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From the Director of Operations: Partner of Choice

(Photo - Alexander Merola)

Partner of choice. Centrally managed, field-deployed. These terms describe the support services delivery model that SLAC will increasingly use to forward our scientific mission. We in the SLAC service organizations intend to provide the best support services in the DOE laboratory complex; and we will do that. Let me explain how we intend to deliver those services.

Centrally managed services will ensure a standard service offering throughout SLAC. Human resources, procurement and payroll are examples of services that are already centrally managed here at the lab. With this approach we will ensure a standard level of quality, responsiveness and performance. Economies of scale result because the workload can be shared. Further, this staffing model will also enable us to provide increased expertise, specialization and/or equipment—all of which will make it easier to get things done at SLAC!

A centrally managed service can also be field deployed. For example, the Procurement Department has a satellite operation that is field deployed in the Linac Coherent Light Source Division. This model has the benefits of a centrally managed organization while allowing the service providers to be collocated with their customers, resulting in a better understanding of the local mission and increased responsive to local priorities. Some SLAC services are already partially centrally-managed and field-deployed, or are candidates for this model: workstation support, financial analysts, Web design, project management, and perhaps some environment, safety and health coordinators. And, of course, some services will continue to be self-provided by the mission directorates. These decisions will be institutional and not one-of-a-kind and they will be made in partnership by the SLAC Executive Council (the director and associate lab directors).

In these models, staff members will be organizationally and administratively associated with their own discipline. Job classifications and salaries will be normalized. The resulting opportunities for professional development and career growth, with an eye toward succession planning, will benefit SLAC and individual career paths.

We will strive to provide a level of quality and responsiveness that motivates you to increasingly use the services provided by the Operations Directorate, thereby becoming your partner of choice. To that end, your constructive input is always welcome—through the staff and leadership of Operations, through your subcouncil members, and to me directly

—Alexander Merola
  
SLAC Today, May 29, 2009