Strategic Direction 6: Promote Culture of Excellence & Accountability
Pittsburgh Technical College will cultivate a culture of excellence that empowers employees and students to hold themselves and each other accountable and inspires creativity, innovation, and professional growth.
SD #6 Work Group
*Co-Chairs
Dave Becker*
Tracie Brady
Melissa Brown
Mary Fistler
Marisa Haney
Chef Hart
Sheila Konn
Keith Merlino*
Barry Shepard
Nancy Starr
Yara Toury
Eileen Steffan –
Full Committee Chair
Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization
is transformed; the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day.
– Frances Hesselbein
OBJECTIVE 1
Annually assess the current PTC culture for employees, students, and employers to measure and improve excellence and accountability.
Strategies
- Implement an annual performance review process through the Office of Human Resources in collaboration with the President’s Cabinet to support a comprehensive evaluation process.
- Conduct a comprehensive assessment of, automate, and update management systems to support accountability in Human Resources, Finance, Student Services, and Academic Support.
- Develop a leadership and management culture that aligns with Pittsburgh Technical College’s stated mission and values, including attracting, encouraging, and embracing a diverse student, faculty, and staff population.
- Incorporate a supervisory assessment instrument as a leadership development tool, and improve trust and transparency by encouraging and teaching trust-related behaviors and emotional intelligence to all supervisors.
- Increase transparency, and maintain relevant and timely performance reviews to improve work efficiency at all institutional levels.
OBJECTIVE 2
Establish and implement a set of principles for every manager to embrace that holds each other accountable and empowers all employees to communicate freely and influence outcomes.
Strategies
- Create and nurture a culture that values and respects the diverse Pittsburgh Technical College community and encourages excellence and accountability.
- Reimagine PTC onboarding processes to incorporate PTC’s mission, vision, and core values into all new employees and reinforce for continuing personnel.
- Define the PTC Magic in its culture and replicate the customer service, excellence, and accountability in all departments, programs, and services.
- Promote consistency and equity in policies, processes, procedures, and services across the College.
- Create a culture that values creativity, innovation, calculated risks to improve efficiency, and empowerment.
OBJECTIVE 3
Create a nurturing life-long learning environment where there are opportunities to cultivate relationships which are fostered and forged to greatly enhance the employee’s ability to prosper, grow, and achieve excellence.
Strategies
- Develop and utilize an enrollment management evaluation plan developed in partnership with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness to establish and evaluate key performance indicators.
- Work with services and programs across campus to align service unit outcome assessments specific to enrollment management with key performance indicators.
- Develop and administer an annual exit survey to send to recent graduates to better understand their experiences at the College, determine ways the College can improve, and understand more about their career or transfer choices.
- Encourage effective decision-making at the appropriate level to allow employees to make decisions within the boundaries of their delegations of authority.
- Create an effective management succession system that attracts, rewards, and retains good leaders.
OBJECTIVE 4
Create a nurturing life-long learning environment where there are opportunities to learn, grow professionally, and build relationships that will foster and enhance the student’s ability to achieve professional excellence.
Strategies
- Establish Health and Wellness Center, survey students to solicit feedback on how to best address their needs, provide support and services to address student social and emotional issues (e.g., homelessness, food insecurity, mental health, soft/professional skills) to improve student wellness and success in achieving educational goals.
- Establish a referral system and provide workshops, tools, and clear guidance for faculty and staff on how to identify and respond to distressed students, students in crisis, students experiencing food insecurity or homelessness, mental health issues, etc. and connect these students to appropriate and available resources. Educate campus on strategies to serve students with special needs (e.g. veterans).
- Establish the office of Diversity, Equity, and inclusion and implement initiatives to foster a sense of belonging and support diversity and inclusion as a core value for institutional success at Pittsburgh Technical College.
- Develop a plan that will improve upward communication and continue to seek employee feedback on changes that will impact employees’ job responsibilities and work environment.
- Incorporate downward communications within the culture enhancement plan, after considering employee feedback. Explain, where appropriate, the reasons behind decisions made to promote trust and empower employees and students to take a sense of ownership in the future direction of PTC.
OBJECTIVE 5
Evaluate and share instructional best practices to ensure student success and retention.
Strategies
- Provide faculty with labor market information pertaining to in-demand labor market skills to assist faculty in the refinement of courses and programs of study.
- Continue to support faculty in the utilization of student learning outcomes and assessment results to inform and improve teaching strategies that ensure students are learning and obtaining relevant outcomes for career and educational opportunities.
- Expand technology infrastructure to support expansion of online and hybrid course and program offerings.
- Promote and provide multiple instructional delivery systems that meet the needs of both traditional and non-traditional students, including distance education innovations that promote student success.
- Evaluate, strengthen, and adopt a more systematic and rigorous approach to offering online classes and support systems.