Faculty Effort Reporting Definitions
Overview

July 2011

Effort reporting by faculty serves a variety of purposes including complying with external expectations of granting agencies and understanding and managing faculty workload. Gaining more insight into faculty productivity (the efficiency and effectiveness of faculty effort) is supported by these processes, but will not necessarily be captured through the “effort reporting” processes alone. Additional “time or commitment reporting” processes will likely be necessary and could be incorporated into a future phase of this enhancement to the effort reporting processes.

Regardless of how and where time (in hours) or effort (in % of time) is reported, these definitions of the categories should be used. Faculty members are not simply encouraged, but are responsible for highlighting any concerns or exceptions about these definitions during the course of using them to their chair and/or Dean.

These definitions will be incorporated into the following policies and procedures:

• Effort Reporting
• Assignment of Effort (page 11 of 15)
• Faculty Contracts Process
• Faculty Administrators Policy
• Faculty Evaluations
• Budget Setup
• Use of Program Codes in Accounting (Select link on menu: Program Code Listing (Exhibit IV of Accounting Number Procedure) 
• Medical Administrative Services Reporting
• Curriculum Inventory Reporting
• Promotion & Tenure

There are five broad categories to which faculty are asked to assign the percentage of their effort in the Effort Reporting System (which is being enhanced for FY12). While it is the University’s expectation that faculty members will participate in externally sponsored and funded activities, their internal responsibilities for non-sponsored activities are equally important as part of their faculty obligations and appointment. As a result, adequate University time must be set aside for their non-sponsored University activities, including teaching/instruction and administration. With regard to externally funded activities, effort commitments must be managed at the time of proposal and throughout the life of the grant to ensure that the University complies with applicable federal regulations.

The five categories for Effort & Time Commitment Reporting are:

1. Research
2. Teaching/Instruction
3. Clinical
4. Service
5. Administration

The categories and subcategories are defined in detail and list examples of the type of work that should be categorized within each. The list of examples is not meant to be all inclusive. As questions arise about where to assign certain types of effort, faculty members should consult their departmental administrator and/or chairperson for clarification.

The intention is to use these definitions of effort categories broadly and consistently across the GHSU enterprise. It may not be possible with this revision of the Effort Reporting System to eliminate all processes where it is necessary to report “hours worked” and “% effort”, however faculty are encouraged to highlight other opportunities to improve time & effort reporting, in addition to those listed above, to the attention of their chair and/or Dean.