Business operations provides professional services to support education and research, but due to budget cuts in higher education, it is facing a major financial savings challenge. That is why the Business Operations Savings Programme was launched in September 2024, with the aim of achieving structural savings of at least €20 million by the end of 2029. This will be achieved by simplifying, streamlining, digitising and deduplicating services, and phasing out certain processes and services.
Scope
Business operations refer to the professional services within both faculties and institutes like Radboud Services that facilitate teaching and research at our university. For example, the Marketing & Communication and Human Resources pillars. Certain positions in professional services that are part of education and research are not considered part of business operations and are not classified in pillars. In the Savings programme, we are looking at these services per pillar. Each pillar comprises all the professional services provided by all organisational units collectively in a given field.
Eight pillars
- Education Support;
- Research Support;
- Finance & Control;
- Housing & Facilities;
- Human Resources;
- ICT & library services;
- Marketing & Communications;
- General Affairs.
Real estate (the Campus Plan) and the Faculty of Medical Sciences are not included in this programme.
Classification principles
Which position and which activities are classified in which pillar is determined on the basis of the classification principles formulated for each pillar. If you do not know or are unsure which pillar you are classified in, you can contact your manager.
If, as an employee, you believe you have been classified in the wrong pillar and you have valid arguments for this, you can report this to your manager. They will discuss the arguments with an HR adviser. If both agree, they will submit this to the director (business operations) of the unit in which you work. After approval by the director, the HR adviser can submit the change request to the Savings Programme, after which the request will be assessed.
Phases in this trajectory
Phase 1: Drafting an analysis and issuing advice
This phase consists of three parts: a quick scan of the entire business operation, deep dives per pillar, and the drafting of implementation plans per pillar.
Quick scan
The quick scan was carried out in the autumn of 2024 and provided insight into potential savings per pillar. This concerns expectations about where and how savings can be made, which have been recorded as hypotheses for each pillar. Organisational consultancy firm EY provided assistance by offering methodological expertise and knowledge of similar processes at other organisations and in the market. In order to arrive at hypotheses, discussions were held with employees at the university and a document study was carried out for each pillar.
Assessing savings opportunities with a deep dive
In the deep dive, we work with employees from the pillar to test the hypotheses for effectiveness, desirability and feasibility. For each hypothesis, we determine the financial effects, personnel effects, effects on services and effects on the organisation. Employees from education and/or research are also involved if a hypothesis has an effect on services to education and/or research. Finally, we seek the opinion of an external expert. They take a critical look at what has been achieved and can offer perspective on how other organisations have dealt with similar issues. In addition, the expert can point us to external developments that we can use to our advantage. For each pillar, we consider which party would be best suited as an external expert.
Developing savings initiatives in the implementation plan
The implementation plan further elaborates the savings initiatives identified in the deep dive into feasible projects. This plan distinguishes two types of projects:
- Projects that are part of regular business operations: these can be implemented relatively quickly without further coordination under the mandate of the organisation;
- Projects that require further coordination with education or research or that may have a significant impact on personnel.
When drawing up project plans for the second type of projects, we ask education and research to contribute ideas on the best way to realise them. For projects with a significant impact on personnel, we involve the HR expertise team and ask the Works Council for advice.
Once an implementation plan has been finalised, a decision will be taken by the relevant (participational) bodies and implementation can begin.
Phase 2: Implementing measures
Once a positive decision has been made on the implementation plans, the measures will be realised. There is no single way in which the measures will be realised: they may include simple, quick changes, measures that require intensive coordination and adaptation in education and research, or measures that require advice from the Works Council before they can be realised. For each measure, we will choose the most appropriate and correct way to realise it.
The implementation of cost-saving measures will continue until 2029, and projects identified during the analysis phase may also be launched in that year. This may be because contracts with suppliers run until 2028 and we cannot start making savings until then. The savings will therefore not be realised overnight. The amount saved will increase in the coming years until the total target is achieved in 2029. From the end of 2029, €20 million will have been saved in operational costs following the implementation of all projects.