Dear Campus Community,

I am pleased to share with you about a new initiative being undertaken by Administrative Affairs.

One of the leadership principles of the Administrative Affairs Division is to serve as a catalyst for continuous departmental and institutional improvement, to better serve our students, colleagues and the broader HSU community.  Our goal is to achieve transparent, user friendly and efficient processes and services. 

After extensive review of various process improvement methodologies, the Administrative Affairs leadership team has elected to launch this initiative utilizing Kaizen methodology.  Kaizen is a facilitated, team-based approach to process improvement, leading to cohesive results in a short period of time.

Michelle Anderson, Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Administration and Finance, will be serving as project lead for the Kaizen Initiative.  Michelle’s project management skills, communications background and extensive knowledge of the Administrative Affairs Division position her well to serve in this capacity. 

There is no better time for us to come together to examine how we do our work, and make every effort to improve how we deliver our various services.

I am deeply grateful for the spirit of collaboration within the Administrative Affairs team, and have full confidence we can and will work together to expand our effectiveness, to the benefit of the HSU community.

In consultation with the AVP of Human Resources, David Montoya, we have selected the recruitment process as a first pilot project to which to apply process improvement. This area was selected because the workflow lends itself well to process improvement analysis; it is cross-functional; and the potential benefits of any process improvement (greater effectiveness and improved service) are important for Humboldt. Professor Eric Olsen from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo University http://www.cob.calpoly.edu/directory/profile/eric-olsen/ will be our facilitator. Eric developed considerable expertise in process improvement in several settings prior to joining Cal Poly.

We plan to use a “kaizen event” to undertake this first pilot. Kaizen is a Japanese term for continuous improvement. By bringing together process experts in a focused effort to analyze the process, identify problems, and brainstorm solutions, many organizations are making dramatic improvements in value delivery. In industry, kaizen events often involve 2-3 days of dedicated effort.  We have adapted the methodology to encompass two full day sessions.

The participants in the Recruitment Kaizen Event can be found here.

If you would like to provide feedback on how to improve the recruitment process, please email Michelle Anderson at mla5@humboldt.edu by Wednesday, February 4th.  Your feedback and support is important!

Douglas V. Dawes
Vice President for Administration and Finance