PROGRAMMATIC BACKFILL – A SUCCESFUL ADMINISTRATIVE PLAN?
Leadership and Administrative Skills
Lee Beers
Assistant Professor, Extension Educator
Ohio State University
Cortland
Abstract
In 2018, Ohio State University underwent an administrative restructuring known as DesignEXT with the stated goal of “flattening the organization”. To accomplish this goal administrative duties previously held by five Regional Directors would be distributed among 24 new Area Leaders. These newly created positions were to allow for professional growth among current Extension Educators by offering an opportunity for supervision responsibilities while also maintaining programmatic responsibilities within their home county. The split roles were intended to have a 50% administrative and 50% programmatic responsibilities. To compensate for any loss in local programming, $25,000 was provided to each Area Leader for the purpose of hiring programmatic support. The funding and hiring programmatic support processes are colloquially called backfill. Options presented included hiring term part-time staff, temporary staff for busy periods, contracting with neighboring county staff, and sub-contracting with community partners. Each Area Leader approached hiring backfill differently to suit the program needs of the county. Early challenges with the backfill approach included identifying the best backfill option, and increased workload during the lag time from when an Educator stepped into the Area Leader position until backfill was hired. As these experienced Educators were moved into admirative roles finding, training, and retaining high performing individuals as backfill also become a critical challenge for the organization. Challenges were widespread but there were some positives, including the opportunity to identify, hire, and train new individuals to become Educators. However, this led to additional challenges if Area Leaders desired to return to full time programming. Giving up the Area Leader position resulted in the loss of backfill support dollars that were funding the county staff member. Anecdotally, this loss of backfill funding is a motivator for current Area Leaders to maintain their administrative roles as they seek to support their staff. To investigate the effectiveness of the backfill process, we will be conducting surveys and interviews with current and former Area Leaders, and current and former OSU Extension Administrative Cabinet members. This presentation will highlight the backfill strategies used, effectiveness of the process, its effect on the County programming, and stated goals of DesignEXT.
Authors: Lee Beers, Rob Leeds
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Lee Beers Extension Educator, Ohio State University Extension, Ohio, 44410-1455
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Rob Leeds Extension Educator, Ohio State University Extension, Ohio, 43015