What are we currently doing well, where are our challenges and what can we do in response?
How colleagues currently feel we are doing, and where our attentions should be focused have formed key aspects of our colleague engagement survey. The themes below have been created through analysis of colleagues’ comments from the Colleague Engagement Survey on the items that have the greatest impact on engagement, as well as discussion with the Engagement Leads Network and with Heads of School, Directors of Research Institute and Heads of Service.
Objective theme 1: More consistent access to recognition, learning and community
Colleagues have very different experiences of how they feel their work is recognised, the access they have to opportunities to meet colleagues and to grow in their role.
The UofG community is of huge importance to a great number of us; the survey tells us that our colleagues are the best thing about working here. Many colleagues talk about feeling supported by their colleagues and how that helps them to feel valued and that they are part of a team. Positive relationships with our line managers and students were also key. Our connection to our colleagues also means that many people are aware of and concerned about the experiences of other groups of staff and disparities between those experiences and their own. There is also opportunity to have more chance to learn from our colleagues, such as through mentoring.
Some feel that some of the areas where they see their colleagues going above and beyond aren’t necessarily captured in how we currently recognise good work, and that there isn’t consistency in how we value different contributions, or group efforts compared to individuals’. While we have initiatives that support colleagues feeling valued, we should be reviewing this to ensure the offer feels balanced for all roles.
Objective theme 2: Empowered managers taking the lead
Despite a manager’s role being pivotal to engagement, colleagues with line management responsibilities have mixed levels of awareness and understanding of how critical their actions are. While the University has tools available, these aren’t always taken up and the information for managers can be difficult to navigate.
Many colleagues speak warmly about positive relationship with a line manager who supports their team, creates opportunities for development and communicates clearly. The survey data demonstrates that where this is in place it can be transformative, but it is not a consistent experience.
Increasing colleague engagement sits alongside many competing priorities and has not historically been captured in our metrics. This feels to some colleagues that valuable work contributing to our community isn’t welcomed and that makes it harder to prioritise. There is more we can do to embed engagement in our ways of working.
Objective theme 3: Transparency and access to decision-making
The pandemic made it harder for colleagues to feel connected to our senior leaders. In survey results many colleagues expressed a desire to see them more, and to speak to senior colleagues about everyday life and work at Glasgow, as well as on strategic topics.
It is not clear to many of our colleagues how decisions are made at the University, or who is making them. More could be done to make our governance and communications clearer, and what the appropriate routes are for different issues.
Colleagues give their time to provide feedback on different themes, but don’t always see that feedback responded to or acted on in a timely way. It’s also not always clear what happens to feedback once gathered, and whether it could be used for more than one purpose to avoid surveying again.