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Service Excellence at York

A culture of service excellence at York is key to the successful delivery of the University’s Academic Plan

The University Academic Plan (UAP) 2020-2025 will help York achieve its mission, vision and identity, fulfilling our promise to make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future. Fostering a culture of service excellence across the University in which we are all responsible for supporting each other's success, is a key priority in the UAP.

By ensuring we are living well together, we can create positive change for our students, faculty, instructors and staff.

A culture of service excellence at York

We are user-focused, working together with our community to enable outstanding services that result in high satisfaction. We are accountable for providing enhanced value to students, faculty, and staff, and deliver simple, efficient, and forward-looking services.

YORK STAFF WORK BY SIX PRINCIPLES

York staff work by six principles to support delivery of the UAP:

  1. User-focused, not inward-looking
  2. Designed with, not for
  3. Working together, not in silos
  4. Empowered and accountable, not passive
  5. Simple, not over-engineered
  6. Forward thinking, not reactionary

To foster a culture of service excellence at York and support the UAP, a set of transformation strategies are underway, including the Service Excellence Program (SEP) and Student System Renewal Program (SSRP). These initiatives share a common goal and purpose to:

  • Redesign end to end processes improving quality and efficiency
  • Enhance administrative structures to streamline the services provided to students, faculty, and staff
  • Invest in new systems to transform the student, faculty and staff experience
  • Create a new culture of service excellence across the University.

SEP

The Service Excellence Program (SEP) is focused on implementing user-focused solutions to achieve administrative service improvements. This includes work to improve processes, structures and systems to help embed a culture of service excellence at York.  

SSRP

The Student Systems Renewal Program (SSRP) is a user-focused, multi-year transformation program with a goal of improving the student, faculty, and staff experience by introducing new processes and technology solutions.

From the President

Dr. Rhonda L Lenton, President and Vice Chancellor

In 2020, York University developed a vision for Service Excellence to create positive change for the community by fostering a cultural shift toward greater service excellence across the University.

Service Excellence plays an important role in York’s vision to provide a broad sociodemographic of students with access to a high-quality education at a research-intensive University that is committed to enhancing the well-being of the communities we serve. Guided by our University Academic Plan, Building a Better Future 2020-2025, York is committed to enhancing the University experience for students, staff and faculty.

Over the past two years, significant progress has been made through the work of the Service Excellence Program (SEP) and the Student Systems Renewal Program (SSRP). SEP has introduced a variety of improvements, including the ongoing implementation of the University Services Centre (USC), various process improvement initiatives and organizational redesign within HR and Finance with the Budget & Asset Management project.

The SSRP is in the process of implementing next generation solutions that will enhance the student, faculty and staff experience, while advancing a shared understanding of data and information in a secure and accessible environment. New solutions will launch in Summer 2023, beginning with a Financial Aid, Awards and Scholarships solution, and a community engagement tool that will be used to manage student recruitment, application and admission processes.

By spearheading the SEP and SSRP, York is leading the digital transformation necessary to advance 21st century learning, while also reducing our carbon footprint to foster seamless collaboration. I encourage you to learn more about SEP and SSRP as York works to realize this vision.

Sincerely,

Rhonda L. Lenton, PhD

President & Vice-Chancellor

Learn More

To learn more about the programs associated with the culture of Service Excellence at York visit our websites.