Warwick Network: Session Feedback

What Makes a Good Administrator?

Blue Skies Thinking

The session was lively, engaged and intellectually critical. There was identification of numerous and widespread disincentives to and difficulties in exploring and implementing new ideas, and the great benefits that could ensue from overcoming them. There was not sufficient time, however, to explore the latter theme with sufficient specificity to represent a significant advance.

Contention did reveal the gulf between staff from different parts of the University (academic, academic-related, IT, Business School, Arts Centre, commercial operations/Warwick Hospitality, NAGTY, communications, and several others) in the way “new ideas” are understood and the practicalities involved in trying them out. This was especially evident in the way risk strategies were conceptualised, and in awareness and use of information sources. The University has an interest in looking more closely at this area, as notions of risk, risk incentives and risk benefits were, in this group, mostly at wide variance from generally accepted understandings.

Co-ordinating Deadlines: A New University Calendar

Purpose of the session: To gather information and explore the issues in communicating effectively with Heads of Departments and ensuring they get all of the information they need when they need it.

Objectives:

Understand work that is ongoing on the web-based Heads of Department handbook
Gather information on what administrative departments send out now, when and to whom
Understand how departments on the receiving end feel about this and how they use the information
To explore ideas for sending information in different ways.

Outcomes:

To find ways of simplifying information and better ways of communicating to Heads of Departments without increasing bureaucracy in administrative departments.

What does it feel like on the receiving end of central communications / request for information?

Positives

Negatives

Good to see the context / explanation of the issue or request.
Assists in predicting what is going to happen / what is required and in finding out what is going on without having to seek it out.

Sometimes there are contradictions between the various pieces of information being sent out to Heads of Departments.
Frequent staff changes can inhibit communication or knowledge.
Information can be unclear as to why exactly the Head of Department is receiving it and whether they should do anything with it; do they need to know asap or is it just for reference?
Conflicts with departmental timetable – sometimes just not possible to meet deadlines set.
Can receive multiple requests for the same information by different people in multiple offices and in different formats.
Not knowing whether or not web information is up-to-date.
Not knowing new information is posted on the web that you need to know about / not knowing where it is on the web.
Emailing multiple documents or huge spreadsheets which are difficult to print.

What does it feel like as a sender of central information / requests?

Positives

Negatives

Wish to strike the correct balance in being consultative with academic departments and releasing burden by taking action themselves.
Beneficial to have academic colleagues know about and support what is being done / responses being given to consultations.

The University receives a large number of requests/consultations from outside agencies and it can be very time-consuming to seek ad hoc comments/information from all academic departments.
Not sure if the correct person in the Department has received the information or request and sometimes don’t receive anything back or quality of response is poor.
Report or policy document can have a significant number of versions as it progresses through committees.
A significant minority of colleagues do not want to receive electronic information.

Suggestions for improvement:

Better communication of the priority of the information or request being sent out
- increase clarity as to who to respond to centrally and who is available to ask questions about an information request
- need for a brief executive summary on some documents
- Might we have a suggested pro-forma coversheet or list of summary information that should be used on all communications to Heads of Departments to make it clearer to them what is needed? Consistency in format may help.
Further consideration (possible ‘hints and tips’) as to the best format to send different types of materials at different times – different formats can be suitable for different pieces of information.
Could we have a fortnightly email/communication to HofDs that includes a very brief headline of the information and/or requests that have been sent out to them during that time – weblinks where possible - Inbox insite idea?
Consideration of exactly who should receive the information, who should take which actions and by when
- Improve understanding of the academic departmental structure by central administrative colleagues
- What is the Head of Department responsible for (directly? Indirectly?)
- Better identification of who should be contacted about what – may assist in reducing the ‘overload’.
Circulate uptodate diagrams of central administrative departments to academic departments.
Link the calendar in the HofD handbook with the Committee Timetable
- related to need to consider academic department timetable in setting deadlines – such a tool on the HofD handbook would be useful for central administrators as well.
Give reminders closer to deadlines if first request came earlier.
Provide on the HofD site a list of new policy documents issued in the last x months – or links to other websites containing them (relates to knowing whether or not a certain policy or procedure has been updated and whether the web information is accurate).
Central administration to consider where multiple sets of the same information is being requested; is there a standard/’joined up’ way of obtaining this to reduce burden on academic departments and still get the necessary information?
Utilise workflow systems for key business processes that can be monitored and tracked.

Actions Taken

Information collected as to what information central departments were already sending out was passed to Sharon Neal in CAP for incorporation in the online HofD handbook.
Notes given to Casey for feedback from two sessions.

Commercial Activity (AM)

Commercial activities, who we are and what we do. Concentrating on the message that we provide Services and Profit for the University community
Brainstorming of new business ideas
Collected the ideas and discussed the issue of how we decide what ones to take further and what ones to ditch
Then we went through a web based questionnaire that gets a wide group to judge each idea, collating the responses to clearly show what are good and bad ideas
Finally, we discussed how we could take good ideas, grab them, and take them forward. This was where they all had issues. The general feel is that we have lost our ability to be entrepreneurial, that we have too many hurdles to go through to get things approved, that we wrap everything up in cotton wool/committees etc., that it all takes too much time

The Committee System: How to Get Decisions Made

The session was reasonably well attended, with participants from a diverse set of departments, and there were a number of serious and helpful questions and suggestions.

Points which arose in discussion:

Request that information on what PVCs do be put on the web.
Governance web site to be re-named to reflect what it is about and therefore make it easier to locate by users.
The University telephone book is way out of date and the departmental list /telephone book on-line has names missing. Request that this is addressed and updated asap. (See Finding People.)
Legal advice – we need to communicate and promote the University’s legal office, provide contract templates, details of timeframes within which legal advice is provided and where responsibilities lie between departments and the “centre” for drafting documentation more clearly.
The University archive does not receive copies of all Committee papers on a consistent basis. A revised policy needs to be drafted and circulated to committee secretaries and a copy lodged with the Archivist. There is also a need to review archived University material to ensure there are no significant gaps and to fill gaps where these exist.

Crisis Management

The Crisis Management workshop had three sections:

What is a Crisis?
What is Issues Management?
The Rules of Successful Crisis Management

The Group, which including a number of staff who had been directly involved in crisis situations, had no problem in identifying crises (of all types) which either had or could impact on the University. Most thought the University had so far been fortunate in mostly experiencing minor crises but still recognised the drain of time and resources, not to mention the long term damage to reputation, that a mis-handled crisis might cause.

We spent some time examining issues management models. Overall, we felt that the University currently doesn't operate an effective issues management process, even taking into account our changing approach to manage risk through the annual corporate planning cycle. This was the main conclusion conclusion of the workshop although responsibility for, and membership of an issues management group, was not determined.

In looking at best and worst practice of crisis management situations the group felt that, on the whole, where Warwick had been exposed to crisis situations it had managed them well.

Finding People (AM)

Examples of trouble finding the right person to speak to:

Finance - getting passed from Purchasing to Group Accounts to Payroll and back to the orginal person in Purchasing.
Library Enquiries Phone Number - often deals with general enquiries such as: postal addresses and information about the Students' Union.
Academic Office & IT Services - difficult to know who does what - even within the departments themselves.
These examples were laregly blamed on lack of communication.

(Note: several people in this session mentioned that they would find an up-to-date printed version of the phone book useful: particularly as it is the place to find out about organisational structure. The fact that not everyone has a PC was also mentioned. However Andrea Walters from the Telecomms Office explains the difficults with producing a printed phone book.)

These are the potential solutions that the group raised:

Improving the Induction Process
- Creating a culture of communication
- Provide inductions for people changing roles within the organisation not just for new starters
- Encourage departmental inductions as well as University-wide ones
- Provide a Managers' Induction Checklist
Create a Directory of Central Job Profiles
- Make it online with a keyword search
- Jargon free
- Need profiles for Departments too which should be linked
Promote the use of Telephone Helpdesks
- The Estates and ITS Helpdesks were particularly praised
- However the inytroduction of a Helpdesk system for the Academic Office caused disquiet
Inclusion of Temporary Staff on Email and Phone Directories
Indication of working hours on directories

The Induction process is currently being reviewed by Personnel so we left that topic to one side during the subsequent discussion. We concentrated instead on the idea of an online directory that includes job roles.

Using this model the group then discussed the challenges and opportunities of such a system. Challenges identified included:

People who job share - does there need to be a link between these individuals records? Or should the records be for roles not for individuals?
- People who have numerous phone numbers - which phone number is for which capacity?
The directory must be kept up-to-date with leavers and new starters and if possible long-term temporary staff and contract staff
- How soon after people leave should this happen?
The difficulty of individuals keeping their pages up-to-date
- Would it be possible to prompt regular reviews?

Looking at this list of possible directory fields the group decided which they would prioritise:

First Name
Last Name
Job Profile/ Keywords
Telephone extension
Email Address (including role email address if appropriate)
Working pattern/ hours
Department (with links to an hierarchical list of the people in that department)
Subdepartment (with links to an hierarchical list of the people in that subdepartment)

An effective keyword search was included in the bare minimum of necessities. The search should be able to cope with mispellings. The group also felt that it was important to have seperate first and last name fields on the search tool - because often people only know part of a name. The group considered that photos should be optional - but that they should be uploaded as standard from the Membership Database (using staff card photos).

Finding People (PM)

A lively discussion with many examples of how difficult it can be to find the right person including;

A perception that the move to University House has swelled the number of central administrators and it is much harder to now find people, both via email, telephone and physically. There was a feeling from staff representing academic departments that there had been a shift away from co-operation to a more anonymous culture
Too much rotation of staff within University House so you never know who is doing what and who has taken over who’s role. Rota system means that nobody owns a role and people in the academic departments always feel they are starting from scratch with each new change
No lists of roles and responsibilities held against name, telephone numbers and emails and often a job title doesn’t indicate this either
Not everyone is included in the telephone directory online which can be frustrating and the paper versions are very out of date
Departmental websites are very varied. Some don’t have a general enquiry number or email which can result in the first person on the list getting all of the enquiries, even if this is the Head of Department
New starters find it very difficult to know how to find people and are sometimes not even told about existing sources such as telephone and email directories
People who are known to be helpful within University House can be inundated with queries which are little to do with their role

Possible solutions offered included:

Pulling together all existing ‘people search’ facilities into one clearly labelled area on insite
Creating centrally maintained distribution lists for common groups of people e.g. HODs, departmental administrators etc.
Improving induction processes to include ‘finding people’ information and short summaries on all departments with key responsibilities
Improving signposting in University House and releasing a clear floor plan showing how to find different departments/areas
Improving standardisation of departmental web pages to include basic contact data
Standardisation of email addresses so that it is possible to ‘guess’ an address from a name
Creation of a staff directory including contact details and role responsibilities

Most of the discussion in this session focussed on this particular solution. It was felt that a dynamic institution like Warwick needed a dynamic solution like this and it was felt that the timing was good for this with a lot of the work on role description having been done through the job evaluation scheme.

As far as possible, fields should be populated with existing data from the HR system, telephone directory, email directory etc but the directory should also include the ability for staff to enhance their own entry should they so wish. For example, staff might want to edit their responsibility section to more clearly reflect the day to day role they perform.

It was recognised that the hardest element to control would be the updating of such a directory. Responsibility for updating would rest with each department who might chose to manage this centrally or by delegating to the individual. An annual or biannual exercise should also take place from the centre to ensure that the directory is up to date.

It would be important to be able to search by all fields in the directory and to be able to search across multiple categories. It should be possible to create lists from the directory by dept, role, research interests etc.

The inclusion of photographs would have to be left to the choice of the individual to avoid data protection issues.

One or two members of the group also thought it would be useful to create this directory in paper form but acknowledged the problems with currency that this would bring.

Actions and Outcomes:

The Corporate Information Systems Team are creating an improved and combined online phone and email directory
- Internal Communications have discussed the idea of including role profiles and other information
- This will be considered as a seond wave of development by the Corporate Information Systems Working Party
Internal Communications are investigating the extent and nature of the need for a printed telephone directory
Internal Communications will speak to Personnel about the progress on the review of induction procedure
Internal Communications will investigate the provision of distribution lists
A plan of University House will be posted on insite
Internal Communications will speak to elab about standardising the position of contact details on departmental websites
Internal Communications will speak to the Email Project team about the possibility of standardising email addresses

Internal Customer Service (AM)

Key feedback re improving internal relationships across the University:

Need to demonstrate more mutual respect for each other - in simple things like for example responding to emails and voicemail messages in t timely and sometime less 'curt' manner - Is there are a protocol paper?
More understanding needed of what people and departments do so that we can more effectively empathise with and support each other - e.g. pressure points/resourcing issues etc.
We need to better understand expectations of each other in terms of SLAs etc.
We maybe need SLAs in areas where we don't have them
More regular networking sessions would be very valuable
We don't know enough about each other
Maybe some more QA auditing for support departments would help us to raise our game
PULSE should be repeated and points for action identified and implemented

Internal Customer Service (PM)

A delegate-led session where everyone attending contributed to the discussion around internal customer service.

The group consisted of representatives from a range of service providers and everyone expressed frustrations that have had a significant impact on their department’s ability to deliver services. The major issues were:

Departments appear to operate in isolation
Very little understanding of other department’s business requirements
Little if any cross-departmental working relationships
Communication between departments poor
Need to know the right person, official channels don’t always work
Where delivery of service relies on another internal supplier the response is often poor and results in:
- Frustration
- Potential loss of business
- Damage to department’s/University’s reputation
Internal service providers do not appear to be able to respond quickly enough
Service improvements difficult to implement if reliant on another service provider
Escalation routes when difficulties encountered not known or understood

Action Agreed

The group agreed to meet again to begin to develop closer relationships and to discuss the perceived internal 'barriers' further with the aim of working together to develop strategies to resolve some of them and investigate appropriate escalation routes where required.

Environmental Perspective

Brainstorm Session 1: What environmental impact does the university have? (15 mins)

Rationale: To identify the key environmental impacts that the university has and to gauge attendee’s relative levels of interest.

Energy Use	Heating & power Gas & electricity Gas Utilities Energy use Electricity
Resource Use	Water usage Food Packaging
Polution	Light Pollution Emissions
The Natural Environment	Animal / plant welfare Roads & paths Wildlife Hard landscape
Purchasing & procurement	Environmentally friendly suppliers Food miles Food sourcing
Transport	Transport emissions Vehicles Flights Air travel Transport Little teleworking
Discharges	Water waste Sewerage Grey water
Solid Waste	Refuse Electrical goods disposal Clinical, chemical and toxic waste Waste Food waste Waste – food, paper and equipment Rubbish
Other	Publicity

Summary: Major impact areas around energy, transport and solid waste. Little consideration of pollution, risk and potential environmental liabilities.

Brainstorm Session 2: “Making a Difference” – Tangible measures to reduce our environmental impact (30 mins)

Rationale: Focusing upon areas of specific environmental impact, identify areas that we can look to enhance/promote

Energy Efficiency	Changing minds – make people feel responsible for switching things off Turn off PC monitors Motion sensor controlled lights Timers for water heaters Hand towels vs electric driers Transport Minimise journeys Communal bikes Choice of vehicles Car share
Green Travel Reduce need for travel Minimise carbon footprint of travel	Flights Can we reduce them? Offset carbon from all flights Use less environmentally harmful airlines University Vehicles Use of electric / hybrid vehicles Minibus service for on-campus transport Cycle share scheme on campus Commuting Encourage car share Encourage use of public transport Work with bus cos - more services Sprinter service Information re what are more environmentally-friendly options More home working
Reusing / Recycling	Eliminate plastic and paper cups from water dispensers where there are cups, washing facilities available Use waste paper as notepads before recycling Return toners, ink cartridges to suppliers Compost food waste Improve recycling facilities for basic items across campus Buy recycled paper
The Natural Environment	Protect environments (eg ponds) Grow some fuels on site – more forestry Let farmland return to natural state Treat algae with natural techniques Quantify impacts of new buildings Enhance environment for wildlife Use grey water Consider environmental issues at planning stage and ensure equal footing with economic considerations.

Opportunities from Workshop

Utilise feedback from Brainstorm Session 1 to revise university’s existing environmental policy. (ongoing through NH)
Utilise ideas from Brainstorm 2 to establish priority areas (NH and Estates)
Take forward carbon offsetting for staff air travel idea and spread message re specific local environmental measures eg bike share, recycled note paper etc. (NH)
Incorporate ideas from session into communications strategy, including redesign of environmental web / intranet and updates/bulletins (NH, Comms, IT).

Leadership in Higher Education: Sector Trends

Definitions of Leadership:

Creating space for others to act
Convincing others to "buy in"
Inspirational - creates followers
Respected
Engenders trust
Visionary - but grounded and inclusive
Defines a whole culture

Nuturing Tomorrow's Leaders:

Exposure to what's going on
Learning and understanding the organisational culture
Giving people the chance to take risks
Recognising and rewarding success
Giving people exposure to different areas in the University/sector
Personal Development Planning / Focus on Leadership
Helping people to think about what leadership is - and apply that learning
Providing space for personal growth

Mentoring

The groups considered the following question:

How Might Mentoring be Used Within the Administration?

To support the appraisal process
To develop Personal Development Plans
To support new staff
To support career development
To improve the understanding of work/life balance
To resolve difficult relationships/ resolve conflict
Creating a form of networking
To increase staff well-being
As a team building/ motivational tool
To help develop strategy/ aid decision-making
To help manage absenteeism
To help people meet their potential

Pulse Results

Some participants felt that problems on bullying and harassment, and stress, could be linked to the fact that ALC staff do not have set hours – could lead to a long hours culture. Not necessarily down to the fact that there are no set hours, but to the culture encouraged by individual managers.

Many issues from the survey could be addressed with better training of managers – but this would need to be compulsory or strongly encouraged, or based on a proper review of an individual manager’s capabilities. There was some surprise that managers could often be appointed and do management jobs without any appropriate training.

A training programme for Warwick managers could be put together, where managers are given a comprehensive programme of the skills they need rather than piecemeal events held from time to time by different departments. It was recognised this would be more difficult in academic departments.

Design of jobs also felt to encourage a working culture of longer hours.

Communication

Some participants felt there was so much information it was difficult to make sense of it. Yet there is little on strategy, a sense of where we are going. This might help put the rest of the communication in context.

For example, information at a strategic level seems to be rarely cascaded – e.g. things being discussed by Senior Officers at their weekly meetings are never passed on.

2 points on involvement in decision making:

Involvement has to be genuine – and not asking for views after decisions have been taken. Managers still have to own the decision rather than using involvement to duck behind a group decision.
If decisions are made, the rationale behind them should be fully explained.

Inter-department communication sometimes suffers because of a lack of ownership; it is difficult to contact some people in central support, or they do not return calls. (Interesting as this is more an internal customer service issue than a pure communication issue.)

Running another survey is crucial to measure progress, but it needs to be preceded by some extensive communications outlining what has been done as the result of the last survey. This will help encourage a good response rate.

What Makes a Good Administrator? (AM & PM)

Using images the groups brainstormed the qualities of a good administrator:

Sharp Intellect
High Achiever
Diversity/ Democracy/ Equality
Unity/ Shared Vision/ Common Purpose
Adding Value/ Creating Profit
Accountability
Financial Literacy - Managing Budgets
Awareness of Academic Cycle
Movement and Rotation within Organisation

Organisational learning
Asking questions
Shared information / knowledge
Know where to look for answers
Pick up things quickly
Know which way you are going
Understanding how to work out a route
Clear idea of direction – but in real life
Better to have a compass than a route map

And individually wrote down the qualities of a bad administrator - here are the collated results.

The conclusion was that a strong sense of direction is vital but that flexibility is key - the compass is more useful than the roadmap.

Work-Life Balance (PM)

General Comments

Much discussion around a “presenteeism” culture (although it was recognised that this was somewhat better than had been the case in Senate House), and an outdated work structure based around a 9-5.30 model of working.

Issues around part-time staff and the problems they experience – e.g. (i) lack of communication from colleagues about things that have happened on days when they’re not in, (ii) offhand comments about “part-timers” from full-time staff, and (iii) some lack of flexibility from full-time colleagues not taking account of their working pattern when arranging meetings etc.

Most felt that staff operating at ALC-level grades should be able to operate professionally and exert some form of control over working arrangements, but this was not always possible due to a perceived lack of trust from senior managers. For example, one participant mentioned that it would be useful to be able to take account of busy and less busy periods and work accordingly – e.g. there were occasional days when there was no need to work beyond 4.30, but other times when he would have to stay until 10pm or work weekends, but he did not feel comfortable leaving early on quieter days.

Suggestions from Group Work

Group 1 – asked to consider ways in which they could improve their own WLB and/or that of their team (with no changes to policy or additional resources)

Clearer information on options available – including information on positive role models, case studies of good practice etc. and share this good practice with other areas/departments

[note: Personnel are currently working on revised flexible working information, so Jane Coleman will take on board this feedback]

Need to communicate benefits and change attitudes, particularly towards part-time working
Improve communication among the team and shared understanding of roles etc.
For those who may work remotely from the office, the need to communicate progress on work, and have clear contact details
Accept consequences of choices.

Group 2 – asked to consider how the University could improve the WLB of its employees

Laptop PCs for all appropriate staff to facilitate home working
Option of compressed or flexible hours for ALL staff
Substantial long-service leave (e.g. 6 months paid leave after 20 years service, as offered by some overseas universities)
Phased retirements – e.g. being able to work part-time prior to retirement, possibly on full pay
Focus on outputs and quality of work rather than hours of attendance
Work-related networking (like today) within working hours
A greater acceptance of flexi-time and other flexible working
Opportunity to do voluntary work during work hours
Study leave for career development – introduce policy for non-academic staff

Working with the Region

The session was preaching to the converted - the majority of attendees were/are regional players. It quickly (and remained) became clear that we do need to do more "networking" and dissemination within Warwick on Regional affairs. One concrete action is to include all of the attendees in the Regional Engagement Group and to possibly start a regular briefing note, for internal circulation, on regional events and activities.

If you led a session and have not yet supplied a write up please email it to internalcomms@warwick.ac.uk