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 not so good 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 the College of Arts, based on the feedback you provided.

 
  • The survey highlighted that many people felt that communications could be improved, with only 46% of staff feeling that there were opportunities to feed their views upwards.

In response to this, College Council and some School forums have been changed to include open discussion around topical themes, encouraging consultation and the spread of good practice.

Other local initiatives include the development of a Staff Communications Moodle site within The School of Modern Languages and Culture, to hold important information and replace the existing communal drive.  Additionally administration staff will also now be involved more directly in planning and induction meetings in order to improve communication between Administration and Teaching staff.

The planning process for the campus development is also considering how to maximise the collegiate working between areas and increase communication when the College of Arts moves to its new building. 

  •  The survey highlighted that many people felt that their work-life balance could be improved, with 48% of staff feeling that they were unable to handle all of the conflicting demands on their time.

The new Workload Model is being actively piloted across two Schools to support colleagues in managing their work-life balance and highlight potential pressures within the system.   

The School of Culture and Creative Arts set up a staff focus group to look at the outcomes of the survey and a report on suggested recommendations was produced. 

In the School of Humanities a dedicated work-life balance working group has also been set up. This group has already also made recommendations which are being followed and implemented within the School. The School of Critical Studies has also established e-mail protocols which include the discouragement of evening and weekend e-mails.

  •  The survey indicated significant concerns around the effectiveness of the PDR process in supporting career development.

As well as contributing to University level reviews of the PDR process, members of College Management have sought to increase the focus on support for promotion and career mentoring within the PDR process.  

Promotion support workshops and training for PDR reviewers are now delivered locally to ensure each session is more bespoke and tailored.  A specific promotion workshop has been run for Heads of Subject.

Career Development Planning has also been given greater focus in PDR training and the School of Humanities has introduced a Career Planning Workshop to increase visibility of opportunities and support academic staff.

Have your say

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: 29 March 2016

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