Month: November 2024

How our new redeployment process helps to retain skills and knowledge

Posted on by University of Bristol

By Liam Taylor

Liam is Head of Resourcing at the University of Bristol and is responsible for hiring strategy and delivery across the institution.

Liam has previously worked in the energy sector for both the big 6 and the energy regulator, Ofgem in a range of talent focused roles.

 

The University is committed to the delivery of research and education of the highest quality. Continuity of employment is an important element in achieving this.

Effective reallocation of work and/or redeployment retains valuable skills and knowledge within the University, contributes to the creation of a positive work environment and meets the University’s moral and legal obligations. It should also provide the University with means to achieve a broader skills base and a more flexible workforce in the longer term, whilst accepting the need to create/recruit new skills and talent where appropriate.

What is redeployment?

Redeployment gives employees whose jobs are at risk the chance to find a new job at the University. All organisations have a statutory obligation to provide priority access to new vacancies for employees at risk of redundancy.

Who it applies to and when;

Redeployment applies to employees who are either:

  • at risk of redundancy
  • needing to be redeployed for a non-redundancy reason

The University Redeployment Pool (URP)

When you’ve been formally notified that your job is at risk, you’ll be added to the university redeployment pool. The pool permits access to our redeployment job board, and visibility of all new job openings before they are advertised more widely.

Changes to the redeployment process

We launched a new process for redeployment at the end of January this year, with two main drivers for this change.

Firstly, feedback from staff told us that the experience of being a redeployee was falling short of our own expectations. Some key themes covered limited access to vacancies, poor support during redeployment and a clinical feel to the redeployment journey.

Operational efficiency was the second factor. The resources required to deliver the pre-31st January process were too great when compared to the number of individuals who submitted applications. A helpful way to highlight this is the pre-existing matching process, where redeployees would be sent roles deemed relevant to their existing skill set. This generated an application rate of just 3.3% – a figure far too low considering the amount of effort required.

We’re an organisation that takes its responsibilities towards redeployment seriously. The experience of redundancy can be a highly personal and anxiety-inducing experience, often impacting individuals who stay with the University as much as those who leave. In either circumstance, we strive for the experience of redeployment to authentically embody our commitment to mitigating redundancies, rather than an exercise in simply meeting an obligation.

Armed with this goal, the re-designed process has:

  • Increased visibility of all new vacancies across the organisation through a new redeployment jobs board, restricted to redeployees. This aims to give individuals a greater degree of control over their redeployment journey through an ability to pursue opportunities outside of their current domain. A wider cross-pollination of skills is valuable for the University and the volume of opportunities for redeployment is increased.
  • New dedicated support for staff in the redeployment pool. Our Resourcing Business Partners play an active role in supporting staff to find a new role. This involves providing guidance on policy and individual circumstances and advice on application writing, transferability of skills and interviewing. Our aim is to craft a more human-centred experience for redeployees that fully considers individual needs at each touchpoint and reduces uncertainty wherever possible.
  • Improved guidance for redeployment, including information targeted at recruiting managers, outlining their responsibilities in considering applicants from the redeployment pool, the use of trial periods and the assessment of training needs for redeployees to transition successfully into new roles. This information can be found here.

So, have the changes had any impact in the first 6 months? In short, yes. The number of applications through the redeployment process which resulted in successful outcomes has increased to 28%, an increase from 18%. However, it’s still too early to make a full assessment – this will take place with one year’s data in hand, during February 2025. We will look at the core rate of redeployment – the total number of individuals successfully redeployed as a proportion of those put at risk of redundancy, as well as a breakdown by certain staff populations, including Pathway 2.

Redeployment as a process will continue to evolve, and we’ll use our improved data and user experience feedback as the evidence base for future change. We hope that a more iterative approach to change will help us in fine-tuning a process that has great impact on the individual, as much as the institution.

Improving our research culture: it starts with Working Well Together

Posted on by University of Bristol

By Professor Marcus Munafò

Marcus is Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research Culture at the University of Bristol. He leads on research culture activity across the university, providing direction and vision, working across the institutional landscape, and identifying key challenges and opportunities. He is also institutional lead for the UK Reproducibility Network.

 

Last month we welcomed colleagues from across the University to the Bristol Beacon’s Lantern Hall to learn more about the Working Well Together resource, as part of this year’s Enhancing Research Culture event series.

So, what is Working Well Together?

Dr Sarah Campbell, part of the Working Well Together team, introduces the resource

The Working Well Together (WWT) resource is designed to support teams, and the people within them, who work effectively in an HE context and enhance their team culture. It helps to create an environment in which everyone can thrive, and which enables high quality, reproducible research. The approach is inquisitive, starting with where teams are, identifying approaches which are right for them, and continuing to ask questions along the way.

The resource is designed to help teams do more of what they are doing well, and to support them in areas that are more challenging. It focuses on identifying some quick wins, but offers no quick fixes. The aim of the resource is to offer groups the tools and expertise to develop a culture that can help its members respond to the evolving challenges of their work.

Professor Jack Mellor stands on stage to discuss his experience of using the Working Well Together resource
Professor Jack Mellor discusses his team’s experience of using the WWT resource

Groups that have used the resource have found it an enjoyable way to take stock of how things are going, and start some of the harder conversations they need to have. They say it’s given insights into challenges they weren’t aware of, and helped remind them of what is going well and how to do more of the things that have a positive impact. Others have found it has equipped them with the skills needed to work well together, and started the process of making time to reflect and review as a group.

Teams / groups are invited to pilot the resource until the end of January 2025. When we talk about teams / groups this can include anyone who is part of, and supports, research activity, so may include academic staff, technical staff, professional services staff and research students. If you are interested in learning more about a pilot, please complete this form.

The WWT resource is about building stronger, more supportive teams in order to work more effectively together and create a more inclusive working environment.

Event attendees discuss how their teams could use the WWT resource

From the Enhancing Research Culture allocated we receive from Research England, to the new People, Culture and Environment (PCE) assessment category in the next Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessment, it is clear that the organisations that shape the higher education system are emphasising the importance of a robust, equitable and inclusive research process from start to finish, rather than focusing solely the outputs of our research.

Panel discussion and Q+A: Looking ahead to REF 2029

To delve into this new REF category and what it means for the research landscape, I was joined by Dr Helen Young (Associate Director of Research Excellence, University of Bristol), Dr Caroline Jarrett (Faculty of Science and Engineering Technical Manager, University of Bristol) and Dr Faith Uwadiae (Research Culture and Communities Specialist, Wellcome Trust).

Our panel answer questions from the audience during the event

Over the course of an hour’s discussion we covered a lot, but some key points and highlights are summarised below;

  • There was recognition from both academic and technical colleagues in attendance that the culture within research is improving, but there is still a long way to go
  • Funders are already considering, and in some cases requiring, grant applications to consider people, the environment they work within, and the culture they create.
  • The REF measures research outputs, which are naturally downstream from the work involved in setting up research or project teams, and carrying out the work.
  • Positive changes to how we approach project setup and delivery therefore have an impact on our research outputs.
  • Investing time and energy in building strong groups and ways of working pays dividends down the line, but currently this time and focus is often not prioritised.

The move to include People, Culture and Environment in REF2029 highlights the importance of the work that we have been doing both at an institutional level and within our own professional circles and teams to improve our research culture, and I thank all of you who have been involved over the years.

I’m reminded of a quote from one of our first ever Research Culture events, the talk on The Joy of Failure with Annie Vernon, who won Olympic silver in the Women’s Quadruple Sculls at Beijing 2008. Success doesn’t mean we did everything right, and failure doesn’t mean we did everything wrong. Together, we can continue to build on our success whilst recognising there are still areas to improve.