You said We Did

Staff Survey 2013 – We Made Your Views Count

In anticipation of the next UCL staff engagement survey, which will run from 9 - 27 November 2015, we thought it would be helpful to highlight to staff some of the key themes that emerged and examples of actions that took place in response.
We asked you what mattered to you and the headline results showed several areas for focus. So, what have we done?

Developing strategies and values

• Reviewed and revised UCL strategies
  • UCL 2034
  • Teaching and Learning
  • Global Engagement
• UCL values reviewed through 2034 Strategy.
• UCL Professional services values agreed and launched.

Building and consolidating the direction and leadership within UCL

• Director of Planning post created and new team developed to strengthen direction.
• New leadership programmes developed or enhanced:
  • Renewed Heads of Department development
  • Leadership in Action for Researchers
  • Leading Change in HE Introduction to Leadership
  • Leading on Diversity
  • Coaching and mentoring
  • Leadership and management courses introduced for staff in grade 5 and above

Tackling poor performance

• We have reviewed and revised people policies and processes to:
• Support better people management
• Tackle poor performance
• Simplify grading processes
• Promote consistency and fairness
• Promote cultural change (enhanced shared parental leave, Dignity at Work)

Improve upwards communication

• improved upward communication embedded in strategic consultation processes, e.g. UCL 2034; Global Engagement Strategy, etc.
• Refreshed and/or created various Diversity Forums (Race Equality Group; 50:50; LGBT, Disability, Parents and Carers Network) to engage with and influence policy development
• New all-staff consultation process in place for proposed changes to HR policies and procedures.

Improve understanding and perceptions of Reward

• New Healthcare Scheme launched
• New relocation Scheme launched
• New staff benefits webpages launched
• Bringing in: purchase of extra annual leave; salary sacrifice for car loans, salary sacrifice for training and development

All staff feel equally engaged and valued

• Inaugural Professional Services conference held June 2014 to celebrate and promote work of professional services staff.
• Supported the development of staff networks such as Astrea, UCL Women and PACT
• Provost Excellence Award Scheme launched

What about local developments?

Deans, Vice-Provosts and Heads of Divisions are responsible for ensuring they identify three areas to celebrate, three areas to improve and three to investigate further and to develop clear action plans with improvement outcomes and measures for their areas. These are reported back to the Senior Management Team every six months to ensure actions continue to be reviewed and evaluated. Each action plan and updates is available on the archive staff survey website http://www.ucl.ac.uk/staff_survey/Feb-15-web-staff-survey-action-update.doc. Alternatively you may want to look at some of the case studies highlighting activities since 2013 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/staff_survey/2015/cs-home.htm.

Professor Graham Hart, SMT Staff Survey Champion