Dear colleagues,
Welcome to the Fast Five with OF&S! In this special calendar year-end edition, we’re highlighting some of our greatest divisional achievements. Here are the five things you need to know about OF&S from 2024:
- OF&S Rebrand & Unveiling of New Strategic Plan
After a reorganization that combined two organizations with 19 units, Finance & Administration rebranded as the division of Operations, Finance & Support. Concurrently, the division unveiled a new strategic plan, Our Future in Focus, with three strategic focus areas: Operational Excellence, Customer Experience, and Community of Care.
- Budget Transformation Initiative
After an extensive planning process, the university rolled out its new budget model with FY25 acting as a “hold harmless” year.
This shift from an incremental budget model to an incentive-based model is designed to directly support Rice's new strategic plan and ensure its success. By changing how money is allocated, ensuring better transparency, and building in incentives, it allows the university a necessary level of flexibility to align its values with its expenses. Strategic investments made for FY25 help illustrate how that is realized. - Investments in Employees
Rice committed to investing an additional $20 million over the next four years to enhance employee pay and benefits. The first round of funding was dispersed at the beginning of FY25.
To better understand and prioritize staff engagement and satisfaction, Rice sponsored the Perch Perspective survey. The data collected will be analyzed at the department level and utilized to fill gaps and launch new programs to ensure that Rice employees feel valued and fulfilled in their work.
The talent development team completed the first phase of the performance management program and rolled out enhancements for the second phase. This work not only formalizes the performance evaluation process but also aligns it with the merit pay approval process, improving transparency into how merit pay decisions are made.
Effective January 1, Rice will implement changes to Policy 405 that were approved on December 19. These updates increase PTO accrual rates for nonexempt staff with less than 10 years of service, aligning PTO accrual rates for all staff. Additionally, exempt staff can now submit PTO in four-hour rather than full-day increments, leveraging Oracle’s enhanced system capabilities. - Commitment to the Customer Experience
Teams across the OF&S division demonstrated their commitment to the customer experience. Examples include:
- The Office of Information Technology engaged numerous members across campus to improve the user experience within iO.
- Campus Services and Sustainability diligently worked to enrich the campus lifestyle through new programs and services to meet the community's needs. Enhanced offerings include expanded transportation options, diverse dining choices, and concierge services.
- The Talent Acquisition Team completed their second pilot of the Hiring Collaboration Hub. This initiative emerged from a pressing need to reduce the time to hire. This work won the Customer Service Award for FY24’s Spring Semester.
- Members of the Human Resources and Finance teams joined a cross-divisional design committee that identified enhancements to improve the graduate student experience and reduce administrative burden.
- The Ways We Engaged
- Administrator Forums: OF&S hosted 9 Admin Forum sessions with over 250 participants in attendance at each session.
- Lunch & Listen Series: Over the course of 9 lunches, Kelly Fox and members of the OF&S leadership team met with 86 campus community members to gather valuable feedback and address questions and issues.
- Coffee with Kelly: 44 campus community members enjoyed coffee, conversation, and shared their ideas and insights during these four casual meetups.
- Fast Five Newsletter: Published 12 editions, reaching an average of 2,100 readers each month.
- OF&S Intern Program: Launched a centralized student intern program to provide Rice students with meaningful, project-based experiences aligned to strategic goals. For this fiscal year, five projects were selected and four interns have already been hired to support initiatives within OIT, Budget & Finance, Real Estate & Facilities, and Operational Excellence. A fifth intern will be selected in the spring to support Human Resources.
- Season of Sharing Program: Introduced a holiday support initiative to assist OF&S team members experiencing significant financial hardship. Through the collective generosity of our community, we supported 30 staff members and their families with wrapped gifts for the holidays, household essentials, and gift cards for groceries and other needed items.
All my best to you,
Kelly Fox, Executive Vice President for Operations, Finance, & Support