News and Events
What You're Telling Us
It may sound obvious but the best way to understand how staff are faring with work is to ask them. Routinely collecting feedback from colleagues using surveys can establish where user needs lie or where changes to working practices could be improved or transformed. Publishing the results of these discoveries ensures transparency and promotes joint understanding and a collaborative environment.
We will continue to contact staff to capture their opinions and will publish the output here. Keep an eye on your inbox for the next opportunity to contribute.
Future of the Change Network Survey – 27th April 2020, Change Network
Objective: To understand how the Change Network wish to shape the future of the community. This was a follow up to a series of online training events where attendees were asked to consider the value and purpose of the network.
The Change Network were asked a series of questions concerning how they would like to engage with the network moving forward and what their experience of change has been in the context of the enforced closure of the campus in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Participation in Change Network Events
The majority of responders, just under three quarters of the Change Network who completed the survey, indicated that they would prefer to participate in events on a monthly basis.
Change Events and how they are conducted
There is clearly an appetite from the Change Network to participate in events. On average each responder selected 5.7 answers to the 9 events available. From the most frequently selected options it is apparent that the network would like to contribute, collaborate and develop. They are less likely to find value on completing surveys and understanding the output through user research.
This was a familiar theme when asked which channel they would prefer to engage through. For the most part responders indicated that they would like to engage via mediums conducive to collaboration. The channels whereby information is simply relayed directly to them without interaction where not as popular.
Themes to be prioritised for Change Events
When it comes to the themes the Change Network would most like to see covered in future events it appears that appetite tends to favour subjects that enable the network to be empowered to deliver change themselves, whether that be through providing support to local change or building skills to be able to more effectively manage workload. Remote working is also popular which indicates that while staff are getting used to the new way of working as a result of the lockdown there is still appetite to learn so they can be even more effective.
Building communities and developing sustainable approaches to change were the least commonly request themes to cover which be as a result of the current lockdown where focus has understandably been on getting the job done.
Skills the Change Network Bring
For the skills the Change Network believe that they can share the average responder selected 2.6 items. University systems and Health & Wellbeing were the most common responses which indicates that staff are comfortable and have real expertise using the tools that they utilise to fulfil their roles, and are keen to share the tips they have found useful for keeping well while working remotely.
Digital technology, academics and research methodologies all have a low score which could present an opportunity to where skills could be developed further.
Coronavirus and its Impact – Influence on Transformation for Staff
Coronavirus and its Impact – Influence on Transformation for Students
Change to Keep After Lockdown
Traditionally remote working has been seen as incompatible with some roles carried out at the university. The enforced lockdown has expedited the need for staff in these roles to work from home and so, as perhaps expected, many are keen for the option to be retained when the campus reopens.
Similarly, the nature of the lockdown has made working flexibly a necessity as staff are now not only having to manage their workloads but other personal commitments at the same time. This has allowed staff to create a better work-life balance for themselves both of which they hope to retain. It should be noted that conversely in previous engagements with the Change Network the enforced remote working was proving to be isolating for staff, as such, although staff are keen to retain flexibility they do still miss interacting with colleagues on campus.
Remote working has also made new technologies fundamental to the way we keep in touch and organise work. Ordinarily these may not have been as utilised so readily, however, they have quickly become fundamental to the way we work and so should continue to be used.
What will you be glad to see go
As beneficial staying connected online has been during the lockdown, it does not replace seeing one another in person. Predominantly the lack of contact with colleagues is the one thing that we’ll be glad to see the back of when normality resumes.
Video conferencing too is something that, while being key to allowing normal service to continue in lockdown, staff are looking forward to having to do less of. These can often be tiring and perhaps there were more meetings in staff’s diaries than normal due to the amount to be sorted out with the new way of working.
There are a number of other various items that staff will be glad to see go which shows that remote working can bring a variety of problems which manifest themselves differently depending on the person.
Remote Working Readiness Survey – 3rd April 2020, Change Network
Objective: to attain feedback from staff on how they were coping with remote working enforced in response to the closure of the campus to tackle the ongoing coronavirus threat.
This was the second survey the community had completed on this topic. The results from the initial survey can be found here - Modern Ways Of Working - Remote Working Readiness Survey.
Remote Working Tools
Remote working had been enforced for a couple of weeks before the survey was issued, allowing staff time to get used to using the tools available. Understandably, most responders indicated that they were comfortable using video conferencing tools, although a small portion indicated that their comfort depended on the tool being used.
Guidance on the UofG video conferencing tools available and how to use them is on the Glasgow Anywhere site.
Zoom and MS Teams were the tools most frequently used to facilitate video conferences, with slightly more using Zoom.
Remote Working Support and Guidance
It appears that there may be some difficulty in knowing where to find the right information for remote working support. Over a quarter indicated that they either did not know or were unsure where to find support and guidance on the tools to use. This increased to around 57% of responders when it came to information on computer equipment or a work phone.
The Glasgow Anywhere site has a host of useful information that should help you with the tools you need to work from home. Should you require further support, contact the UofG Helpdesk.
Remote Working Tools
It seems like most still use email when working from home (as on campus), however collaboration tools such as MS Teams and video conferencing facilities like Zoom are now much more widely utilised, even to the same extent as email. Phones are still being used, but keeping in touch and collaborating tends to be predominantly online.
But we do prefer the human touch when it comes to more personal issues such as resolving conflict, speaking with one another rather than trying to manage the issue over messages.
Habits and Work-Life Balance
For the most part we are adapting well to working from home. The majority were able to keep focused, organised and manage their time, as well as use the available tools.
When it came to switching off however, it was less positive. Responders indicated that it was difficult switching off from work and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
A significant proportion of responders indicated that they felt lonely when working from home. This is completely understandable given the current circumstances. It might be useful to review the Health & Wellbeing information where tips are provided to help look after ourselves while working remotely.
Sharing Tips for Working Remotely
Responders were asked to share their own tips for working remotely. One of the most common suggestions was to establish a routine to make sure we retain a good work-life balance. Setting up a dedicated workspace also featured highly - we need to make sure we’re as comfortable as possible when we’re not at our usual desks.
Other common tips were to stay in touch with colleagues, which should help not only keep your work on track but also allow us to keep connected to our colleagues while we’re physically apart.
Keeping active was also important to people - whether that be around the home or our using the time we have to get some fresh air.
Additional Support Needed
When it came to identifying what support staff felt they need with remote working, over two-thirds advised that they needed better equipment. Some staff are having to use their own computers which may not be as powerful as the set up they have in the office and not everyone has space to set up a home office so comfort was an issue too as we don’t have our usual desk space and office chairs.
The next most common response was to have centrally stored support and guidance on the collaboration and communication tools available, with others mentioning clearer IT support, display screen information and sharing top tips being needed too. The Glasgow Anywhere site was created in response to the ongoing remote working situation and is a great resource where these needs are addressed.
In Conclusion
The survey results indicate that, whilst we are all getting on with remote working, there is still some work to be done to ensure that everyone is as comfortable as they can be, and have the right tools to be able to do their job as effectively as they would if they were on campus.
It reveals that when we need to we can adapt quickly to wholesale changes in the way we work. Before the enforced lockdown many staff had very rarely worked from home, or in some instances, at all. Often change it is not as daunting or difficult to overcome as we anticipate it to be.
So, what can we retain from this period? There may have been some changes implemented to make working from home easier that may be useful to keep in place when we return to campus.
The Modern Ways of Working site provides guidance, tools and techniques that you could use to overcome working challenges. This could save you time to concentrate on the value-adding tasks that are often pushed to the side. It’s your job, why not improve it?
Learning Events
Future Events
Get involved and discover new ways of working at one of our events.
There are a series of events scheduled throughout the year. You can join events online, through virtual collaborative workshops or webinars.
Team culture session
Would your team benefit from a team culture session? Developing a team canvas helps teams to organise and align their activity and get on the same page. This is particularly important in a remote working environment to get your team culture right. It can help resolve conflict and build a productive culture of shared values and robust working practices.
Contact us to book your session
Introduction to Agile
You may have heard the word Agile, in the workplace, but are not sure how it relates to what you do. This one-hour session introduces the key concepts of Agile Delivery and how you can apply it to your working practices. It will dispel some common myths on what ‘Agile’ means and highlight how this methodology can benefit you and your team.
Contact us to book your session
Past Events
Online Workshop: Part I The Future of Change Network: 2 April 2020
Testing remote workshopping techniques, we ran a session to understanding the Change Network's value to the rest of the organisation to help shape the right proposition for our network members.
Online Workshop: Part II Change Network Value Proposition Actions, 7 April 2020
Using outputs from the initial session, the Change Network began writing and designing their learning experiments to move their ideas forward.
Online Workshop: Developing Team Culture, 8 April 2020
Workshop to identify shared values and developing robust working practices within a team.
