The 2016 University of Glasgow Staff Survey is six weeks away. What does this mean for us? It’s one of the best opportunities all of us have to express OUR views on how the University works, what’s good and bad about working life here and how all of us in the University move forward to achieve our goals.

The University strategy 2015 - 2020, Inspiring People – Changing the World, was informed by comments from the last Staff Survey in 2014 along with the discussions that Senior Vice-Principal Neal Juster held locally across the University. Indeed the way in which the strategy was developed via engagement and consultation with staff across the campus was itself influenced from the feedback received in the Survey. This resulted in the UofG’s inspiring people being at the heart of all we do.

In advance of this year’s survey, Campus e-News is reporting on how different parts of the University of Glasgow have acted on the 2014 feedback, bringing about some truly Inspiring Changes. Over the next six weeks, we’ll bring you some examples that outline how Colleges and Schools, and University Services, have moved to make things better and our ways of working more effective.

This week we focus on some of the many initiatives taken forward across University Services based on the feedback you provided.

The Survey highlighted that whilst 90% of staff believe the University is a good place to work, only 49% said that they felt valued by the University. 

The Survey highlighted that communication and management of change within the University was considered to be poor. 

In response to this University Services introduced a new approach to P&DR in 2015.    This was based on principles of local ownership and accountability for performance management and development, with senior managers in each Service given responsibility for implementation, consistency and fairness based on generic guidance.   

This empowered managers to really own the feedback they were giving to their staff and the ratings being awarded and feedback from staff has been broadly positive.  In addition, the University is to pilot an innovative voucher reward system which will provide new ways for managers to express appreciation to staff for an exceptional piece of work.

In November 2015 the University also received accreditation as a Living Wage Employer, ensuring that staff in lower graded roles are truly valued for the contribution they make to the University.

University Services has seen a significant number of change exercises since the last survey. 

Change is never easy to manage but considerable effort has been put in by managers with support from HR to provide consistent communication and support to staff impacted by restructurings in a number of areas.   

The University has worked in partnership with union colleagues on these change exercises, building on the changes made to the University’s Management of Organisational Change policy which has also been reviewed with significant input from University Services colleagues. 

Once again, the survey will be run by an independent company, Capita, with the full involvement and support of the Campus recognised trade unions.  The detailed questionnaire will seek to gather the views of ALL staff and will guarantee your anonymity.  The success of the survey depends on all of us.  To have your say, you just have to take the time to fill in the questionnaire and add your views!

You will receive an email with details of the survey on Tuesday 3 May. You’ll have the option of completing the survey electronically online or by a hard-copy paper version. In either case, the survey will be conducted under the terms of the Data Protection Act and in line with the Market Research Society’s Code of Conduct. If you have any queries about the survey, please contact:

haveyoursay@glasgow.ac.uk

First published: 22 March 2016

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