When implementing new technology on campus, it’s not always easy to get everyone on the same page. While some users will welcome new solutions that support them in their roles, others struggle with change. How can institutions champion faculty and staff to ensure buy-in for solutions that can streamline essential processes for faculty affairs and align with strategic goals?
In a recent webinar, we were joined by Andi Clemons, Director of Academic Affairs, Administration, and Budget at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), to learn how the team navigated their campus climate and worked to overcome change management challenges to embrace paperless workflows for review, hiring, and activity reporting.
Navigating the Campus Climate
Supporting 16,000 students across six colleges and five schools, FGCU has approximately 652 non-tenure faculty that work on rolling three-year contracts. The institution has faced an array of changes and challenges in recent years, including leadership transitions, extreme weather conditions, and the pandemic. This has resulted in change fatigue for many on campus, but it’s difficult to pause change or technological evolution for the sake of normalcy given the urgencies of an ever-evolving higher education landscape.
At the same time, the team was dealing with inefficiencies and a lack of transparency when it came to crucial faculty processes, leading FGCU to implement Interfolio Review, Promotion & Tenure (RPT) in 2021, followed by Interfolio Faculty Activity Reporting (FAR) in 2022. The timing was tricky as faculty and staff returned to campus following COVID shutdowns and dealt with severe flooding from Hurricane Ian, leaving the team at FGCU to deal with an environment of declining morale and a lack of trust in leadership.
“We had all these things happening, but we had a hunger on campus for making our processes more effective—for creating an opportunity to make things electronic,” said Clemons. “We had an interest from our Faculty Senate and our department chairs, so it was definitely time. If they’re saying, ‘Hey, can we do things electronically? Is there a way to do this?’ we wanted to take that moment, seize it, and move forward.”
How FGCU Approached Change Management
Knowing how important it is to be mindful in the approach to change management, Clemons developed five strategies while implementing Interfolio on her campus. With this framework, the team at FGCU was able to successfully cultivate collaboration and engagement with faculty.
1. Engaging Faculty
Knowing that faculty were willing to participate in moving to a new digital process, Clemons was confident that they were ready to be engaged from the beginning. “I wanted our faculty to really feel like we’re doing this together because we care about the work that they do,” she shared. “That was really important to me.” From the demo stage all the way through to implementation, FGCU kept faculty involved in the process to ensure buy-in.
The team also held focus groups and workflow sessions to increase engagement and bring in more voices. By speaking with so many faculty members and asking what’s working, what they like, and what they don’t like, they were able to gather real-time feedback and make adjustments as needed. Clemons also made sure to loop in some of the more outspoken faculty members who typically have strong opinions on new processes and technologies, noting that these individuals care deeply about the institution and can become your biggest champions. “They’re going to be out on the street telling everybody about what’s happening,” she said, “so if you get their buy-in early and you engage them early, that’s going to help you with your process.”
2. Cultivating Trust
Effective communication is crucial for cultivating trust on campus. While implementing RPT and FAR, the team at FGCU launched a website dedicated to Interfolio, sharing milestones, resources, and training opportunities. When approaching a major decision, Clemons worked with the Council of Deans to gain buy-in, understand their needs, and determine how the system could address those needs.
“It’s not going to be helpful for them if I’m building what I think they need, and I’m totally missing the mark,” she noted. By first launching RPT and creating a positive reputation through faculty involvement, the team cultivated a level of trust that helped them move forward with positive momentum when they were ready to launch FAR. “They knew that our intentions were good—that we were here to try and help.”
3. Mindful Messaging
Based on her experiences with previous technology implementations, Clemons knew messaging would be incredibly important during the process. “I think sometimes we don’t talk enough or pay enough attention on campus to the way that we craft our messages,” she shared. In order to drive a more positive experience and outcome, she was mindful not to use language that could potentially trigger negative associations.
In addition, Clemons framed her messages as support, letting faculty know that this is not just the Office of the Provost in Academic Affairs implementing a new system—it’s a true partnership, with academic affairs supporting faculty at every stage. “We are working collaboratively with our faculty,” she said. “I still use that language every day, and it truly represents my office’s ethos.”
4. Building Supportive Networks
Despite having just one full-time employee to support her efforts, Clemons recognized the importance of supporting faculty and offered a wide array of training sessions, including sessions by function and by role. On top of that, they offered one-on-one assistance to those who needed it. “If you are intimidated by electronic processes, you don’t have to worry about that because we’re going to come and sit with you and make sure that we’re walking you through this,” she said. “And we’re going to help you through the whole thing.”
In addition, the team created “Interfolio Liaisons” across campus, ensuring each of the Dean’s offices had a representative trained on the Interfolio modules for faculty within that college to easily reach out to. “The reason why we felt like all of that support was necessary is because I think that alleviates concern,” shared Clemons. “It brings that nervousness over our new process down a notch.”
5. Promoting Transparency
Faced with trust and morale issues, the FGCU team understood how important it would be to be open about every aspect of the process as they implemented Interfolio. The website launched during the process shared the current phase and what would be coming next, but it also clearly outlined any challenges that arose. “There’s a lot that we are learning together,” said Clemons. “We’re doing this in a partnership. Creating that transparency makes you more approachable, makes them trust the process more, and creates this environment for openness.”
Lessons Learned Along the Way
For FGCU, these five strategies were key for implementing change with a positive reception from faculty. Along the way, they learned that providing support alleviates concerns, supportive networks enhance participation, inclusive engagement strengthens trust, and effective communication builds confidence.
Watch the on-demand webinar recording to learn more about FGCU’s thoughtful approach to change management.