The University of Auckland’s Blueprint for Improving Administrative Efficiency

In March 2025, higher education leaders congregated in Washington, D.C., to kick off EAB’s Roundtable for Chief Business Officers, which focused on these leaders’ most pressing challenges, such as effectively navigating organizational change.

While many institutions face common barriers to organizational transformations, tailoring strategies to an institution’s unique context fosters greater success. Therefore, EAB experts shared three detailed case studies illustrating unique paths to successful organizational transformation.

One such example is the University of Auckland, which transformed its administrative structure and streamlined institutional processes with a new professional service administration strategy known as the Function Lead Model. Read on to learn about the Function Lead Model and see how your institution can learn from Auckland’s success.

Auckland’s Function Lead Model: A cumulative implementation process

What did Auckland change?

After successfully implementing well-known administrative efficiency strategies (i.e., organizational structure redesign, consolidating transactional activities), Auckland introduced the Function Lead Model, which shifted their focus from professional service efficiency within units to professional service efficiency across units.

Function leads set FTE targets and implement efficiency principles

Function leads oversee the performance of a professional service function across units and have two primary responsibilities: 1) align their function with the university’s strategic priorities and 2) ensure efficiency and effectiveness throughout the function. To do this, they work with senior leadership to set FTE targets for their function in response to budget priorities. They also implement function design principles created to drive professional service effectiveness and efficiency. Examples of these principles include:

• Transactional activity should be centralized and standardized
• Delivery teams should only address one activity type
• Organizational structures should have optimal spans of control (around seven people)
• Position descriptions should be created from standardized building blocks

Streamlined administrative structure and standardized roles across units

Auckland revamped its reporting structure, ensuring that professional service staff report to other professional service staff whenever possible. By collaborating with HR, unit leaders consolidated the number of unique staff roles and established common job descriptions between units.

Established a shared transaction center

Auckland simplified operations by bringing transactional tasks like invoice processing and travel administration into a Shared Transaction Center, where specialized roles were created to manage these activities.

How did Auckland implement changes?

Campus conditions preceding transformation

EAB identified five replicable characteristics that enabled Auckland’s success.

1. Incremental change process

Auckland’s transformation unfolded gradually over a decade, broken down into smaller, manageable phases. This approach avoided overwhelming staff with several large changes all at once, allowing for a smoother transition.

2. Continuous benchmarking

Using NousCubane’s Uniforum benchmarks, Auckland identified inefficiencies in their existing processes, which inspired the Function Lead Model. After implementing the model, they continued benchmarking administrative functions against peers to ensure that the new processes remained efficient. While administrative benchmarks tend to not yield much actionable change relative to their cost, Auckland ensured success by applying them to larger structural review processes.

3. Unwavering leadership support

Throughout the transformation, the vice chancellor served as the public face, delivering introductory speeches at campus town halls to engage the community and build momentum. This clear leadership support and cabinet solidarity created a unified front, encouraging deans to rally behind the initiative even if they were initially hesitant.

4. Organizational effectiveness squad

A dedicated 12-person team of experts in organizational effectiveness, service design, change management, and project management supported the project. The team doesn’t govern change initiatives but plays a crucial role in supporting their success, meeting weekly to review progress. Although originally formed to drive the organizational transformation, the team has now become a permanent fixture, assisting with various change projects across the university.

5. Data-triggered improvements

Auckland actively tracks customer satisfaction through its central service desk and regular surveys. If satisfaction rates fall too low, they launch a planning sprint to address issues promptly, ensuring continuous improvement and high service quality.

Results of Auckland’s transformation

Want to learn more about organizational transformations?

Like every institution, Auckland’s context and path to transformation are unique. However, higher education leaders who reviewed Auckland’s case study recognize many valuable lessons to bring back to their own campuses. CBO roundtable attendees (over half of whom were leading an organizational transformation themselves) were impressed with the success of the Function Lead Model and affirmed the need for cross-institutional monitoring to keep professional services efficient and effective.

To learn how to get your institution’s organizational transformation off the ground, explore EAB’s resources for simplifying, standardizing, and transforming administrative work and review EAB’s five essential change management lessons for achieving lasting organizational transformation.