A message from Professor Alison Metcalfe

Dear Colleagues,

With all the changes that are currently happening across the University, I thought it might be a good time to update you on what is happening within the faculty.

AOP2 is now out for consultation and I would encourage colleagues to talk to your heads of department about the consultation, and indeed I am happy to answer people’s questions.

We have recently had staff surveys to look at colleagues’ wellbeing and also the HIVE survey to understand colleagues’ experiences of working at the University. Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the surveys. It provides us with important feedback so that we can look at how we can improve people’s working lives and assist them in making their fullest contribution to the university and ultimately their own careers.

The findings from the HIVE survey for the Faculty of Health & Wellbeing show there are clear areas of strength which include team working, positive relationships with colleagues and line managers. However the areas which scored less well were ‘team working and co-operation across the University’, ‘leaders and managers’ doing a good job of communicating the University’s Transforming Lives Strategy’ and the ‘new systems and processes generally have a positive impact on how we work’.

As a Faculty Leadership Team (FLT), we want to build on these positives and put right the areas which are causing problems for colleagues. Therefore as an FLT we are undertaking some work to explore what we can do to improve colleagues’ experiences – part of this is looking at how we plan and support colleagues to deliver the University’s Transforming Lives Strategy as a faculty over the next 1-5years, and support the contribution and career development of colleagues. We look forward to sharing this with you and getting your feedback over the summer months. Heads of department will be sharing their department results with you shortly.

In the meantime, part of our response to understanding the issues in more detail is putting on regular events to meet and talk with colleagues, academics and professional services. We want to hear from you what’s going well, where are the challenges, how can we collaborate with you to provide the best experience for our students, and for you to undertake high quality research, innovation or scholarly activity. I have also asked the heads of department to invite FLT to departmental away days too because we genuinely want to learn from you and also share the work we are doing. We will also be running focus groups to identify actions we can take to improve staff wellbeing.  If you would like to be involved in these focus groups, please contact Mark Townley on  M.Townley@shu.ac.uk

However, one area of great concern where we need to act much more quickly is the large number of respondents (approx 27%) in both surveys who have said they had experienced or observed bullying or harassment within the University in the last 12 months. This is a shocking statistic and I want all colleagues to feel able to raise concerns about bullying or harassment, either for themselves or for others. This is something that we all have a responsibility to do.

I have asked Susan Tallents, human resources business partner for the faculty, to review what additional support we can provide to staff so that they feel able to raise any concerns of bullying and harassment. These plans will be announced in a blog specifically designated to this topic.

HROD will also be delivering The Essentials of Leadership and Management to support academic managers to embed their management and leadership skills, knowledge and behaviours. The first module will focus on the Academic Career Framework and PDR.

I look forward to sharing and working with you on the Faculty’s plans going forward

Best wishes

Alison