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Human Resources

April 12, 2016

You said, we listened update

Filed under: Advice & Support,Networking & Collaboration — Tags: , , , — Karen Bush @ 9:15 am

The Staff Survey question of the month in December and January asked for any recommendations from you – and we received over 100 ideas! We wanted to share with you some of the work we have been doing as a result of your comments and suggestions.

We have updates covering:WE ARE ESSEX

  • Improving communication during change
  • Escape from your desk
  • Getting the work-life balance right
  • Improve your IT efficiency
  • Food outlets across campus
  • Syncing calendars with teaching hours and HR Organiser
  • Toilets at Colchester campus
  • Chairing meetings course

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February 22, 2016

Marmite meetings

Filed under: Advice & Support,TEL — Tags: , , , — Amy Lowe @ 9:35 am
marmite-jar

Do you love or loath meetings in the workplace?

Following on from September’s Question of the Month responses, we have collated a number of  solutions to help to reduce the burden of meetings in the workplace.

One way to save yourself some time (and money) is to organise your meetings using some clever technology that allows participants to join no matter where they are in the world.

When organising another meeting consider…

1. Do all invitees have to travel?

Why not take a look at this 15-Minute Manual on Remote Meeting Technology to get an idea of what’s involved and how you could take advantage of this simple process. You’ll need to login to Moodle with your Essex ID, e.g. ralph@essex.ac.uk, to read the manual.

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December 1, 2015

Building confidence and trust in our managers

Filed under: People Management — Tags: , , , , , — Paul Smart @ 9:38 am

Have you answered the latest question of the month?

October’s QOTM results

In October 2015 we asked whether your line manager inspired confidence and trust. We received over 190 responses and the highlights were:

  • Overall 57.9% of the responses voted ‘yes’ their line manager inspires confidence and trust.
  • In the Faculty of Science & Health, 75% of the votes were ‘yes’, followed by the Faculty of Social Sciences with 69.2% ‘yes’ votes and Professional Services staff voting 56.1% positively.
  • The Faculty of Humanities, Professional Services staff within a faculty/department and Campus Services all received 50% or lower ‘yes’ voters.

Feedback from the free text comments will be factored into an ongoing review of manager training and development opportunities at the University. This is a core element of the People Supporting Strategy which seeks to clarify the roles and responsibilities of those who are in leadership and management positions and establish a talent development programme for all members of the University.

Training currently available

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October 15, 2015

Staff question of the month – October

Filed under: Networking & Collaboration,People Management — Tags: , , — Karen Bush @ 4:30 pm

Staff question of the month for October 2015WEAREESSEX

This month we’re interested in your views on your line manager. Do they inspire confidence and trust? Answer this months question and leave your comments on what you think needs to be done to improve this.

Your replies will be entirely anonymous.

Last month’s question

Last month we asked you for your views on what would most improve your experience of meetings here at Essex, and we received lots of great examples of what works well.
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September 3, 2015

Staff question of the month

Filed under: Networking & Collaboration — Tags: , , , — Karen Bush @ 9:37 am

Staff question of the month for September 2015meeting-huddle

This month we’re interested in your views on what would most improve your experience of meetings. We’ve giving you three options to vote for (having a clear purpose, having strong meeting leadership or having the people in the room). We also want to know about the things you do to get the best out of meetings.

Your replies will be anonymous.

Last month’s question

Last month we asked you whether you know that the University has a flexible working policy and about your experience of flexible working at the University.

We had over 300 responses, 75% of whom knew about our flexible working policy, 23% did not, and 2% were unsure.
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August 13, 2015

Staff question of the month

Filed under: Networking & Collaboration — Tags: , , , , — Karen Bush @ 9:57 am

Question of the month for August 2015back-bend

This month we are looking at flexible working. Answer our third question of the month to tell us about your experience of flexible working at the University.

Your replies will be anonymous and help to inform the development of our new suite of work/life balance policies.

Last month’s question

Last month we asked you identify when you feel the least pressure in your workload.

  • 35% of those who responded indicated that August was the month they felt the least pressure,
  • 19% said it was December and
  • 18% said the whole year was pressurised – there was no let-up.

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July 2, 2015

How did it get so late so soon?

Filed under: Advice & Support,Developing Knowledge — Tags: , , , , , , — Mandy Borges @ 4:00 pm

No matter where we work, who we work with or which grade we’re on, we all have 168 hours in any week. the-eleventh-hour-clock

We all lead busy lives and sometimes it feels like gremlins take away our precious time leaving us with seemingly less and less time.

Here are some of my top tips that I use to manage my time. Could some of these work for you?

Work out your goals – What are your main priorities?  What do you want to achieve today, this week, this month, this year?  Write yourself a list on a post-it or on a whiteboard.  You can then use this list to write your short term action plan.

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July 1, 2015

Staff question of the month

Filed under: Networking & Collaboration — Tags: , , , , — Karen Bush @ 9:00 am

Following the results of the 2015 Staff Survey, we have established a programme of further engagement activities in order to give you as members of the staff community, the opportunity to collaborate with us during the npressure-gauge-2ext phase of action planning.

Question of the month for July 2015

In response to the identified area of concerns about job demands, we want to hear your thoughts on how we can address this. Answer our second question of the month to identify when you feel the least pressure in your workload.

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June 11, 2015

Top 5 resources to help you build resilience at work

Filed under: Advice & Support,Developing Knowledge — Tags: , , , , , , — Katherine Parker @ 5:10 pm

Did you know that the University has many resources and support readily available to you to help manage stress and build resilience at work?gym-class

Below are my top 5 recommended support mechanisms for staff needing further advice on how to manage stress.

For further information about these resources please contact your local HR team or Learning and Development.

Coming soon…

Human Resources will also be offering a new interactive resilience workshop developed by health professionals, coming in 2015-16. Look out for further communication of this new workshop in the autumn term.

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June 2, 2015

Staff question of the month

Filed under: Networking & Collaboration — Tags: , , , — Karen Bush @ 9:11 am

 We’re listening

Following the results of the 2015 Staff Survey, we have established a programme of further engagement activities in order to give you as members of the staff community, the opportunity to collaborate with us during the next phase of action planning.

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