FAQs
If you have a question, check our Frequently Asked Questions below to find your answer. If you can't find the information you are looking for please contact us.
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Why do we need Imperial Values?
The development of our Values links directly to achieving our Strategy and delivering the Imperial Mission by stating what is important to us and how we work together.
To help us achieve the aims and objectives set out in our Strategy, the Provost's Board wanted to develop a set of Values and Behaviours that will:
- Create clarity by articulating positive behaviour
- Support consistency across the College
- Raise a shared awareness through ongoing conversations
- Set priorities and define the leadership behaviour that is most valued by staff
- Act as a basis for feedback and provide a framework for improvement-focused conversations
- Reinforce a culture where positive behaviours are recognised, and poor conduct addressed
The development of Imperial Values also helps us respond to the shifting external environment, the challenges of new ways of working and increasing concerns about mental health and wellbeing.
How will the Values link to Imperial Expectations?
The Values incorporate Imperial Expectations, providing a shared framework for the Imperial Community, including students and staff. The spirit and intent of the Expectations haven’t been lost. The framework illustrates how our Expectations map into the Behaviours Framework. The Values, therefore, build on, refresh and update the Expectations.
Do the Values replace Expectations or do we need to refer to both?
We will use and refer to our Imperial Values. Our Values and behaviours incorporate Imperial Expectations. The spirit and intent of the Expectations haven’t been lost. The framework illustrates how our Expectations map into the Behaviours Framework. The Values, therefore, build on, refresh and update the Expectations.
My department has its own values already. How will this impact on them?
Your local Values remain in place, and you can continue to build on their success. Imperial Values will complement your local Values and won't contradict them. If you want to explore how you may support your local Values alongside Imperial Values, please contact the People and Organisational Development team.
I don’t feel I’m seeing or experiencing Imperial Values. What should I do?
Imperial Values describe the behaviours we would all like to experience in our working environment. This will not happen overnight and will be a development process for us all. Read through our Quick Reference Guide and identify whether there are approaches that might help you to respond appropriately.
A number of approaches and policies are being developed to allow staff to resolve or escalate problems. You can view progress on embedding the values. In the first instance, please contact your HR Partner or OD Consultant.
How will leaders be held accountable for demonstrating the values?
We all contribute to our working and learning environment in how we behave and respond to others.
In 2021, senior leaders participated in sessions to support them in considering the role and impact of leadership in demonstrating our shared values. Along with everyone else, senior leaders will need to be open to feedback on what they are doing well and what could be improved.
We all are responsible for speaking up respectfully and appropriately when we see our values being demonstrated and when they are not.
Our Provost and the Provost’s board have reiterated their lead and commitment to demonstrating the values and behaviours through their signup to our values and their ownership for launching and embedding them across our community.
Why were the Values launched in October 2021?
We have all experienced significant changes and challenges, and we must learn and improve. The launch of the Imperial Values was timed to coincide with a wide range of cultural initiatives under the umbrella of the Imperial Together Campaign. Imperial wanted to ensure that the learning from the Working Together Task Group was fed into the ImperialValues—to help identify barriers to achieving a positive culture.
We must have a shared framework and tools to help us all respond to what we’ve been through and strive to make a better and more considerate environment in the future. Our Provost and the Provost’s board lead the commitment to Imperial Values. The embedding of Values will evolve over the coming weeks, months and years. At this stage, we ask Imperial leaders to launch and share the Values in their areas and for all staff to become familiar with them by reading the Behaviours Framework and having conversations about them with their teams.
We recognise that staff have limited time; however, improving our culture will benefit us all in how we experience working and studying at Imperial.
Why will Imperial Values be useful for me?
Through our work to define the Imperial Values, we’ve heard your stories of the range of experiences you have working and learning at Imperial.
The Values and Behaviours framework and supporting guide are intended to help staff and students have constructive conversations about the behaviours we observe, explore strategies for managing difficult situations and, most importantly, describe the standards of behaviour we expect from each other.
Imperial Values express those behaviours that are important to people and celebrate what we do well already. The framework also explicitly names those behaviours that are unacceptable.
I have a question about the values – who can I ask?
The first step is to check our quick reference guide that gives you an overview of our helpful tools and techniques. Depending on your question, you may want to discuss a situation with your line manager.
Strategic HR Partners are available if you need help with a complex issue or you feel you don’t know what to do in a specific situation.