fundraising appeals, bake-offs, and provide mental health information, during a dedicated ‘coffee - break’ period each day from 10:30-11am, where tea and coffee are served in the staff lounge. During the pandemic we created new practices: o To reduce uncertainty and maintain an effective operational response, a weekly Covid meeting was attended by relevant managers. It ran every Monday 9-10am throughout the entire period. o From this meeting, briefing notes were distributed to SHs and HoGs, to provide a script for new weekly meetings . This was a marked change and helped to maintain a sense of community. o HR established a buddying system whereby Assistant Professors living on campus could talk online, and interact as restrictions lifted. This was expanded to include all new academic and PSS starters. o Assistant Professors had their probation extended by a year . There is evidence these, and other, adjustments were effective. Surveyed twice during the period, staff feedback was well ahead of the UoW averages. By the second wave, just 4% of staff felt unable to work effectively from home. Only 8% felt unable to balance work and home life. Staff actually felt increasingly connected to their team/department (from 88% to 91%), but less well connected to senior leaders, students, and the university. The majority knew where to access well-being support (84%). As restrictions lifted the school supported events designed to re-establish community, including away days, meals, and BBQ’s . The culture survey produced positive results from questions on belonging , from a low of 74.1% (‘communications are relevant’) to a high of 80.5% (‘I feel I belong in WBS’) without any significant variation by group. Bullying and harassment When staff join WBS they complete a mandatory Principles of Social Inclusion moodle that distinguishes bullying and harassment and describes the Dignity at Warwick policy. The UoW provides unconscious bias and active bystander training. Small numbers of staff reported being bullied or harassed when completing the culture survey. The responses do not suggest a significant problem, but EDIC will invest resources to ensure staff work in a safe environment. This will support the UoW’s Report and Support framework, an anonymous service where students and staff can report bullying or harassment and receive support. From the culture survey, we learnt many staff (66.9%) know how to report such experiences, but we aim to substantially increase this number. Work-life balance Prior to Covid, we were trialling home working for PSS. Some teams were supported to work from home for one or two days a week. Whilst Covid was a shock, we had experience with hybrid working and the use of Teams. Given our distance-learning capability, we also had the infrastructure to respond. As we emerged from the lockdown, we quickly established clear ‘ principles for hybrid working ’ with all line managers. These were shared with the
29
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog