The strategy "Restructuring Campus Services for Future Readiness" focuses on adapting campus services to align with decreasing student populations by implementing strategic changes. One major action is forming a dedicated sales and commercial development division to drive revenue and enhance collaboration. This includes integrating event teams into the division, defining business roles, and establishing partnerships. For instance, training programs aim to bolster sales skills among team members, ensuring effectiveness.
Another element elevates the head of accommodation to a residential director role to improve the housing experience. This role will introduce flexible leasing, benchmark against competitors, and use data-driven approaches to ensure optimal occupancy.
Lastly, a centralised support services function is proposed to boost efficiency. It involves consolidating key operations, defining clear roles, and implementing analytics to guide decision-making. Training and team-building exercises are integral, aiming to foster a unified team culture.
The strategies
⛳️ Strategy 1: Create a dedicated sales and commercial development division
- Establish a clear organisational structure for the sales and commercial development division
- Define specific roles and responsibilities for business development positions
- Integrate the WHH and Event Essex events teams into the new division
- Develop a resource allocation plan to maximise joint opportunities
- Implement training programs for team members focused on sales skills
- Set measurable sales targets for the division
- Develop a brand identity and marketing strategy for the sales division
- Create a feedback loop for continuous improvement via customer and team feedback
- Leverage technology to streamline sales and event coordination processes
- Establish partnerships with external organisations for event co-hosting opportunities
⛳️ Strategy 2: Elevate the role of head of accommodation to residential director
- Redefine the job description and title to residential director
- Include a sales and lettings manager role to focus on alternative uses
- Assess current accommodation processes to identify improvement areas
- Launch initiatives to enhance the student housing experience
- Introduce flexible leasing options to adapt to varying student numbers
- Benchmark against competitor universities to identify best practices
- Conduct market research to explore alternative accommodation uses
- Enhance communication channels between accommodation and other campus services
- Implement a data-driven approach to track occupancy and financial performance
- Set regular review meetings to assess progress and make necessary adjustments
⛳️ Strategy 3: Create a centralised support services function
- Identify all support functions to be centralised within the directorate
- Define roles and responsibilities within the central support services unit
- Develop a transition plan for support staff to move into the new structure
- Implement training programs for staff to develop skills in contract management, systems, and analytics
- Establish a data analytics team to support decision-making across directorate
- Create synergies by standardising processes and sharing resources
- Develop a knowledge-sharing platform for best practices and training resources
- Set up a dashboard for monitoring key performance indicators across functions
- Engage in regular team-building activities to foster a cohesive unit
- Establish periodic audits to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of the centralised services
Bringing accountability to your strategy
It's one thing to have a plan, it's another to stick to it. We hope that the examples above will help you get started with your own strategy, but we also know that it's easy to get lost in the day-to-day effort.
That's why we built Tability: to help you track your progress, keep your team aligned, and make sure you're always moving in the right direction.
Give it a try and see how it can help you bring accountability to your strategy.
