"A bad system will beat a good person every time." - W.E. Deming

The Optimum Department is a platform built for Research Administrators by Research Administrators. We focus on the operations of academic departments, units, and centers that have a research mission. Our products and services are aimed at transforming the working environment into one that is accountable, collaborative, and effective.

We understand the ins and outs of department operations and administration. We also know the heavy workloads and burnout that are often lurking around within your team, but more importantly we know how to fix it. 

We’ve worked through the same roadblocks you face – the frustrations that hold your department back and prevent you from doing more of the high value work that attracted you to research administration as a profession. 

The pitfalls we have seen time and time again are:  

Lack of role clarity and accountability. 
In the absence of clear processes and procedures that outline responsibilities, the end result is confusion, endless meetings, and in some cases, a game of “whose job is it anyway?” No matter how much effort you put in, you still face unsustainable workloads for everyone because most in the department don't understand how the day-to-day work gets done.

No formal training, slow new hire productivity, and high turnover. 
The workload of a typical department leader does not allow time for analysis of processes, and the development and documentation of work responsibilities. If it takes an externally-hired research administrator 12 to 24 months to learn your department and institutional systems, processes, policies, and procedures, how can a new hire really lighten the load? The lack of training and standard operating procedures is a one way ticket to burnout.

Manual processes and legacy systems. 
Raise your hand if excel is your go-to budgetary and fiscal tool! We get it. An expensive enterprise solution doesn’t make sense for every department and there’s no guarantee the investment will bear fruit. Implementing flexible, accessible, low-cost technologies can streamline workloads when applied strategically, but you don’t have time to sort through the options.  

Together we can achieve the vision of your Optimum Department.