the level of service has improved, which was the other objective the establishment of the USC was supposed to help achieve. By 2018, the USC\u2019s \u2018customer satisfaction rate must be 7.5 out of 10\u2032. Judging from a quick survey of demand managers (USC\u2019s representatives at other departments), the Service is receiving mainly neutral assessments at present, with the odd compliment or complaint thrown in for good measure. Between May and November 2015, the front office received 40,000 reports, but only 131 complaints.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy year-end 2016, we will have to demonstrate that we\u2019ve made progress in terms of service levels. I hope the USC will be a more effective and more reliable organisation by then,\u201d says Lansbergen. To this end, USC is looking into making processes more effective and offering collective training courses. In addition, a customer satisfaction monitor has been purchased to measure more frequently how people rate the USC\u2019s service levels.<\/p>\n\n\t

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