Scorecard Development Working Session

Finance & HR

🧠 Working Session Synthesis Memo

India Barton (Interim CHRO), Chris English (Budget Office), Cheryl Feldmeier (Moderator), Rolando Mosqueda (Interim VP Finance/Admin) – Finance & HR Scorecard Strategy Session

Facilitated by Beyond | May 29, 2025 | Duration: Working Session, 1 hour

👥 Who Was in the Room?

The session brought together senior HR and Finance leadership from CSN—India Barton (HR), Chris English (Finance), and Rolando Mosqueda (VP)—to explore opportunities for integrated scorecard development across finance and HR domains. Facilitated by Beyond’s John Haas, Fred Creugers, and Ro Guzman, the conversation was a dynamic and hopeful exchange aimed at surfacing gaps in data, technology support, and decision-making tools.

🎯 What We Set Out to Do

The goal was to identify the critical metrics that matter most to HR and Finance leaders, understand current gaps in data accessibility and transparency, and align on what an actionable scorecard should enable—strategic decisions grounded in facts, not assumptions.

🔍 What We Heard

What’s Working

  • HR’s Focused Metrics: Turnover rate (~8%), retention rate, and time-to-hire are core to HR tracking. There is ongoing effort to break these down by job type and timeline.

  • Data-Driven Intent: HR wants all communications and decisions to be backed by clean, defensible data—not anecdote or instinct.

  • Commitment to Equity: HR leadership is attuned to perception gaps around pay and is committed to comparative benchmarking against similar-sized institutions.

  • Workday as Core Financial System: Finance team uses Workday for standard reports and quarterly snapshots, with some supplemental tracking in spreadsheets.

What’s Not

  • Disconnected Support for HR: Synoptek does not support HR tech stack; India’s team relies on makeshift resources and inconsistent tech help.

  • Lack of Data Visibility: Neither HR nor Finance receive adequate data from Synoptek to inform proactive planning, forecasting, or accountability.

  • Undocumented Tech Gaps: Employee relations tools, document imaging (OnBase), and reporting infrastructure are under-supported and underpowered.

  • Overreliance on Static Contracts: Budgeting is constrained by inflexible, high-cost contracts (e.g. Synoptek ~$9.6M/year), leaving no room for agility or deeper analysis.

  • Underleveraged Professional Development: While training exists, it’s mostly generic and untracked. There's no system to assess competencies or skill growth.

🧭 Where We Go From Here

Infrastructure

  • Modernize Document Management: OnBase is outdated and labor-intensive. Scanning is manual, and HR lacks digital workflow tools.

  • Data Fabric/Governance Needed: A data architecture conversation is overdue. There’s no shared language, governance, or enablement strategy for data insight across departments.

  • System Fragmentation: HR operates with one-off tech fixes; cross-departmental efforts are stymied by contract-defined silos and uneven support.

Organizational

  • HR Independence from IT: Synoptek doesn’t support HR apps or data requests. India’s team has to ‘figure it out’ alone.

  • Professional Development is Untapped Leverage: Cross-training and skills-based development are absent. HR is not yet using development paths as a recruitment/retention tool.

  • Finance & HR Role Ambiguity in Contracts: Chris’s team pays invoices without influence over vendor selection, scope negotiation, or performance validation.

Visibility & Governance

  • Cost Transparency Missing: No clear mapping of Synoptek spend to services rendered. Lack of itemization blocks cost-benefit analysis.

  • Benchmarking Blockers: CSN wants to understand if it is over- or under-spending on IT compared to similar institutions—but NSHE/IPEDS categorizations muddy the waters.

  • Strategic Forecasting Needs: Finance wants to go beyond static budgeting and explore future-state planning; current tools don’t enable this yet.

🌱 Strategic Opportunities

  • Create a True Cross-Functional Scorecard

    • Combine HR and Finance metrics in a unified dashboard—tracking retention, training uptake, time-to-hire, cost per employee, and infrastructure ROI over time.

  • Move from Vendor Contracts to Service Value

    • Introduce cost transparency and business-value metrics into Synoptek (and similar) contracts. Move toward itemized invoicing and performance accountability.

  • Invest in a Talent Development Ecosystem

    • Reframe compensation conversations by offering unmatched growth opportunities and articulating the mission-driven “why” of working at CSN.

  • Elevate HR Tech as a Strategic Function

    • Treat HR’s digital tools (e.g., imaging, analytics, performance tracking) as core infrastructure—not afterthoughts. Resource it accordingly.

  • Data Strategy & Governance

    • Initiate a campus-wide conversation about data accessibility, ownership, and intelligence layers. Data enablement must become an institutional capability.

✅ What Happens Next?

This memo will inform the development of the HR & Finance Scorecard Framework. Next steps include:

  • Requesting a sample quarterly finance report from Chris for insight alignment.

  • Drafting scorecard categories and prototype indicators based on conversation themes.

  • Identifying overlap opportunities between HR, Finance, and IT scorecards.

  • Reviewing gaps in Synoptek’s contractual scope to define missing services and accountability levers.