Resources Questions

Productivity and Effectiveness

What skills and capabilities are required to make us successful?
Do we have appropriately diversified resources?
Are resources allocated and spent in ways that support the mission? Do resources support institutional strengths and core?
Are we obtaining adequate productivity and effectiveness from our resources?
Are there sufficient assets and resources to ensure success of priority initiatives now and in the future?
Are tuition rates and financing options (discounting) developed with consideration for the impact on institutional goals?
What are the implications of our selected niche and competencies for revenue diversification, investment, fundraising, as well as staffing, partnerships, etc.?

Do we have the physical capacity to deliver on mission?
Are our capital assets flexible enough to serve future needs?
How do we measure the value of technology versus brick and mortar?
How do our current facilities, technology and equipment match our mission? Does our mission make any obsolete?
Does the quality of buildings and infrastructure represent our priorities? Are we funding maintenance of existing capital and budgeting for operations and maintenance of new capital?
Are resources deployed to provide learning environments that support student success?
Are the appropriate institutional and departmental information systems and communication processes in place to support goal attainment?
Are the appropriate institutional and departmental information systems and communication processes in place to support goal attainment?

Are we making effective use of our data resources to analyze, predict and prescribe alternatives?
Do we have the data necessary to measure the productivity and effectiveness of our resource allocation? To assess capital development? To clarify our understanding of program and service delivery costs?
What benchmarks do we have with similar institutions? How do we respond to variances?
Where are we in the data spectrum – descriptive analytics – predictive analytics – prescriptive analytics?

How have we empowered all faculty and staff to enact change?
How do we assess allocations to technology versus human capital versus outsourcing?
Are human resources effectively trained and deployed?
Is our staffing model sufficiently flexible to address changing needs?
Do we have the appropriate mix of “fixed” versus “variable” labor?
How does staffing compare with industry benchmarks?
What professional development is needed to ensure faculty and staff are current and effective?
How will we address escalating labor (salary and benefits) costs?
Are we able to attract and retain quality faculty and staff with the right talents to support our mission?

What are the costs and benefits of auxiliary operations?
Is the Foundation aligned with the college on goals and needs?
How do we leverage others’ assets and alternative delivery models (such as P3s)?
What options do we have to alternatively fund projects and activities?
Are we adequately and appropriately leveraging instructional economies (such as peer-to-peer, technology, etc.)?
What are goals for development and alumni relations? Are they congruent with our mission and strategies? Is the Advancement effort successful?
Are we optimizing the use of endowment and other philanthropic resources?
Are we strategically managing debt?
Are we leveraging resources through intra- or inter-institutional shared services? Can we eliminate redundancy/duplication?
Are we evaluating the full cost of external opportunities and endeavors?

What “game changers” are there in our strategic plan, and how are we managing and budgeting for their implementation?
What are our key revenue and expense drivers?
If we are budgeting a deficit, is it a cash flow, operational or structural deficit? How do we know? What is our plan to remedy the cause(s)?
Are we optimizing return on financial assets, within our risk profile?
Do we engage in multi-year financial planning, based on realistic assumptions?
Do we use current financial analysis and planning tools like (but not limited to) CFI, ABC and RCM to analyze our financial status and risk and to understand costs and allocate resources?
Does the budgeting process support change? Are all resources considered in the budget process?
Are key components of financial and non-financial risk understood?
Does the institution have processes to accurately assess costs related to programs and activities? Are life cycle costs (and benefits) determined before undertaking new initiatives?
Does the institution have a program prioritization plan that is supported by its resource allocations?
Have we applied business process re-engineering strategies?
Do we have incentives for units within the college or university to spend congruently with institutional goals?
How do we manage compliance at the lowest cost?

How do we fund specialized knowledge?
Is our self-funded research strategic and deliberate?
Are we managing sponsored research efficiently and in compliance with sponsor requirements?
Is our indirect cost rate current and maximized?

Are adequate resources allocated for innovation?
What organizational restructuring would yield resources for reallocation?
What opportunities exist for development of alternative revenues?
Is our academic plan (now and in the future) underpinning our capital and financial plans? Will changing academic delivery lead to stranded assets?
What areas will provide the best ROI? Do they require investments?