Our University pilots hybrid working principles for Professional Services

07 Jun 2021

Working Smarter, Living Better: Hybrid Working Principles

Dear colleagues

We’ve been listening to what staff have been telling us about working during lockdown, through What Works? and our recent pulse survey.  

As part of the Working Smarter, Living Better project, we have been developing our approach to hybrid working. We want to create a more flexible future because this can be good for individual work-life balance and also good for the University in terms of attracting and keeping talent, enhancing diversity and inclusion and using resources more sustainably.

We are introducing a hybrid working pilot across Professional Services (PS) to run until the end of August 2022. We are focusing initially on Professional Services as we believe these are the teams where the ability to work more flexibly has traditionally been more limited.

Over the past few months we have been co-developing our approach to hybrid working, refining our principles and developing a detailed managers’ guidance pack and support for staff.

Hybrid Working Principles

Our Hybrid Working Principles have been co-created with feedback from staff, managers and flexible working champions.  The Principles include an overview of hybrid working, the four hybrid working categories that roles may fall into, information on policy and procedures and the obligations of hybrid workers. We recommend that you read through the principles before speaking to your manager.

Speak to your line manager

If you work in Professional Services, your manager has already been asked to consider how hybrid working may apply in your team and to discuss this with you and other colleagues. Our decisions on hybrid working will be informed by these Principles.  Line managers will regularly assess how well any new hybrid arrangements are working in their areas and with individual staff, which will feed into our overall evaluation of the programme.  

Guidance and training

We have produced a range of guidance for hybrid working and including some frequently asked questions for staff which includes more detailed information to help you have a conversation with your line manager about the opportunities of hybrid working. 

The University is also reviewing its Flexible Working Policy and information will be available in the coming weeks.

Finally, we’d like to thank colleagues across the organisation for your continued support and commitment.  Whilst our return to campus is affected by the pandemic in the short-term, this is a genuinely exciting opportunity for our University’s community to work together in making a long-term success of hybrid and flexible working.  

Best wishes

Karen Heaton, Director of Human Resources

Dr Julian Skyrme, Director of Social Responsibility