1. University Services Improvement Project
We will cover:
Purpose of the project
Why are going this project?
What will it achieve?
How is it going to be delivered?
Next steps
Questions at the end
The ask to leaders:
Cascade this message down through your teams – presentation and comms toolkit will be shared to support this
Actively encourage and enable staff to engage constructively with project – bring your team members on this journey with us
Act as an advocate for the project. Communicate the agreed change narrative consistently (i.e. WHY are we doing this and how this delivers the University’s agreed vision for the future) and stay resolute when faced with challenge.
Feedback any questions/challenge/concerns/rumours you receive/hear to project team so that we can address these
University Services Improvement Project

2. Purpose
To deliver more flexible, joined-up and effective Professional Services, that are centred around the needs of our Students, Academics and Industry, and enable us as a University to achieve our intended research outcomes.

3. Why are we doing it?
Why do we want to change how Professional Services deliver for our students, academics and industry partners?
You will all be aware of the challenging environment Universities are now operating in. Despite this, the VC has been clear that she wants us to build on our successes and continued growth.

4. Where do we need to be? People & Culture Campus Framework USIP
Optimised Operating Model
Student First Services
Refocused Partnership
Grassroots Process Improvement
School of Health & Society
School of Science, Engineering and Environment
People Framework
One Digital Campus
Campus Masterplan
Academic Career
Performance
Workload Balancing
Reward & Recognition
People & Culture
Campus Framework
USIP
Unification
Where do we need to be?
Our industry-led vision has put us in a good position to meet the challenges we are likely to face and the changes we have already introduced are enabling us to maintain growth and make our University fit for the future. These changes include building and enhancing our:
People & Culture - by creating a positive and creative environment to attract, retain and grow our people and talent
Physical & Virtual Environment - by investing in our campus and digital infrastructure
Education & Student Experience – by ensuring our student experience, staff knowledge and teaching and research offer are all aligned to industry needs
External Impact – by using our ICZ strategy to ensure our Research, Teaching and Enterprise is aligned with industry at a national and international level
But we cannot be complaisant. We need to continuously improve what we do and build a flexible, resilient and skilled workforce that can deliver sustainable growth for our future. The University Services Improvement project (USIP) now gives us the chance to work together across the University to look at how our Professional Services’ ways of working and structures can adapt to more easily meet and deliver the University’s vision and future needs.  

5. Specifically….. Optimised Operating Model Enhanced Change Delivery
Student First Services
Refocused Partnership
Grassroots Process Improvement
School of Health
School of Science
People Framework
One Digital Campus
Campus Masterplan
Academic Career
Performance
Workload Balancing
Reward & Recognition
People and Culture
Campus Framework
USIP
Unification
Specifically…..
Student First Services
Grassroots Process Improvement
Refocused Partnership
Optimised Operating Model
Optimised Operating Model
Enhanced Change Delivery
Refocused Partnership
Understanding challenges
Identifying gaps and opportunities
Development of our People
Grassroots Process Improvement
Operational Excellence in Change Management
Process Standards
Portfolio alignment
Customer First Services
Consistent school/PS partnering
Accountability in roles
Transparency in performance
Standard Operating Procedures
Shared KPIs for common goals
Quality Management
Establishing Customer Expectations
Aligned Service Delivery

6. What will it achieve? Build on what works well
Remove and improve what doesn’t work well
Standardise any processes (where sensible) with only minimal exceptions
Free up staff time
Support progression
Create new development opportunities
What will it achieve?
What are we trying to achieve?
Our students, academics & industry partners are at the centre of everything we do as a University. As Professional Services, we should provide them with the services they need, to the right standard and in a timely way that enable them to succeed. With your help, we will work to improve professional services processes, focussed initially on processes from the in-life student journey – everything from a student’s first day of their programme through to Graduation.
We want to harness what works well across the University and improve or remove those processes that are unnecessarily convoluted or just don’t work well to create better, faster and more efficient ways of working. There are also a lot of common roles and processes across the University, so, where sensible, we propose to standardise these as part of this project, leaving only minimal local exceptions, using an 80/20 principle.
We anticipate that this project will free up staff-time, allowing you to focus on more of the activities that help our students, research and enterprise. We also expect that improved and standardised processes will make it easier for Professional Services colleagues to move across the University and progress in their careers, as well as create new development opportunities in growth areas for colleagues to take up. 
In parallel, HR will work with the project team to conduct some simple “housekeeping” around the naming conventions of roles and will help us consider any differences in the responsibilities of Professional Services colleagues so that we can look to iron out inconsistencies as appropriate.

7. How is it going to be delivered?
Build
Delivery
May
Surveys
Jun-Aug
Workshops
Quick wins
Sept-Oct
Long-term programme development and planning
Nov-Dec
Tbc
Project completion: summer 2020
How is it going to be delivered?
How are we going to deliver this project?
This project is taking a bottom-up evidence-based approach. We cannot deliver this change alone and need your input as subject matter experts. We want to get this right and your voice is important in this process. We will also work closely with DSAS and the Students’ Union to gain student feedback and with Enterprise and ICZ colleagues to incorporate the voice of our industry partners. Using the facts and evidence you provide, we can make the changes that we know will make the most difference.
In May, we will be running a high-level survey to better understand what aspects of your work and relevant processes currently work well and what does not work so well. Our focus will be on understanding how you would like to see the University work in future. We are particularly interested in hearing about the one thing we should change above anything else. (Survey to follow presentation.)
Throughout the summer (June to September), we will be running a series of deep dive workshops, discussions and observations. You will play a crucial role in helping us to see things from your perspective and understand how processes currently work. You will also be directly involved in coming up with solutions. The deep dive workshops will allow us to identify opportunities to remove any unhelpful (aspects of) processes, any duplication and streamline key business processes. The outcome of these workshops will inform the next phase of the XX project.
We realise that September and October are peak-time for University colleagues. During this time, we will be evaluating the information and data we have received from the workshops to determine how this should inform the next phase of the project. We have no clearly defined answers or plans – the information you provide us with will be vital to shaping the future of our work.

8. Next steps Call for volunteers
Share experience and expertise with examples
Suggest solutions
Identify “quick wins”
Keep engaging!
Next steps
What’s next?
We would like to encourage as many colleagues as possible to get involved, both academics and professional services staff. We want to capture the widest range of views to inform how we shape our future ways of working. We will endeavour to give you as much notice as possible to enable you to attend any workshops and other engagement opportunities.
When responding to any surveys or attending our workshops, please be prepared to share your experience, expertise and any specific examples of things that work well or do not work well. Equally if you have any suggestions on how a process could be improved, please be willing to share this with us. This is your chance to improve the way we work collectively and remove those bug-bears you have to tackle every day!
We won’t be able to do everything at once, nor will we be able to meet everyone’s requirements, despite our best intentions. While it could take up to 18 months for any significant change to be felt, with your help, we can identify some “quick wins” to start making some of your work more enjoyable and rewarding over the next few months.
Throughout this project, we will keep you informed on how the project is progressing, what to expect next and what it will mean for you.  And of course, if you have any questions, issues or suggested solutions, please feel free to contact the project team to raise them.

9. Project team Sponsor and Chair of project board: Alison Blackburn
Lead: Nicole Holt
Project manager: Natalie Sterman
CI lead: Jonathan Welsh
Project team

10. Questions?
FAQs under development – will use feedback to further inform these and keep up-to-date.