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Dear colleagues,  

Together, we have made significant impacts fueled by our strategic plan, Changemakers for a Changing World over the last five years. As we near the completion of the plan’s first phase, we remain focused on ensuring we are supporting our most critical resource – our people – to advance How AU Works and reach operational excellence. To that end, as we look to the next phase of the strategic plan and beyond, we are thoughtfully considering how our people align with the progress we have made thus far and the priorities that lie ahead. 

Recently, we shared with our community that we will use this year to carefully review how we approach our work to help inform decisions on future strategy and budget. To support this work, and to advance our focus on How AU Works during the next phase of our strategy implementation, we are launching a strategic workforce assessment to assess in an intentional and wide-ranging way how our workforce is aligned with key university objectives. We will ask important questions, such as whether we have the appropriate number of people to achieve our strategic priorities and deliver excellent service in our key functional areas, if our approach to the workforce is appropriately focused on our key priorities, if our people are able to spend their time on AU’s priorities, and whether our structure is best designed to enhance how AU works. We have partnered with the Huron Consulting Group to work with the AU community to conduct this assessment. Huron—whose team members are experts in higher education operations and in organizational development —will help us holistically look at our people, structures and supports, and operational approaches.

This crucial work, which aligns with other initiatives we are taking in support of our workforce, (including around AU’s compensation and benefits programs), will inform our long-term planning. Our work with Huron is aimed at helping AU achieve operational excellence in how we work in service of AU’s teaching, scholarship, and community missions and supporting our people by ensuring they have appropriate support, improving how AU works, and enhancing how we work together. The launch of this initiative also reflects feedback the university has heard from our staff about the need for a holistic assessment of our workforce strategy.  

In the coming months, Huron will reach out in a variety of ways to gain the perspectives of AU’s workforce and engage you and other members of our community in this assessment. We hope you will take advantage of these opportunities to provide your feedback – this will be crucial to the success of this project. Using this range of inputs and working with us and other senior leaders from across AU’s campus, Huron will prepare findings and recommendations that will, along with other ongoing assessments, inform our future strategy and budget planning. If you have any questions about this work, we kindly ask that you send them to workforcestudy@american.edu and you will receive a response within three business days. In the coming weeks ahead, you will receive additional information and learn about how to participate in this impactful work.  

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Seth Grossman
Vice President of Administration and Chief Administrative Officer

Vicky Wilkins
Acting Provost and Chief Academic Officer

Bronté Burleigh-Jones
CFO, Vice President, and Treasurer 

Beth Muha
Assistant Vice President for Human Resources