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Office of Finance and Administration

Principles of Work

Discover the three core principles that guide our divisions.

Employees of the Office of Finance and Administration spearhead our university’s business operations, steward its financial assets, optimize its physical resources and strategically invest in its people. Working with university constituencies, we endeavor to position NC State as a premier land-grant university and world-class institution.

Committed to improving university effectiveness, each of our divisions is guided by the same Principles of Work: employee engagement, customer service and responsible stewardship.

Employee Engagement

Two employees chatting from the Budget and Resource Management office

Employee engagement is empowering, retaining and rewarding a talented and productive workforce. We will recognize and respect the contributions of all employees and intentionally work to help each member of the NC State team reach and exercise their full potential.

The executive vice chancellor, associate vice chancellors and directors will develop strategies and equip each employee with the necessary tools and training to effectively and efficiently meet performance expectations. We will concentrate on 10 factors that have been identified as key attributes of successful and inclusive employee engagement:

  • Supervisor Interactions
  • Co-worker Relations
  • Workplace Environment
  • Collaboration and Communication
  • Training on Policies and Procedure
  • Encouraging and Rewarding Job Commitment and Accountability
  • Recognizing Job Impact and Duties
  • Valuing Workplace Diversity
  • Offering Professional Development Opportunities
  • Identifying Advancement Opportunities and Career Path Progression

Customer Service

A dining employee smiles and hands food to a student.

Excellent customer service strives to meet the needs and expectations of all university stakeholders while appropriately complying with federal, state and local regulations. We are committed to addressing customer service needs within the context of our duties and responsibilities.

Although each of our departments’ approach to providing effective customer service will vary, we hold three fundamental expectations for all customer service programs:

  • Accountability: Steward business processes or procedures from start to finish, including supporting other offices or service providers that are involved.
  • Customer Experience: Establish and maintain the means to measure customer satisfaction and understand customer expectations in delivering services.
  • Continual Service Improvement: Commit to continuous development of services by improving essential business functions, providing information to support customer decisions and analyzing the available data to increase efficacy of our business processes.

Measuring performance is the fulfillment of a promise. Each department will establish performance goals by analyzing service levels, developing plans for improvement, and measuring progress against the plans and goals. Inter-departmental collaboration is often required to ensure performance measurements are accurately and robustly captured. All of our service departments are responsible for establishing, implementing and measuring standards for promptness, accuracy, reliability and effective customer communication.

  • Promptness: Each department must communicate its expected response time to meet customer requests. However, at a minimum, initial contact with the customer will occur before the end of the following business day of the initial request.
  • Accuracy: Provide correct information or the appropriate referrals to define, understand and meet the needs and expectations of the customer.
  • Reliability: An element of customer relations and great customer service is repeating quality service each time we interact with our customers. Consistent, attentive and reliable performance builds strong business relationships and strengthens our customer-oriented reputation. Each department must establish a standard of care and guaranteed service, in support of customers functioning at their highest potential.
  • Effective Communication: Timely and accurate information, delivered with a positive, professional attitude from the time of the request through completion. Each department must identify the ways and means to establish and maintain communication that assures the customer that services are prioritized and processed in the most efficient and effective manner. The key to successful communication is listening first, then creating forward-thinking solutions supported by timely updates on progress. Each department must establish a record of openness and transparency in decision-making when working with faculty, staff, students, governing boards and university constituencies in the context of collaboration and shared outcomes. Future services are enhanced through effective, proactive actions and communications.

Responsible Stewardship

Central Receiving employee Lance reassembles surplus electronics for resale to divert landfill waste.

Responsible stewardship of the resources entrusted to our care means performing in the best possible way with the least waste of time, resources, money and energy. For departments to continuously improve, we must focus on the stewardship of fiscal, physical and human capital with benchmarking processes and performance monitoring to ensure the highest measure of productivity and accountability.

Identifying efficiencies in our administrative services allows the divisions to redirect valuable staff time and financial resources to prioritized projects and programs. Resource reallocation decisions must be made on prioritized need, based on substantive empirical data and evaluated for effectiveness on a routine basis.

Recognizing that not all improvements can be accomplished within a 12-month budget cycle, investments can be made up front when supported by a business plan (up to five years), developed to recover the upfront investments.