Barret Bukauskas is a Finance and Accounting Program Manager for the Arts & Sciences Financial Services Center (FSC). The FSC is part of a larger unit called the A&S Finance and Payroll Administration (FPA) which 鈥減rovides financial and procurement support to the units in the College of Arts & Sciences; provided by skilled technicians that specialize in the work that they do.鈥�
Staff Council sat down with Barret to learn a little more about him, how to run successful units and teams, and the work that the FSC does and how they are working to improve processes in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Tell us a little about yourself.
I鈥檓 originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I moved out to Colorado in 鈥�94. Right now I鈥檓 married, no kids, unless you count the five furry children. As far as work goes, I worked at Denver International Airport for about ten years in customer service and ground transportation. I left that to work in admin at the Colorado Department of Corrections before I transferred here in 2010 as an Account Tech II.听I promoted shortly thereafter and in July 2012 took on the role as Account Tech IV and became an FSC supervisor. I鈥檓 happy that I started out as I did and worked my way up. It was a huge help to me, learning how to do the job correctly from strong leaders in our group, then applying those same expectations when I became the supervisor myself. I think I gained more respect from my peers that way, because they understood that I鈥檝e been there myself.
What do you like best about working at CU and at the FSC specifically?
I would have to say first and foremost I like the people that I work with. We have a very fun group here. They鈥檙e all fantastic at what they do and when you鈥檙e good at what you do that leaves time for more collaboration and having fun as well. I have a lot of respect for them and they make my job easier.
What has been your favorite accomplishment while employed at CU, what are you most proud of?
Frankly, what makes me most proud in this job is the accomplishments that the staff have made. If I鈥檓 setting up the people that I work with to succeed and get that notoriety, that鈥檚 what I鈥檓 most proud of.
What would you say is the key to running an effective team?
I think the key to running an effective team is being honest with myself about the strengths and weaknesses of each of the staff that report to me. I think the key is to set up employees with the best chance to succeed, and that鈥檚 with their strengths. Because if your employees are confident in the work that they鈥檙e doing and they鈥檙e succeeding and they鈥檙e accomplishing things they鈥檙e happier, happier to be at work. And when you put people into projects where you utilize their strengths, that project sees success every time.
Where do you see the FSC heading in the next few years?
I can鈥檛 really say where we鈥檒l be in a few years, but we鈥檙e always looking for opportunities to modernize, self-analyze and improve within our unit. And that helps to improve everything else. So I know that there will be changes, I know there will be improvements; generally, going in more of a digital direction instead of using paper. Using DocuSign is a perfect example of this. We want to be the first to adopt a system like that so we can work more efficiently and so we can help influence the departments around us to do the same.