Distinctive Strathclyde
Continuous Improvement driving operational excellence
Established in 2013, the Continuous Improvement Directorate plays a key role in driving transformational change and operational excellence throughout the University of Strathclyde.
Continuous Improvement delivers training to help build continuous improvement capability and capacity across the University, to provide people with the necessary tools and techniques to improve both ‘what we do’ and ‘how we do it’ to support the delivery of our strategic objectives. Over the last three years over 450 people have attended at least one of our training modules.
Alongside this, our Continuous Improvement Network is well established with a current membership of 70 people (46 Professional Services and 24 Faculty staff). The Network meets on a quarterly basis to share good practice and to learn about new ways of working.
The Directorate also supports the delivery of strategic university-wide projects as well as tactical projects at a departmental level. Examples of completed projects include:
- Postgraduate Recruitment & Admissions
- MBA Finance
- Timetabling
- Postgraduate Taught Admissions
- Postgraduate Research Studentships
- Library Customer Service Excellence
- SEED Strategy Development & Deployment
The Directorate is sector leading and is internationally recognised for the work that it does. The Directorate has also developed several key international collaborations with the University of Michigan, University of Waterloo and UiT, Arctic University of Norway.
Due to its international reputation for continuous development, the University hosted the Lean in Higher Education Conference in 2021, with 270 delegates from 100 different HE organisations across the world.
The Directorate has further built its reputation through the delivery of external training and consultancy services to other universities, further education colleges and private sector organisations across the UK, with over £500k in income generated to date.
Looking ahead to 2030, the Directorate will be leading the University’s Process and Systems Enhancement Programme. This multi-year programme aims to deliver sustained transformation of our University-wide, end-to-end business processes and systems.
The aim of the Programme is to provide an improved experience for our students, staff, and external partners. It will be a systematic and fully integrated approach that aims to transform professional service delivery across the University to help us be more effective, efficient, digitally- enabled, and fit for the future.
Sustained Excellence in Library & Information Resources
Library & Information Resources (LIR) have held Customer Service Excellence (CSE) accreditation since 2019. The accreditation is reviewed and assessed annually by a Cabinet Office approved external assessment body and commits us to continually improving services for our customers. The assessment requires us to demonstrate how we are meeting the fifty-seven elements of the standard. Since we launched the customer service excellence project our Library and Information Resources have been using the accreditation process as a framework for service improvement and a driver of staff development.
Critically analysing our services ensures we are identifying and eliminating issues with clear benefits for customer service. Key to this is the involvement of all our staff in reviewing processes, identifying opportunities for improvement and working together to create solutions. This inclusive approach for staff ensures a sense of ownership and that their ideas are valued. We use techniques such as customer journey mapping, communication cells and after-action reviews to empower staff who have a knowledge of day-to-day activities and the customer’s experience to make impactful changes. Our monthly Champions meetings are an opportunity for staff to share ideas and learn about service improvement initiatives in other areas.
Feedback from our customers is also key to meeting this standard and to improving our services. A number of customer engagement opportunities are organised throughout the year, including surveys, graffiti walls and polls. We employ two Student Ambassadors who work on these projects, as well as helping customers, leading tours and attending events such as Open Days and Welcome Days. We enable ongoing feedback mechanisms such as our online complaints and feedback form and our enquiry management system satisfaction survey. All of this work provides customer insight and feeds into short and medium-term improvements and long-term strategy initiatives.
In November 2023 our accreditation was reviewed for the fifth time. We are fully compliant with all elements of the standard, and our assessor deems that we are sector-leading in twenty of the fifty-seven elements, demonstrating a culture of continuous improvement and service excellence which is reflected in the positive feedback we receive from customers.