Staff survey: wellbeing and managing work
Colleagues are invited to have your say in a new staff survey focussing on your wellbeing and how you are managing work.
Share your views in our latest anonymous staff survey
These were the key themes to emerge from our most recent wellbeing survey and, as we all try to deal with the restrictions of a third national lockdown, we felt it was really important to check in with you about them. The safety and wellbeing of our staff and students remains our top priority, but we appreciate individual experiences can vary significantly.
You can share your views in our anonymous short survey, which should only take about five minutes to complete. It will remain open until 5pm on Monday 1 March to allow extra time to complete it for those taking leave during half-term.
We recognise there are lots of calls being made on you. However, we’d be grateful if you can find the time to fill in the survey, as it’s an effective way of helping us gauge and respond to the issues you’re facing.
Linda Mortimer Pine, Director of HR Service and Organisational Change, said: “Thanks to all those who responded to the most recent survey. We’re listening to what you say and your honesty is helping us determine how to make working arrangements easier for you.
“Some of the improvements we’ve already made on the topics you raised are listed below, while others will take more time to develop. It’s clear one of the main themes is around managing work, and while we appreciate things are constantly changing, your feedback is key in helping us respond to this.”
We are enhancing the support available to colleagues and will continue to share more detail with you in the coming weeks.
Actions so far include:
- training for managers to help maintain a sense of belonging for teams and individuals, especially while working remotely
- LOGIK classes, social groups and other relaxed opportunities for staff to connect remotely with others
- for those balancing caring responsibilities, the carer’s leave allowance has been increased to 10 days within a 12-month period until the end of March, while the usual ‘urgent and unplanned circumstances’ criteria in the policy does not need to apply at the moment
- Health and Safety Services reviewing and updating the advice for staff on working from home, with more updates to come soon
- providing more training and support for teaching colleagues through digital learning resources that can help supplement your classes and support your students to study remotely
- organising a series of free, virtual, 30-minute roadshow sessions being held by OD&PL in February and March to find out how to access our new collection of LinkedIn Learning courses, supporting colleagues to develop their digital skills for personal and career development; and
- reviewing the Flexible Working Policy, which covers remote working – we’ll keep you posted as this develops.
We’ll share a summary of any key themes you raise in this latest survey as soon as possible after it closes. In the meantime, we’d like to remind all colleagues about the support available if you feel you’re struggling now, or are concerned you may do so in the future. We can help by:
- providing one-to-one support through confidential wellbeing chats with Occupational Health practitioners (email to arrange), confidential counselling with Staff Counselling (email to arrange or call 0113 3433694) and external support around workplace mental health from the Department of Work and Pensions (email to arrange)
- facilitating ad hoc access to campus for health reasons – arranged through your line manager on an individual basis – if this becomes important
- sharing details of online wellbeing resources to support good mental health, including information and exercises etc.
- providing a range of online self-care and wellbeing resources – available through OD&PL – to support colleagues, as well as a suite of personal resilience workshops being delivered in collaboration with the Staff Counselling and Psychological Support Service; and
- offering workouts, exercises and articles on staying healthy at home, recipes, quit smoking support and sleep advice, all through the Healthy body wellbeing webpages.
We know this is a difficult time for you all and we very much appreciate your continued dedication and hard work.
Thank you in advance for your time and please contact the Wellbeing, Safety and Health team if you have any questions about the survey.
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