8. Creating value
Employment
UCL is committed to attracting, rewarding and retaining outstanding staff.
The starting point
UCL prides itself on being an honourable employer, and the results of the most recent Staff Satisfaction Survey demonstrate a high degree of satisfaction amongst staff. More than 80% would “go the extra mile” for UCL, and recommend it to others as a place to work. There is a strong sense of loyalty, reflected in a remarkably low turnover of staff (7% a year), especially academic staff (under 4% a year). There is a widespread sense of shared values, and of a community. The Survey confirms that UCL staff want challenging and interesting employment, with good management and within a stable and secure workplace.
The nature of university employment
UCL is not a commercial business. It is an institution dedicated to the single objective of academic excellence. Every member of staff contributes to that mission. There are no shareholders. Our measures of performance are academic, not financial. All our effort and all our funding is invested and reinvested in the academic mission.
Academic staff are recruited under highly competitive conditions and UCL values their creativity and innovation. These qualities are best developed in an environment that confers significant personal autonomy within a clear framework of responsibility and accountability.
Top academic performance also requires top quality support. Staff who provide technical, management and infrastructure support are equally contributors to the mission. Mutual respect and collaboration are essential to bind the two together, and high-quality management is a necessary ingredient. Not all staff are natural managers, nor even necessarily see that as one of their responsibilities. Yet it is – and it is of critical importance in enabling and promoting younger staff and in developing and maintaining the partnership relationship between academic and non-academic staff. This is emphatically not a relationship of master and servant or subservience, but of joint contribution.
A fresh approach to Human Resources
UCL's academic ambitions call for a transformed approach to human resource management.
We need HR to operate as an enabler and service provider that performs its transactional functions (such as payroll and recruitment) seamlessly and which adds strategic value through its potential to transform the workforce, through improving performance management and ensuring that its leaders and managers have the capabilities to lead and effectively manage the changes that will be required to maintain and improve UCL's academic performance in the future.
The starting point will be to increase the focus on performance and productivity and ensure that each staff member achieves their goals and contributes to the academic mission in ways best suited to their strengths and expertise. This will require a strong alignment between individual goals and performance and UCL’s objectives. It will require a different approach to developing and managing performance.
We will modernise and streamline our human resource
management policy and processes such that all staff can have confidence that
they are being treated fairly and consistently without needing to resort to
procedurally complex, time-consuming and adversarial regulation in order to
enforce their employment rights.
This will require a review of Statute 18 (which deals with dismissal, redundancy, grievances and discipline) to bring our procedures into line with contemporary employment law and remove unnecessary complexity. Such changes must be introduced in ways that protect and preserve the fundamental values set out in this Green Paper, including academic freedom.
The transformations proposed in this Green Paper will also impose new demands on leadership and management across UCL. The necessary skill sets are likely to change, requiring greater focus on issues such as strategy formulation, portfolio management, project and process management, cost control and the effective application of performance development and reward. We will strengthen the support that UCL provides to enhance capabilities and strengthen leadership skills in these areas in the future.
Change is inherently destabilising and needs to be managed through transparent mechanisms for reward on the basis of performance and contribution, improved workforce planning, including planning for succession and more flexible recruitment procedures. Change management processes need to be led by senior academic and professional staff, fully supported by trained HR professionals.
Equality and diversity
UCL's commitment to excellence encompasses a commitment to equality and diversity and we will need to take additional steps to ensure a workplace free from unfair discrimination and based on equality of access.
The Excellence document
UCL pioneered an approach in 2006 in establishing a compact with staff, setting out our expectations of staff performance and our commitment to their support. It provides a reference point for staff seeking appointment to UCL, and in performance reviews and promotion decisions. We will review it in light of the strategic aims advanced in this Green Paper.
Current external employment challenges
The legal framework for employment is established principally through European legislation, and is not static.
An imminent change relates to the retirement age. It will not be possible to require an employee with a planned retirement date on or after 1 October 2011 (including staff over 65 with extended retirement dates) to retire on age grounds. Staff may continue to work until they choose to retire. Staff may opt to retire when they have access to their pension in accordance with pension scheme rules. UCL has been flexible in the past in agreeing arrangements for continued employment of staff beyond the age of 65 where colleagues wish to do so and where they continue to contribute at the highest levels. These policies will be adapted to the new environment, while recognising the institutional need for constant renewal, and to maintain opportunity for recruitment of new staff of all ages.
Around 43% of UCL academic staff are non-UK nationals.
UCL is therefore particularly vulnerable to recently introduced restrictions on
UK immigration under the Points Based Immigration System (PBIS). These remove
our institutional allocation of visas and introduce instead a permanent
national cap.
Special provision has been made for scientific researchers, but implementation requires expert management and careful monitoring to manage the risk of stifling recruitment. Above all, it is essential for UCL to be able to signal to the world that it intends to continue to undertake all academic recruitment through global competition. Improved relocation support for international staff will continue to be important to attract and retain the best.
Performance review
Performance review through regular appraisal is a well-established procedure at UCL. The purpose is to review the contribution made by every individual to the success of UCL, to assist every individual staff member develop to their full potential, and to identify their strengths and development needs and enable discussion of their career aspirations. All staff are accountable for their performance.
But there
is room for improvement in our systems. The objective is to ensure that outstanding
performance is properly promoted and supported through a model developed to
suit UCL's particular circumstances as a knowledge based institution.
Universities are not industrial workplaces, for which most performance
management systems were designed.
A pilot is underway in the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences for a better attuned approach. The challenge is to develop a process which promotes high performance across the board, and which is respected for its fairness and even-handedness. Performance review is also a way of identifying and handling under-performance: the Staff Satisfaction Survey indicated that staff felt UCL should be doing more on this front, and in challenging unacceptable behaviour.
This reform does not require an identical approach across UCL, but there are common objectives and hence common elements which need to be maintained. Performance review has no value as a ritual, but only as a dynamic process. Heads of Department and other managers will be supported in developing reviewing, coaching and mentoring skills.
Staff social facilities
UCL currently lacks world-class social facilities for staff. Provision is patchy across the campus, and there is a shortfall of central provision. Social encounter and interaction is an essential aspect of high-quality academic life and performance. Proposals to address the shortfall and improve the range and quality of social space on the Bloomsbury estate are central to the draft Estates Masterplan, which is currently out to consultation.
Finances
UCL is committed to securing long-term financial sustainability and to sustaining the level of capital investment necessary to achieve its academic objectives
Financial sustainability
UCL must generate and sustain sufficient surplus and
cash balances to meet our future investment needs, particularly in light of the
reductions in HEFCE income and capital. We will develop an annual budgeting and
planning process that will emphasise financial sensitivity to key risks.
UCL's financial forecasts to 2013–14 accept that continued investment in the estate and infrastructure is key to our future sustainability, and assume that £55 million will be committed to commencing implementation of the estates masterplan over the two years 2012–2014 in addition to maintaining the £36 million currently committed to capital expenditure. We plan to invest an additional £2 million a year in research computing from 2011–12 and a further £2.5 million a year in other research infrastructure from 2012–13.
Development and alumni relations
The aspirations in this Green Paper demand additional resources, at a time when government funding for British universities is in serious decline. We will seek to increase significantly the current levels of philanthropic support to UCL. The Development and Alumni Relations Office will work closely with the academic community to ensure our fundraising activities fully reflect the strategic priorities set out above, focused on student support, key research and teaching programmes and capital projects in the Estates Masterplan.
We will continue to develop strong relationships with alumni and other friends and supporters, involving them where appropriate in helping to deliver our strategic objectives. This will include help with international student recruitment in key countries; provision of work placements and internships to improve employability; and establishment of a network of enterprise mentors to support our staff and student entrepreneurs.
We will review the rules governing the acceptance of gifts to ensure transparent compliance with UCL's Guiding Principles set out in Section 2 above.
The Development and Alumni Relations Office will within five years be recognised internationally as a centre of professional excellence in the sector.
Economies across UCL achieved
Several significant steps have already been taken in light of the funding challenges facing UCL, including:
(1) freezing of all senior level pay for the past two years;
(2) introduction of comprehensive procurement and payment processing systems which have already generated significant savings through driving down prices from preferred suppliers and reducing transaction costs;
(3) a reduction in the cost base of 6% for two years running and a further 2% in the current year;
(4) an ongoing programme of administrative reviews leading to greater efficiency and cost reduction.
Future economies
Our forecasts assume significant additional economies across the whole institution for the coming four years. UCL will become a leaner and more efficient organisation. We anticipate downward pressure on pay awards and further efficiency savings of 2% a year in core pay and non-pay expenditure.
Staffing costs at UCL run at around 60% of expenditure,
a figure that is high by comparison with peer institutions such as Imperial and
Manchester. We will continue to control payroll costs closely, and bring them
down. Some of this may flow through from reductions in Research Council awards
leading to UCL hiring fewer research staff, who make up around 2,000 out of our
total staffing complement of 8,500.
We will maintain the current close central
control over new hiring. We will not offer a general scheme for early
retirement, but we may run targeted schemes if particular areas of the
institution get into difficulties, and we will develop a new approach to
retirement in light of the legal changes discussed above. We will also need to
ensure that we have sufficient headroom for investment where this is required
strategically.
In particular, we will wish to reflect and reward outstanding performance by members of staff, as identified through the disciplines of performance review and through the academic staff promotions round, which will be maintained.
Staff delivering services in support of the academic mission play a key role at UCL. As part of the new approach to HR we will enhance our approach to career development for staff, offering them opportunities for personal growth and development. A world-class university needs world-class services but we also need to secure value for money. We will continue to seek opportunities to reduce costs both pay and non-pay through the implementation of projects such as Purchase to Pay, modernisation of our IT systems, and keeping under review the balance between services provided in house and those purchased from third parties.
Experience in recent years has shown that UCL has been able to make cost adjustments that are more significant than those projected without detriment to our mission.
Corporate services
At UCL, professional service functions tend to be
distributed between Corporate Support Services, and schools, faculties, and
departments. Thus, for example, it is estimated that approaching 50% of our IT
spend on equipment and salaries takes place outside the Information Services
directorate.
Moreover, there are no standards for what should be provided centrally and what locally, or levels of resourcing. To some extent this is being addressed through recent and current projects such as ROME, P2P, and the creation of a centrally managed admissions team, but much remains to be done.
We may not be sufficiently exploiting the opportunities offered by TRAC and other data to deepen our understanding of the costs of delivery of our activities, and how they might be undertaken more efficiently and effectively.
We will:
- review and revise the distribution of professional service functions between departments, faculties schools and corporate services;
- strengthen support for decision making, building, for example, on the work already undertaken by School Finance Directors;
- examine opportunities for greater value for money in transaction processing through the creation of internal shared service centres, shared service centres with other organisations, and outsourcing;
- review all business processes with a view to better deployment of IT, removing duplication and complexity and delivering greater efficiency and responsiveness. It is a common criticism of university life today that academic innovation is hampered by bureaucracy. One of the objectives of the last 2007 Council White Paper was to reduce the administrative burden on academic staff by simplifying all our business processes and empowering professionals to manage them. This remains work in progress.
Operating more efficiently
UCL is committed to operating at the highest levels of efficiency, reducing overheads and eliminating waste.
The strategic choices
We do not presently anticipate withdrawing from any major areas of academic activity, though recognising that disruptive changes in the funding model could compel a different approach.
However, not every department, nor every aspect of every
department, is as strong as it might be, and we will seek constant academic
improvement and administrative efficiency, by consolidating aspects of teaching
and research across UCL. There is scope still for reduction in UCL's direct and
overhead costs without damage to academic programmes.
Many of the required steps are already adopted policy in the 2007 White Paper, such as our requirement that courses that are under-subscribed must be closed. Opportunities remain for the enhancement of academic performance and the reduction of costs, requiring the restructuring of departments and faculties, reductions in staffing and consolidation in the use of space.
Given the decentralised nature of UCL, this will be more
a process of constant review, trimming and investment at Faculty and
departmental level, than an institution-wide series of pre-ordained cuts. There
is no change from UCL policy that each area of academic activity must
demonstrate how it will cover its full costs, or make out a case why others
should subsidise it.
With the exceptional pressure on HEFCE and Research Council income, departments need to be supported in developing other funding streams such as through additional international and postgraduate students with tuition fees set at full economic cost, and through research facilitation and the pursuit of commercialisation opportunities.
Transforming estates and facilities
UCL is committed to improving the quality and sustainability of its estate, upgrading its built environment and making optimal use of space
The estate as an asset
The UCL estate
is relatively compact, and the Bloomsbury campus is highly concentrated within
one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world. It is outstanding
in terms of the quality of many of the buildings, and in its location in the
centre of one of the world’s great cities.
At its heart is the iconic Wilkins Building, a Grade I-listed building constructed in 1827–28, with a dominating portico and great dome that symbolise the ambition of UCL's founders. The building provides the eastern border to a quadrangle of great beauty and serenity, housing a range of academic and administrative departments, including the main Library, the UCL Slade School of Fine Art and parts of the Departments of Geography and Earth Sciences.
More efficient use of the estate
The estate represents our largest area of annual expenditure after staff. It presents significant challenges in relation to backlog maintenance and the condition of some of our buildings. Over the next few years, major current projects such as the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre and the UKCMRI will complete, and other developments and refurbishments which advance our academic mission will require investment.
Upon the completion of a major space utilisation survey in 2010 that highlighted great differences in the intensity of occupation between different departments, consultants were commissioned to draft a masterplan for the UCL Bloomsbury estate. Following extensive consultation in its development, a draft was published for wider consultation across the UCL community in April 2011.
Its purpose is to provide a strategic framework for the continuing development and improvement of the Bloomsbury campus for the next 10 to 15 years. It is an appropriately ambitious plan. It will make provision for growth in academic activity and for significantly increased efficiencies in our use of space. It will also provide a more environmentally sustainable estate, reducing UCL's carbon footprint, and enhance its quality for the benefit of all users.
The planning process identified a fundamental requirement for much more openly accessible student/academic work space, and the draft plan proposes to address this by providing a range of hubs across the campus to provide well-serviced space suitable for study purposes, individually and in groups, supported by appropriate services in each hub, and with administrative services.
It also proposes a single central library located in the Wilkins Building by releasing additional space there, and relocating the science library to this site. UCL's internationally recognised collections will also be relocated to the Wilkins Building.
Rationalisation of the estate will provide an opportunity for a significant improvement in how UCL provides student services as well as teaching and study space. It proposes a dedicated student centre which will bring under one roof the presently fragmented services as a one-stop shop, together with flexible space with 24/7 access and space for the student union.
The proposals provide for upgrading of UCL's teaching spaces, including lecture theatres and seminar rooms, faculty office space and back office facilities.
Similarly, new additional facilities for staff will be provided through flexible social space and catering facilities, with meeting rooms and conference space. The draft masterplan encourages public engagement and supporting a strong cultural events calendar, focusing on the Wilkins Building and the Bloomsbury Theatre.
It proposes four phases of rationalisation and consolidation of academic and supporting activity alongside which we will develop a fundraising plan to maximise philanthropic opportunities to bring in new funds for key capital projects.
Future reviews will extend to the non-Bloomsbury UCL campus, including our extensive holdings on sites associated with our partner hospitals.
New campus
Not all activity currently based in central London
requires such a location; nor is it possible for much of it to expand in its
existing space. Nor does UCL have the capacity to locate major new activity in
Bloomsbury, even with the rationalisation envisaged in the Masterplan.
The time has come to explore a parallel track, and UCL is currently examining opportunities for some activity that is not focused on undergraduate education to be relocated to another area within London where large-scale facilities can be provided at a lower cost and with better environmental and financial sustainability. One possibility is the co-location of academic activity and new residential accommodation for students, undergraduate and postgraduate, and also for UCL staff.
Reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions
A comprehensive programme with stretching commitments was adopted by the UCL Council in 2011 and submitted to the HEFCE as part of the capital expenditure approval process. A senior appointment has been made within UCL Estates to lead not only implementation of this programme, but an environmental leadership programme across the whole of UCL.
