Senior leaders listening to staff

21 Jan 2019

Staff Survey 2019 launches on 4 March so we’re sharing some of the actions which have taken place as a result of your feedback in the 2017 survey.

One of the things you said could be improved was around senior leaders listening to and responding to ideas and suggestions from staff. 

Taking on board your feedback, colleagues from the Division of Communications and Marketing have been working closely with our new Registrar, Secretary and Chief Operating Officer Patrick Hackett, to organise a whole host of visits, meetings and messages to staff during his first few months at our University.

Patrick was particularly keen to get out and about and meet staff, listening to their views, ideas and feedback to help him gain a greater understanding of our University – and the opportunities and challenges we face.

Two large scale open meetings were held in December, hosted by Patrick and members of the Professional Services Leadership Team. These were attended by over 400 academic and Professional Services staff as well as being live streamed.  Staff were invited to submit questions beforehand or on the day at the events.  You can see these recordings and transcripts of the questions and answer sessions on StaffNet.

As well as hearing from Patrick, Simon Merrywest, Director for the Student Experience, explained more about the New Leadership Model for Directorate for the Student Experience, and specific areas of the Faculties and Schools, and Steve Dauncey, Director of Finance, who outlined the University’s financial position.   More of these open staff meetings will be held in March – dates to be announced shortly.

Patrick is also visiting teams across the University to talk with, and listen to, staff. This schedule of events will continue throughout 2019 and events for 2020 are already being organised. 

In response to a question from a colleague at one of the open meetings, Patrick also gave a commitment that all members of PSLT will undertake ‘back to the floor’ activity on a regular basis to ensure that they get out and about, listening to and talking with colleagues.

Staff Survey 2019 launches on Monday, 4 March and runs until Monday, 8 April.

You will be given the chance to fill in the Staff Survey form. It only takes around 15 minutes to complete, and you can be sure that all the information you supply will be anonymous and treated in strictest confidence. This is because the Staff Survey 2019 is being administered on the University’s behalf by an external company, Capita.

The survey results will be published in June.