[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”on” _builder_version=”3.17.6″][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ specialty_columns=”4″][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column_inner type=”4_4″ saved_specialty_column_type=”2_3″][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=”3.17.6″ featured_placement=”above” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″]<\/p>\n
I love an anniversary or a celebration \u2013 but realising that a year ago today we had, for the most part, to close the campus is not something I thought we would be marking, and indeed it isn\u2019t something that many people would probably look on as a celebration.<\/p>\n
But I think we should recognise all the great things we have achieved over the past 12 months. Not only have each and every one of us adjusted to new ways of working and helped to keep the show on the road, but we have made improvements along the way. It hasn\u2019t been easy, we have made some mistakes and I know colleagues have struggled at times with their emotional wellbeing. No-one ever taught us how to cope in a sustained pandemic.<\/p>\n
Rather than looking back, I want to look ahead and focus on the things we have learnt and how they have supported our work and our wellbeing. And importantly how they can be harnessed for the to help us achieve Our future<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Karen Heaton, Director of Human Resources, described \u2018the great working from home experiment\u2019 in her blog<\/a> and it has given us a chance, to a certain extent, to \u2018try before you buy\u2019. It is now clear that many staff would really value being able to adopt a hybrid approach to their work, spending some time on campus, some time working from home. What the experiment hasn\u2019t yet given us is a chance to see how hybrid working will work in practice – now and when COVID restrictions are lifted.<\/p>\n To do that I have asked Julian Skyrme (Director of Social Responsibility) to lead a project, as part of Reshaping PS,<\/em> to look at the principles and practicalities we need to have in place to truly embrace hybrid working in Professional Services.<\/p>\n Now, I don\u2019t want my talk of principles and practicalities to start your eyes rolling, this is an exciting opportunity for us to do things differently, and it will be something which evolves as we learn more and are able to refine our approach.<\/p>\n Under the working title Working Smarter, Living Better<\/em>, the project will look at how we bring together our people, our IT and our estate to re-imagine how we do things, where we work and how we use our campus. This will help bring to life and build on the work of the Foresight Group, led by our Deputy President and Deputy VC, Luke Georghiou.<\/p>\n I must be honest though \u2013 a hybrid working model isn’t going to be an option for all our staff. Some colleagues have roles which require them to be on campus full time. And there are some staff who will prefer to work on campus. What we must ensure is that all the working models we have are fair and work together to deliver what the University requires of us.<\/p>\n I will state that I am an advocate of flexible working. At the same time I recognise there are challenges \u2013 particularly around how we manage the desires of individuals with the need to operate effectively across a team, how we equip our managers to be able to make those decisions and support teams to work differently.<\/p>\n Whilst we don\u2019t have all the answers yet, what I can promise is that the development of a new approach to working smarter and living better will be co-created with staff. A working group has been set up, and the recent \u2018PS in-conversation\u2019 sessions have already fed into thinking around this.<\/p>\n So what is next? Well, we need to have a framework, so there will be a set of principles which will be launched before national restrictions are potentially lifted in June. Going hand in hand with the launch of the principles will be an online training module and new Managers\u2019 Essentials guidance. Managers will be encouraged to use this guidance to have structured conversations with teams about what might be possible. A warning here: there won\u2019t be a one-size fits all model. We are a learning organisation and I am encouraging managers to try things, fail-fast if necessary, and help us to refine our approach in light of experience.<\/p>\n If you are interested in getting involved in this or other activities as part of Reshaping PS<\/em> please share your ideas in the comments section or email me<\/a><\/p>\n We don\u2019t yet have a date when we will all be able to return to campus. When we do, we will be prioritising who will be coming back, from an operations and well-being point of view. Through Working Smarter, Living Better<\/em>, we will seek to embed those positive things we have learned over the past year and look at how we can improve further.<\/p>\n Until then, tonight, when all the Zoom calls are done, I will be grateful for the 30 second commute to the kitchen where I will be raising a glass \u2013 well, a cup – to everything we have achieved, and the exciting opportunities which lie ahead. I very much hope we can all come together in the not-too-distant further to recognise what we have achieved during this unprecedented period in our lives.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=”3.17.6″ prev_text=”Previous” next_text=”Next” in_same_term=”off” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=”3.17.6″ custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#ffffff” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Related posts” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ locked=”on”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Subscribe” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”et_pb_widget_area_3″ locked=”on” \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”sidebar-1″ show_border=”off” locked=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I love an anniversary or a celebration \u2013 but realising that a year ago today we had, for the most part, to close the campus is not something I thought we would be marking, and indeed it isn\u2019t something that many people would probably look on as a celebration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" [et_pb_section bb_built=\"1\" fullwidth=\"off\" specialty=\"on\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"][et_pb_column type=\"2_3\" specialty_columns=\"4\"][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=\"Row\"][et_pb_column_inner type=\"4_4\" saved_specialty_column_type=\"2_3\"][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" featured_placement=\"above\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"]<\/p> When I\u2019m out and about meeting staff I hear much debate about the why, what, when and how of change in our University. I wanted to share my thoughts on this often contentious topic \u2013 and hear your views too.<\/p> Early in 2020 we will launch our University\u2019s new vision and strategic plan \u2013 Our future. In order to fulfil Our future we need to ensure that we are in a financially sustainable position so that we have the funds to invest in the new staff, facilities and infrastructure which will be needed to bring our plans to life.<\/p> Our Financial Statements<\/a> for 2018\/19, which have been published following approval by the Board of Governors, confirm that more than 95% of our \u00a31.1bn income is spent on our core goals - on our staff and our students - to deliver research, education and social responsibility; with the remainder invested in the long term sustainability of our University. You can find a summary<\/a> of the Financial Statements on StaffNet.<\/p> However, this is a testing time for UK universities, due to the many external factors that have an impact on us - current home tuition fees are falling in real terms, whilst our costs (not just pay but non-pay too) are increasing. There are further and even greater tuition fee funding risks outlined in General Election manifestos as well as a range of Brexit-related risks that could affect our operations. The Office for Students (OfS) demands that we demonstrate both value for money for our students and our financial sustainability (in the sense of being able to invest to deliver our ambitious strategy, rather than survival). There are, of course, also ongoing unresolved national issues around pay and the continuing challenges around funding pensions in the higher education sector.<\/p> Our Financial Statements show an improved operating surplus (3.7% of income compared to \u00a324.7m (2.3%) in 2017\/18), with a rise in income from tuition fees, education contracts and research. As I mentioned earlier, we re-invest the surplus we achieve each year in activity in line with our strategy. Recently our funds have been used to create some new academic and Professional Services posts; to invest in key infrastructure including IT; to invest in some new buildings like our student accommodation at Unsworth Park; to improve the student experience by funding more full-time Residential Life staff and to upgrade a range of buildings and research and teaching spaces and resources. Increasingly it is also invested in environmental sustainability and meeting our ambitious carbon targets. So even when we are making difficult decisions in some parts of the University we continue to invest our surplus.<\/p> Whilst we have reported an operating surplus, our Board of Governors expects us to deliver a much larger surplus than this (at least 5%) if we are to be sustainable in the long-term. Our strategic change programme (including IT Modernisation<\/a>, the Student Experience Programme<\/a>, and the Research Lifecycle Programme<\/a>), alongside our continuous improvement plans, will ensure that we create the financial headroom to invest in people and facilities. The strategic change programme will also enable us to embrace new technologies and new ways of doing things that better support all our staff and students to be the best that they can be.<\/p> Yes, this means that some individual roles will change. New roles (some that we haven\u2019t yet identified) will be created and some roles will no longer be required. I appreciate that this will cause some uncertainty and where that is the case we will do everything we can to support staff, but the alternative is that we never change anything. If we fail to take advantage of advances in technology and develop more joined-up ways of working we will ultimately find ourselves outdated in the eyes of future students, funders and other stakeholders. Staff want to work for a progressive and successful institution, of which they can be proud. This means we cannot stand still.<\/p> When I talk to staff and students I often hear their frustrations about how difficult it be can be to get some straightforward things done, grappling with paper-based, manual and repetitive processes, on outdated systems and infrastructure, all of which serves to increase staff workloads. Everyone wants to do a good job, but regularly feel that our world-class status is earned in spite of our internal systems and processes, not because of them.<\/p> To deliver our new vision and strategic plan we will need to embrace new opportunities and face challenges with courage and determination. That will sometimes mean we have to make tough decisions and no-one is claiming it will be easy or that mistakes will not be made along the way. But where we do have tough choices to make we will commit to implementing changes fairly and with compassion to support the wellbeing of all our colleagues.<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" prev_text=\"Previous\" next_text=\"Next\" in_same_term=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" custom_button=\"on\" button_text_color=\"#ffffff\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text admin_label=\"Related posts\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" locked=\"on\"]<\/p> [related-posts-thumbnails]<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=\"1_3\"][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=\"Subscribe\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"et_pb_widget_area_3\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"sidebar-1\" show_border=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pslt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3417"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3491,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3417\/revisions\/3491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Related<\/h1>\n
Related posts:<\/h3>
Matt Atkin: Developing our new vision and strategic plan<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Clive Agnew and Simon Merrywest: NSS results<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Hannah Rundle: It\u2019s not what we do, but how we do it: SEP \u201cHow We Work Together\u201d principles<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
Improving our financial performance will help to deliver our ambitious future plans, but we must also increase our capacity to create the funds and time to invest in our core goals. One of the ways we can do this is by changing what we do and how we do things.<\/p>Related<\/h1>