A Continuous Improvement Approach to Policy Management

This post is co-authored by Stefan's colleague Erin Hastey, Project Assistant for Administrative Policies and Special Projects at the University of Wisconsin.

In an effective policy administration system, policies are regularly reviewed and revised to align with our institutions’ missions and implementation needs. That same emphasis on review and revision applies to our policy management processes. In the University of Wisconsin (UW) System, we follow these guidelines to facilitate continuous improvement.

• Appropriate policy work channels

  Policy owners are our subject matter experts, and we leverage their expertise for maximum impact. At the UW System, we do this by having two, separate policy review committees: one for academic and student affairs policies, and another for finance and general administration policies. Each committee is empowered to develop the internal and institutional review processes best aligned with their subject matter.

• Frequent requests for key stakeholder input

  We cast a wide net for stakeholder input—draft policies and policy revisions are sent to administrators and shared governance groups at every institution each month. Draft policies include web comment forms through which stakeholders can submit their feedback and see others’. Additionally, as part of our annual policy prioritization process, we survey institution stakeholders for their top policy priorities. Based on the survey results, we work with our policy owners to identify areas most in need of attention in the coming year. This allows policy end-users to drive policy prioritization from the start.

• Regular “fresh eyes” on our process

Perhaps the most important part of continuous improvement for any process is regularly having it considered from different perspectives. At UW System, we do this in three ways:

1. Attend the ACUPA conference! By sharing information about our process at conferences, we gain valuable feedback from colleagues and learn emerging best practices. The implementation of our policy equity lens was a direct result of participating in an ACUPA conference.
   
   
2. Graduate fellow program. Through the UW System graduate fellowship program, a fellow serves as our process coordinator. Graduate fellowships last one to two years, and students come from diverse backgrounds and programs of study. This gives us a new perspective on our process at least every two years.
   
   
3. Get “familiar eyes” on our process too. While it’s important to get new perspectives, we also benefit from the perspectives of those most familiar with our process. To this end, we survey our policy owners and end-users at least biennially to get their recommendations for improvement.

Questions to inform continuous improvement for your process:

Key stakeholders: Who are the key stakeholders in our policy management process, and how do we engage them? Do we seek their feedback on our process as well as our policies? How does our process support their (and ultimately, students’) success?

Peer benchmarking: When did we last review our peers’ policy management processes, whether through conferences, research, or direct outreach? What questions or new ideas did that prompt with respect to our process?

ACUPA: How have we taken advantage of our ACUPA member resources to improve our process? What’s one resource we could utilize in the next month?