Questions from the July event

This update was shared in the Friday 19 July Staff Briefing. (Please note, we do not archive previous month's follow up answers. This is to avoid out-of-date information from remaining live.)

Career progression 

It is standard practice across all Higher Education Institutions and most sectors that all Professional, Technical and Operational (PTO) jobs are applied for. When people want to progress they look for more senior (or different roles). Internal mobility, where people move across departments/faculties, is a sign of a healthy culture – providing both continuity and a new environment in which to build one’s experience.  

We are taking a focussed look at standardising our job roles and titles which will help to more fully understand our workforce and design appropriate reward mechanisms. This work will also help us to create different career pathway case-studies to build awareness of potential routes for people to take to developing their careers. It will be important that we continue scanning the workforce for any specific groups that may merit a tailored development pathway. 

The university Pay Review exercise is the process for managers to consider members of staff exceptional contribution to determine if their pay should be adjusted or a one-off consolidated payment. 

We are currently liaising with the joint trade unions, staff networks, departmental operating managers and professional services leads to fully understand the scope of work for the Professional, technical, operational & learning (PTOL) framework.  Once the project has kicked off, there will be an announcement in the Staff Briefing newsletter and a webpage set up to ensure staff are kept up to date. This is likely to be in the new academic year. 

Development 

We prioritise the career development of all our staff through a number of initiatives, including the Technician Commitment, the Postdoc and Fellows Development Centre, the Career Development Skills offer, and the Academic Leadership Development Programme. Find out more about career development support.  

Imperial’s new strategy sets out our intention to create a Future Leaders Academy which commits to developing future leaders across both PTO and academic job families. All of our staff groups are critical to our delivery of our new strategy through collaboration and excellence. 

PTO staff, although specialists in some areas, can apply their skills in different disciplines, departments and sectors. Development for many PTO staff may mean an internal or external move to develop their careers. We are looking at providing a clearer steer to managers and staff on development as we know this is a critical driver to feeling motivated at work.  

EDI principles will underpin the development solutions we design to support managers in the career development space. The Calibre leadership programme supports talent development and leadership for staff who identify as neurodivergent or disabled, or who have a long term physical or mental health condition. 

Imperial is pleased to announce that it has entered into an institutional partnership with the Association for Higher Education Professionals (AHEP). AHEP is the UK’s largest professional membership organisation for HE staff in professional, technical and support roles. This institutional partnership represents a significant, multi-year investment in development opportunities for PTO staff at Imperial.  

As part of the partnership, all professional service staff at Imperial will have access to the following: 

• Discounted membership to AHEP. 50% off membership for the first 100 sign-ups, 20% off membership for everyone else.
• 100 free spaces on AHEP training events, every year
• Free attendance to AHEP’s annual multi-day conference, for five members of staff each year; discounted attendance to the conference for another five members of staff

At an institutional level, we will also benefit from free AHEP consulting and executive coaching for senior leaders. 

By joining AHEP, you will join a network of thousands of Higher Education professionals across the UK. AHEP members benefit from a regular schedule of online and in-person events, a tailored and supported professional development framework, and the opportunity to connect with colleagues in similar roles through a range of ‘Special Interest Groups’. Membership starts from as little as £49 a year (on top of which the institutional discount will be applied). 

The institutional partnership formally launches on 1  August so please keep an eye out for further communications on how to take advantage of this offer. 

Recruitment process 

We were required to move to the new jobs page and appreciate from user feedback that we require some upgrades to the standard functionality. We will be implementing the option to search by job family shortly. We are in discussions with our supplier on our options to enhance the search functionality to include multi-selection. We will update you on our roadmap and timescales once confirmed with the supplier. 

All staff on recruitment panels must undertake recruitment and selection training to ensure the recruitment process is fair, legally compliant, transparent, inclusive, and effective . The Organisational Development and Inclusion team are working with the Associate Provosts EDI to develop a refreshed Fair Recruitment offer. 

Feedback for unsuccessful candidates is important and we will look at the recruitment process to see how feedback can be provided to internal candidates who seek it. 

Training 

The People and Organisational Development (POD) team are working with colleagues in Strategic Programmes and Change to understand the emerging institutional requirements for project management. There are a range of project management courses and resources available including an introduction to PRINCE2. Staff may find a Micro-development session will help them work through what will be useful. 

Outside of the central offer, training budgets are devolved to local departments to cover external training/qualifications. We do offer qualifications via the apprenticeships route which is worth considering. 

The People and Organisational Development team are happy to consult with any team who wish to develop team-wide skills development to create a plan and help to source resources and suppliers. Please contact the team to arrange a meeting. The team are also working closely with different staff groups to understand their needs and provide more tailored development where it is collectively needed. 

The use of psychometric tools at Imperial usually relates to a team development activity. Any use of psychometrics should involve ‘a trained on that tool’ facilitator. Please do discuss any concerns you have with your Senior Organisational Development Consultant from POD who will be able to explain their use in more detail. 

Statistics 

We received a number of requests for statistics in addition to those presented in the session. These will take a little time to produce and will be published in future. 

Imperial Values 

The Values e-learning is a great place to start if you need tips on how to approach a conversation about the Values. There is also support available via POD and Annual Review Conversation (ARC) tools that will help to prepare to raise your points. Using a facilitated conversation may also help. 

If you have concerns about the behaviour of a colleague, do try to raise your concerns with your line manager in the first instance. To help you prepare for this conversation, there is a great micro-development course if you want to improve your relationship with your manager. New dates will be added in the coming weeks for the new academic year. Please contact the team to get on the waiting list. 

If you want to resolve issues with your own line manager, and you don’t feel you can do this on your own, you can reach out to your HR Partner, or to the Employee Relations team for a facilitated conversation. You can also try mediation. If you are not sure what to do and want to reach out, please look at Report and Support. 

Change management

The new strategy and Enabling Roadmap have set out ambitious goals and we acknowledge that Imperial is experiencing a lot of change as we collectively work to deliver these. We recognise the importance of keeping colleagues informed of plans and progress in order that we are able to adapt and implement these changes as teams and individuals and are always looking to improve on this.

At a project level we aim to actively involve the Imperial community in changes which affect them and have provided ongoing updates and communications, as well as monitoring where changes are being delivered. The staff survey results provided some rich information that we can use to improve how we manage change and build our change capability. We will be creating an action plan to and will work with colleagues to develop this. We encourage you to share your thoughts and participate actively nearer the time.

Professional Services workspaces

Regarding the new Professional Services Hub, we are designing in desk space for people to use the office for whom it isn't their primary location. We also expect that meeting rooms will be available and are currently investigating the room booking system. 

Professional Services discussion series

Dates for the event series have been published through to the end of the calendar year. View the dates on the Professional Services discussion webpages. You can also view dates for the In conversation event series.