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The Queen’s Renew Program remains focused on ensuring Queen’s professional services are operating effectively to support delivery of Queen’s academic and research mission. Professional services include all work being done in shared services portfolios, as well as administrative functions and support work being conducted in faculties that underpin teaching and research. 

Over the next five years, the Queen’s Renew Program aims to create a professional services model that is more effective, supportive of staff, flexible and adaptable, and financially sustainable. 

“The work of the Renew Program is about setting up Queen’s for the future,” says Principal and Vice-Chancellor Patrick Deane. “It’s about aligning our professional services with leading practices in higher education and creating a model that strengthens our ability to invest in our academic mission.” 

To begin identifying ways to improve the university’s professional services, the Renew Program engaged NousCubane’s UniForum benchmarking initiative. UniForum compares how Queen’s professional services delivery compares to those of participating peer universities in Canada and globally. This benchmarking, informed by Service Effectiveness Surveys and Activity Data Collection, was completed earlier this year and has returned some initial findings. They include:

• Queen’s spends more on professional services than most other institutions benchmarked by UniForum. The campus community reports slightly better-than-average experiences with these services compared to peer institutions but also pointed to challenges with some support and delivery processes. 
• A larger proportion of professional services at Queen’s are delivered locally in faculties, departments, schools, and research institutes than the average for other benchmarking program participants. 
• In many areas of the university, local staff support professional services across a wide range of functions. Because their roles require supporting numerous functions, staff in multi-function roles may not have opportunities to develop their specialized skills, which can limit career progression.

Looking ahead, the Renew Program will first focus on examining current processes and systems in several professional service functions. These initiative areas include advancement, marketing and communications, facilities, finance, and human resources functions. 

Over the next one to two years, the Renew Program Office will work with leaders in these initiative areas to assess, design, and implement changes aimed at streamlining processes, standardizing systems, and enhancing service delivery—changes that may impact the structure, organizational placement, and size of Queen’s professional services. Within the coming months, the Renew Program will establish project plans that determine the work ahead for each initiative area. Staff in selected initiative areas will receive more information soon. 

Several units across campus have already initiated efforts to enhance efficiency and made staffing and operational changes due to budget pressures. These changes will be acknowledged through the Renew Program process. 

Hearing from the campus community is key to achieving the future vision for professional services at Queen’s. The Renew Program team is developing a community consultation plan to support these efforts. Consultation details will be communicated soon, with other Renew Program updates to follow. 

For more information, visit the Queen’s Renew Program website.