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Working at Bidborough House

We have moved all Central Professional Services (PS) to Bidborough House with the aim of using our buildings more effectively and providing more opportunities for teams to collaborate and connect with other parts of the university.

Building guide

The building guide below includes information and guidance about working at Bidborough House including guidance on booking desks and meeting rooms, and details on building access and security, available storage, facilities, and health and safety.

Why we have made these changes

Over the past few years, the way we work has changed. As highlighted in our new hybrid working guidance, some time spent on-site provides valuable opportunities for in-person interaction and team activity whilst retaining the flexibility and balance of working from home. 

However, hybrid working patterns have left us with a lot of unused space across our Professional Services (PS) buildings. Combined with a difficult financial climate nationally, a backdrop of rapidly climbing utility costs, and our aim of reducing carbon emissions, it is important for us to use our spaces more effectively. 

As well making savings that we can use to support other important activities, by moving PS teams to Bidborough House (BBH) we hope to create a home for PS, where staff find it easier to communicate and collectively innovate and develop new ideas, and where people feel engaged and connected with their own and other teams.

We know there is more we can do to make it easier to work at BBH and will be considering and exploring options such as reviewing the space available for collaboration, improving the desk booking process, regular checks on equipment and the estate, and reviewing the cleaning schedule.

There will be opportunities for you to provide feedback throughout this period and for us to work together to find the best working practices for everyone.  

Virtual townhall recording: Working at Bidborough House

On 28 September we held a virtual Town Hall to provide an opportunity for all staff based in and moving to Bidborough to find out more about the changes and ask their questions.

The event was hosted by Ian Dancy, Executive Director of Operations and Lloyd Naylor, ISD Customer Operations Director. 

Any questions that weren't answered on the day have now been answered through the building guide below, or will be answered through your local contact.

MediaCentral Widget Placeholderhttps://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Player/Gi07HH8c

 

Scheduled team days and spaces

All teams have a scheduled day when their whole team can work on-site. On your team day, please ensure you book a desk in your allocated area. There will always be some space that will be retained as open, bookable desk space so that those who prefer to work in the office can do so more often than just on their allocated team days. 

The schedule has been developed with representatives from each team based in Bidborough House – taking into consideration both the needs of staff and the most effective utilisation of space.

We will continue to monitor how space is used to ensure we have capacity for all who want to work on site, and we welcome your feedback on how this schedule works for you over the coming months.  

Schedule by team
TeamTeam DayFloor
Advanced Research Computing CentreTuesday2nd East and 3rd East
Campus Experience & InfrastructureTuesday and Friday3rd West (Tuesday) and 4th West (Friday)
Change & ImprovementTuesday5th Floor
Equality, Diversity & InclusionMonday, Tuesday and Friday6th
Estates DevelopmentTuesday3rd West
Finance & Business AffairsMonday3rd West
Human ResourcesMonday2nd East and West
ISD: ArchitectureWednesday5th Floor
ISD: Development & TestingFriday4th East
ISD: Digital InfrastructureMonday and Friday3rd East, 4th West and 5th (Monday) or 3rd (West (Friday)
ISD: EducationWednesday3rd East
ISD: ISG & CEFriday2nd East
ISD: LPGFriday2nd East
ISD: Research & Innovation OperationsFriday 5th Floor
ISD: People, Money & InsightFriday2nd West
ISD: Student ExperienceThursday3rd East and 5th Floor
LCCOS (Library, Culture, Collections & Open Science)Monday and Wednesday*4th East (Monday) and 3rd West (Wednesday)
The Office of General CouncelMonday, Thursday and Friday6th and 5th (Thursday)
OVPA (Advancement)Tuesday4th East and West
OVPEE (External Engagement)Tuesday2nd West
OVPS (Strategy)Monday, Wednesday and Friday6th 
ProcurementRemote firstN/A
Professional Services Hub (PS Hub)Wednesday*4th East and West
Research & Innovation ServicesWednesday2nd East and West
Student & Registry ServicesThursday2nd East and West, 3rd West, 4th East and West

Notes on the schedule

  • On the second Wednesday of every month extra space is allocated to the PS Hub team that is usually allocated to LCCOS and ISD (3rd floor East and West and 5th floor).

Bidborough House building guide 

Working environment

General guidance

Please be respectful of others when working in the office and:

  • be sensitive to people working at desks when waiting to access meeting rooms, 
  • refrain from having long conversations at desks or touchdowns,
  • when working in a designated quiet zone avoid using booths or desks for conference calls,
  • use the kitchens or communal areas for conversations of a personal nature,
  • and keep your phone set to vibrate or silent, and your laptop muted when working at a desk, touchdown, or booth.
Booking a desk

It is no longer possible to book a desk more than four weeks in advance on any floor in Bidborough.

Staff are advised not to travel if they don’t have a pre-booked desk, though there are also some non-bookable drop-in desks in the West wing on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors. 

While you are encouraged to book desks in shared areas, if you cannot find one there may be desks available in team areas that haven’t been checked into – these are released after 10am for anyone to book.

Please remember to cancel your booking if your plans change. 

Team days

All teams have a scheduled day when their whole team can work on-site. On your team day, please ensure you book a desk in your allocated area and remember to ‘Check-in’ when arriving using the QR code located on the desk or via your confirmation email.

Non-team days

The 1st floor has been retained as open, bookable desk space for those who prefer to work in the office outside of their team days. From April you will only be able to book one desk per day on the 1st floor. This should free up more desks for staff who wish to work in the office in addition to their weekly team day.  

Accessibility and workstation requirements

If you have specific accessibility requirements, or requirements following a Display Screen Assessment or Workstation Assessment please contact your local BBH Working Group representative in the first instance. 

Quiet areas: East wing on floors 1, 3 and 4 

The East wing on floors 1, 3 and 4 are considered quieter working areas.

Unless the space is being used during a team day by a team who choose to use the space differently, when working within a ‘Quieter Zone’ please keep the noise down to not disturb other office users. 

  • Conversations calls should be conducted quietly, Teams calls should be made using headsets.
  • If you do have to make or take a call on a mobile phone, please move to another space before dialling or answering.
  • If listening to music through headphones this should be kept quiet enough as to not disturb other people.
Meeting rooms

Meeting rooms on all floors can be booked through Outlook by any staff member in a team based in the building. There are 23 meeting rooms available and nine of these are teams enabled. Smaller meeting rooms for sensitive discussions or calls are available on the first floor. Further details of the rooms can be found when booking through Outlook. 

Meeting rooms are for business use only which includes conference and confidential calls. Meeting rooms must be tidied, and tables cleared after use, with chairs placed in position ready for the next users.

Booths

Booths can be used for non-confidential meetings up to an hour, available on a first come first served basis. As the demand on meeting rooms is high, it is recommended that meetings of up to four people, including 1:1’s where possible, should take place in booths.  

Building access and services

Opening hours, access and security
Opening hours 

Weekdays: 7am–7pm  

Out of hours access: Workspace on the 2nd floor is available 24/7 to UCL staff and accessible through the side entrance of the building.   

Access and Security

The main entrance on Bidborough Street is open, and staffed, during office hours.

Staff should show their ID cards to Security as they enter the building and will need their card to access the East and West wing of each floor.

Replacement ID cards can be ordered for collection from the Andrew Huxley Building (close to the Gordon Street entrance), open Monday to Friday between 9am and 4.45pm.  

Visitors

If you are expecting visitors, advise advise the Business Operations Receptionist (businessops@ucl.ac.uk) in advance. Please provide their name, expected arrival time, and instructions on what to do when the visitor arrives. All external visitors will be required to sign in at reception on arrival and departure.  

Staff are requested to help people at reception if they look lost, and nobody should be allowed into the building out of hours without a UCL ID card.

Sending and collecting post 

Post will be delivered and collected from G01, Ground floor West.

Mail will be sorted by surname to the A-Z mail pigeonholes. Mail addressed to a department without a name will be sorted to divisional pigeonholes. Mail should be collected weekly. 

All outgoing mail, including internal UCL mail, should be left in the outgoing sack provided adjacent to the mail frames. Any mail left by 4pm will be sent on same day. 

Delivery Schedule   
  • 10.30–10.45am delivery / collection    
  • 2.45–3pm delivery / collection    
  • 4–4.15pm final sweep collection   
Contact and courier form 

See the UCL Mail & Courier Services webpage for contact information and the courier service form. 

Storage and equipment

Personal lockers 

While we don’t have space for every member of staff to have a personal locker, all staff who need it will to have permanent access to a locker, though this may be shared. Your locker may not be on the same floor as your team space.

Lockers will be assigned to staff based on their category as defined in the hybrid working guidance

  • On-site First workers will be provided with a locker for their personal use.   
  • Hybrid Workers will be required to share a locker with a colleague within their team unless by exception. 
  • Remote First workers will not be assigned a locker unless by exception. 

Exceptions to this rule will be made and personal lockers provided for staff: 

  • who have an individual need to store specialist equipment, such as hard hats and Hi-Viz clothing; or 
  • who have a requirement to store equipment supporting accessibility needs.  

Lockers must only be used for the purposes of storing personal belongings and for no other purpose. The locker shall not be used for storage of any materials deemed to be inappropriate by UCL including without limitation illegal or offensive materials, perishable items, valuable items or articles belonging to anyone other than the user.    

Lockers will be managed and allocated by Business Operations Services.  

Team storage

Working papers and files should be placed in tambour storage units allocated to your team when you leave the office.  

Any paperwork of a sensitive nature should be disposed of confidentially via the confidential waste consoles on each floor, which are emptied monthly. If you wish to schedule an additional collection please raise a Service Request

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other specialist equipment should be placed in the designated storage unit.

Items that are needed less frequently can be stored in the basement or off site. To arrange for basement or off-site storage contact logistics@ucl.ac.uk. Items stored off site can be retrieved at any time with 24 hours’ notice.

Stationery 

Two central stationery cupboards are stocked with commonly used items and are for use by staff from teams based in the building.  

Cupboards are located on the 1st Floor West Wing and 4th Floor West Wing. 

Facilities

Kitchens and food

Hot food should be prepared and eaten in a kitchen. Please refrain from eating strong-smelling food at desks and from eating lunch in booths. 

There is a main kitchen opposite the central staircase on floors G-4 (on the Ground floor it’s just inside the west end of the floor). They are equipped with microwaves, fridges, a dishwasher and hot and cold filtered water.

Additional tea points are located at the West end of each floor and are equipped with a fridge, dishwasher and hot and cold filtered water.

Semi-skimmed cows milk is provided in all fridges throughout the building. Oat Milk is also provided in fridges in the main kitchens on each floor.

Crockery, glassware and cutlery is supplied in every kitchen and tea point throughout the building.

Please ensure that out-of-date food is removed from the fridges.  

Showers

There are two large shower rooms in the basement – one male and one female. Each has six shower cubicles, toilets, sinks, a utility sink, and several changing room style lockers.  

Lockers are allocated on a first come first served basis and should not be for long-term use. You should bring your own padlock. Please request access to the shower rooms from BBH Reception (businessops@ucl.ac.uk).

These are communal spaces so please clear up after yourself and leave the area as you would like to find it.

Bicycle, motorbike and car parking

There are covered, caged facilities for parking bicycles and motorbikes in the basement of the building. This area can be accessed from the vehicular entrance on Bidborough Street at the East end of the building. You can enter the basement from this area with your staff ID card once your access has been set up.

Cycle access should be requested through your departmental administrator.

Motorcyclists may apply for a parking space via the Estates website. Once it is approved your access card will automatically be updated.

Car parking for general use is not available at Bidborough House. There is limited car parking available across the UCL campus, which is provided by arrangement on a priority and needs basis.

Quiet room

There is a quiet room in the basement which can be used for:  

  • Breastfeeding/expressing
  • Emotional distress
  • First aid or if you feel unwell
  • Quiet contemplation
  • Meditation
  • Prayer

To use the room, request to sign out the key from main reception. Please sign the key back in with Security when you leave the room. On no account should this key be retained longer than the period the room is used.

Heating, cooling, and ventilation

Heating and cooling are centrally programmed on a building management system. There are no local controls of air temperature anywhere in the building.  

Office windows do not open anywhere in the building, the chill beam ventilation system circulates fresh air throughout.

Fans and heaters are not permitted in the building unless a request has been approved.

Enquiries, reporting a fault or raising an issue

Computers and equipment

The IT Service desk is the primary point of contact for queries about central IT services for all staff and students at UCL.

Building and maintenance

If you discover a building fault or need assistance with building maintenance including cleaning, please raise a service request via the Estates website.

General enquiries and issues

For general enquiries about working at Bidborough House or to report issues relating to kitchens, lockers or post etc. please contact Business Operations Services.

    Further enquiries

    • For anything else not covered above, please contact Business Operations Services or your local operations lead.

    Health and safety 

    Fire Safety Inductions 

    Please contact Business Operations Services to book a place on a Fire Safety Briefing, which takes place at 2:30pm daily. You will be asked to complete, sign and submit a Local Induction & Familiarisation Form (TN086)