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The team took part in a Green Impact walk following the spring term open meeting

Professional Services staff across the soon to be Social Science Faculty (which includes the Schools of Education and Social Work, Global Studies, and Law, Politics and Sociology) work together closely to support collaboration across the three Schools. However, staff survey feedback has consistently shown that colleagues want to connect further with the wider University – and leaders are keen to work together and learn more from each other. Pippa Robinson, Head of Professional Services for the Social Science Schools, explains further:

Welcoming different voices to open meetings

Staff survey results have told us that colleagues want to improve connection with other teams at Sussex. We decided to bring Social Science PS staff together, initially online, in a termly open meeting, and ask other departments to join us and tell us what they’re doing, helping us understand how we can work together more effectively.

Originally, we focused on the areas of the University that we connect with directly, such as our PS business partners, but last year we introduced themes as another way to bring colleagues together as a team. This year we have focused on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and Green Impact, reflecting suggestions in the staff survey. EDI speakers joined each meeting, covering topics such as neurodiversity, disability awareness (focusing on support available for students) and staff disability. Feedback has been positive, with staff telling us it has helped them not only in their work life but also from a personal point of view.

We have been able to hold the open meetings in person this year and an online Padlet board runs alongside each meeting for questions and answers. We keep this open throughout the year for team members to anonymously highlight issues and feedback more generally. Comments are responded to and actioned, and it has become an important channel for ongoing listening and dialogue within our community. We also use it to brainstorm, share ideas and find solutions to challenges.

Learning and peer support for leaders and managers

Since January, as a result of staff feedback, we have introduced a new monthly in-person lunch and learn session for PS leaders and managers at all levels in the team. Each session covers a specific topic, such as HR policies, reward, recognition and motivation, or understanding Organisational Development (OD) services. These informal, highly practical sessions supplement the training available from the OD team, focusing on the tools managers need to lead in their particular role. They also help to bring managers together as a team and offer a way for them to support each other as an informal peer network.

The first lunch and learn followed the open meeting on neurodiversity, where there were a number of ideas from staff about ways to improve inclusion. Leaders explored these suggestions further, looking at how to integrate them into ways of working. They also spoke about their own personal experiences with neurodiversity and how they learned from them. The session generated actions for managers to take forward in their teams, such as reviewing the lighting in their spaces or being more aware of how to talk to colleagues who are neurodiverse.

If you would like more information about these initiatives, please contact Pippa Robinson at: pjr26@sussex.ac.uk.

About our staff survey updates

Our monthly case studies highlight how Schools and Professional Services Divisions are using feedback from the staff survey to improve staff experience. You can view previous case studies, and find out more about the survey, on the staff survey webpage. 

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