Overview
Administrative professionals (admin professionals) are an essential role within the university. They are the first point of contact for the administrative needs of senior leaders, deans, executive directors, department heads, faculty, staff and students, and provide support in navigating USask’s processes, policies, systems, and organizational complexity. They have:
- Expertise in many areas such as effectively managing correspondence, scheduling, maintaining records, preparing reports, handling business communications, and managing databases.
- Significant strength in communications, problem-solving, time management, organizational, and interpersonal skills, great attention to detail, and are flexible and adaptable in supporting the institution.
With their assistance, the university’s operations run smoothly, while day-to-day responsibilities are organized and maintained.
The Administrative Network Project is focused on establishing teams of admin professionals from complimentary colleges, schools, and units, who report directly to an administrative network manager, but are physically located within a college, school, or unit.
Through the co-design process, the Administrative Network Project team is working with senior leaders and admin professionals to co-design, refine, and further define the parameters for each Administrative Network.
What is an Administrative Network?
Administrative Networks leverage and elevate administrative professionals, bringing awareness and recognition to the profession. They serve as the connection for administrative professionals from complimentary colleges, schools, and units and are integral in supporting these employees by providing them with:
- A professional network and community of practice where diversity and depth of knowledge and expertise is shared
- Guidance on best practices for administrative services delivery
- Improved access to institutional information and process support
- Professional development opportunities and knowledge sharing
- Clear career paths within the university
- Better work-life balance and greater opportunity for coverage and support
Administrative Networks support USask’s mission, vision, and values. They ensure leaders have access to consistent, professional administrative services, and seamless and coordinated support, while making efficient and effective use of resources.
"Transitioning to the admin network model has highlighted the role of our administrative professionals. The support I receive was positively impacted through the transition. I shared an idea with my admin support, she took it to her team and the idea was suddenly elevated with multiple people looking at it. That was pretty cool. There have been many additional benefits such as the introduction of a professional manager to invest in the profession, support personal development, provide feedback, career pathing and role clarity. It has all been wins from an institutional perspective."
Wade Epp, Associate Vice-President, Services
“The sense of community and shared institutional knowledge within my Administrative Network has significantly contributed to my professional and personal growth. As a result, I feel more confident in my abilities, knowing that I have others I can rely on when I don’t have all the answers.”
Larissa Wudrick, Executive Assistant,
Office of the Vice-Provost Faculty Relations
Frequently Asked Questions
Administrative work is complex, specialized, unique, and there is diversity in the work depending on the unit, the leaders, size of the department, etc. Transitioning to an administrative network will not change this. Through the network, we are looking for opportunities to share knowledge and common work, leverage unit skill sets, support consistent approaches, provide coverage, create opportunities for cross training, and more.
It is very important that the relationships amongst admin professionals and their current people leaders remain and continue to grow. With the implementation of administrative networks, the administrative network manager assumes ‘employee life cycle’ responsibilities, while the current people leaders direct the day-to-day work.
The manager of an Administrative Network manages the recruitment process and provides their team with:
- Consistent onboarding with local and institutional systems and processes
- Ongoing training and development opportunities
- Continued support and awareness of best practices, policies, and guidelines
- Mentorship, guidance, and a fresh perspective or solutions
- Clear expectations and ongoing check-ins with team members
- And, regular career engagement and relevant performance feedback.
"Administrative Networks provide administrative professionals with a sense of community, and access to knowledge, training, tools, and resources. By working collaboratively across units, we leverage each other’s experiences and expertise, and support one another’s work life balance."
Suzy Barbour, Manager, Administrative Networks,
Provost and VP Academic and VP Administration Portfolios
In short, yes. As an admin professional, you frequently have access to confidential information. When you join an administrative network, there is no expectation that you need to divulge confidential information to your manager or colleagues in the network. The expectation of confidentiality does not change.
The administrative network manager is focused on you as an employee and the resources you need to do your job. The manager is not focused on the specific confidential nuances of your day-to-day work.
In consultation with the President’s Executive Council and with the deans and executive director, the College of Education, College of Law, Edwards School of Business, and Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy were identified as the first group of colleges and school to take part in the Administrative Network Project due to their overall size and scope.
It is important that admin professionals work in close proximity to the senior leaders, academics and/or professionals they support. As such, admin professionals will remain physically embedded in their existing colleges, schools, or units.
There are no plans to relocate admin professionals from an administrative network to a central location.
The intent of the network is to align resources to support needs. This is often achieved through collaboration. If there is an increased need for support or training in a specific area in another unit, you may have the opportunity to provide your expertise.
For example, “Mary” is an expert in records management and supports the administrative needs of “College A”. Given her expertise in record management, Mary may have the opportunity to temporarily support this specialized work in another unit within the network. Although Mary might provide temporary records management support to “College B”, her primary responsibilities and physical location remain within her primary unit.
Generally, opportunities to provide expertise to other units is dependant on whether admin professionals are interested in doing this work, if they have capacity, and whether there is expressed need and alignment.
Administrative Networks are a new way for admin professionals to work together to support collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Figure 1 illustrates the ways admin professionals work together within an administrative network. In this illustration, admin professionals are connected to a manager with functional expertise who provides training, career development and engagement, supports best practices, advocates for processes, policies and guidelines to support the network, and streamlines some basic tasks across the network. Admin professionals are also supported by a network of colleagues for knowledge and resource sharing, coverage, and a sense of community.
The figure also highlights the relationships that admin professionals have built with different leaders within colleges, schools, or departments. It is imperative that these remain intact to provide support that is vital to the operations of the unit.
One of the key objectives of the Administrative Network Project is to enhance staff retention, support career engagement and development, and identify positive career pathways for admin professionals at USask. As part of the administrative network, you will have regular career engagement conversations, performance feedback, and mentorship with your manager.
Through ongoing discussions between the administrative network manager and people leaders supported by the network, career growth opportunities may be identified within your current college, school, or unit, or across the network.
It may, depending on the outcome of the Job Architecture Project. This is a campus-wide project to create consistent job titles and profiles.
Click here for more information on the Job Architecture Project.
The Administrative Network Project is not a workforce reduction initiative. Instead, the intent is to implement a new way for administrative professionals to work together on campus so they are better connected and supported, while continuing to provide a continuum of high-quality services within their unit. It is anticipated that some positions will shift in terms of reporting, work activities may be reallocated based on function, and savings will be identified through process changes.
Contact
Andy Barber
Senior Project Manager, Administrative Network Project