Toolkit Overview
An EDUCAUSE Working Group Paper
Cultivating flexibility is an increasingly vital element of effective, efficient technology operations on campus. College and university leaders can use the guidance in this toolkit to develop technology environments and systems that can adapt to the changing landscape of higher education.
The EDUCAUSE IT Flexibility Working Group is pleased to offer this new professional growth resource focused on IT organization flexibility. The purpose of the toolkit is to provide guidance for the implementation of best practices around flexibility and effectiveness as they are adapted to your institution.
- Unit 1: Attraction, Recruitments, and Selection
- Unit 2: Onboarding
- Unit 3: Development and Performance Management
- Unit 4: Retention
- Unit 5: Transition and Offboarding
Even before the pandemic, higher education IT organizations were moving into a new era that included remote work, variable work schedules, and innovative team structures. The pandemic radically accelerated this transformation. Now every IT organization must embrace concepts of flexibility in order to recruit and retain top talent, respond to rapidly changing external influences, and provide the best possible support for all stakeholders. The material contained in these microlearning units, along with the tools described within them, provides IT leaders and managers a solid foundation for considering how to transform their organization for optimal performance and staff satisfaction.
Each person brings a unique set of values shaped by their experiences, backgrounds, and personal aspirations. These values are the core principles that guide their decisions, actions, and interactions in their personal and professional lives. Individual values can have a significant impact on how professionals approach challenges, collaborate with team members, and contribute to the overall success of an organization. Understanding and embracing these individual values is the initial step in promoting flexibility in the rapidly evolving landscape of IT in higher education.
When organizational leaders recognize these individual values and align workplaces accordingly, employees gain a sense of belonging, ownership, and empowerment, increasing confidence in driving more innovative problem solving. Such alignment can also fuel motivation, nurture collaboration, and promote adaptability and learning. Leaders can use the Flex IT Toolkit to effectively utilize individual values to establish a foundation for developing a flexible culture, enabling positive changes across teams and the organization.
A Special Thank You
We would like to thank the members of the EDUCAUSE IT Flexibility Working Group—Zahraa Fadlalah, Joe Moreau, David Meyers, Jody Couch, Sandeep Sidhu, and Felix Zuñiga—who helped develop this material and served to represent the voice of the EDUCAUSE membership.
EDUCAUSE Working Groups provide an opportunity for community members to come together around a topic of shared experience, expertise, and passion. The members of Working Groups collaborate to envision and develop products they believe will help the higher education community understand and address the topic.
This resource was developed by the EDUCAUSE IT Flexibility Working Group. Statements of fact or opinion are the responsibility of the authors alone and do not imply an opinion on the part of the EDUCAUSE board of directors, staff, or members.
© 2025 EDUCAUSE. The content of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License.