Service Effectiveness Assessment

Measure and benchmark the effectiveness of your administrative and support services using feedback, to help assess, prioritise and track service improvements.

Maximising service effectiveness and efficiency is central to realising sustainable results from transformation. Benchmarking service performance gives service owners actionable ways they can improve their services so they’re optimised for the areas that matter most to users.

Service Effectiveness Assessment measures the effectiveness of a broad portfolio of the most important administrative and support services for academic and professional staff. The assessment covers 70 services through two customisable surveys on professional services spend. Our structured approach to gathering feedback means these surveys take an average of just 15 minutes for users to complete.

More than 170,000 staff at over 60 universities have completed our survey, providing over 3.5 million service responses.

Why Service Effectiveness Assessment?

Performance Measurement
- Identifies performance gaps for service attributes that matter most to users using a unique ‘effectiveness impact’ measure
- Benchmarks service performance to the sector, avoiding the fact that some services always rate better than others
User Insights
- Reveals how to improve services by targeting investment on what matters most for users of each service, using over 4 million data points
- Gives service owners insight on how their service users’ experience compares to users at other universities
Feedback and Improvement
- Sends a message that the university is ‘listening’ to staff views
- Helps service owners track how service users are responding to improvement initiatives through repeat surveys

Performance Measurement

Identifies performance gaps for service attributes that matter most to users using a unique ‘effectiveness impact’ measure
Benchmarks service performance to the sector, avoiding the fact that some services always rate better than others

User Insights

Reveals how to improve services by targeting investment on what matters most for users of each service, using over 4 million data points
Gives service owners insight on how their service users’ experience compares to users at other universities

Feedback and Improvement

Sends a message that the university is ‘listening’ to staff views
Helps service owners track how service users are responding to improvement initiatives through repeat surveys

What University Leaders Say

“UniForum has benefited us through its valuable networking opportunities and by enabling objective benchmarking of costs on a like for like basis. Its structured data has provided excellent insights and prompted us to ask ourselves challenging questions about service delivery models, efficiency and effectiveness.”

Adrienne Cleland

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Operations & Registrar, University of Auckland, NZ

“UniForum is helping us to have data driven conversations around our services so that we can work together across the university to reduce complexity and increase satisfaction.”

Aimie Chapple

Vice-President (Operations), University College London (UCL), UK

“Using UniForum we have developed a greater understanding of our staff's daily roles, the benefits of which are not just about cost; it's about better structure and ensuring service capacity where needed.”

Greg Fowler

Vice-President Administration, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

"UniForum supports evidence-based change that enables truly transformational and enduring efficiency and effectiveness of professional services."

Mike Shore-Nye

Senior Vice-President and Registrar & Secretary, University of Exeter, UK

"UniForum has enabled Macquarie University to achieve improved clarity in our operational processes across faculties and portfolios, directly supporting resource allocation and service provision to our academic and student communities. "

Jonathan Wylie

Vice-President Strategy, Planning and Performance, Macquarie University, Australia

Some of the universities we work with

Our insights

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A holistic solution for university leaders

Combining the Service Effectiveness Assessment with Professional Services Analytics gives university leaders the holistic data they need to prioritise services for staff and students, and improve university operations.