Dignity and Respect in National Anti-Bullying Week

Posted on 17th November 2017 by Emily

You may think that bullying is confined to the playground and mainly impacts on school age children (and as a parent of a long-term bullied child I know all about this), but did you know that workplace bullying costs the UK economy around £18 billion in lost productivity each year? A staggering amount of money for sure but more important is the human cost, the misery it creates for victims and how they have to live with the negative consequences of bullying, not just at work or school but in all facets of their life.

Bullying in the workplace can happen to anyone and anyone can be guilty of bullying. If you are experiencing it, the consequences can be distressing and humiliating. Bullying can manifest itself in different ways and can be described as offensive, intimidating or insulting behaviour designed to undermine, denigrate or injure the victim. Bullying can never be justified, is nearly always wilful and something that no-one should put up with. There is some thoughtful insight into the human cost of workplace bullying, as well as advice on how to cope with it here.

This week is National Anti-Bullying Week, the theme being ‘All Different, All Equal’. Now in its 12th year, Anti-Bullying Week allows people the chance to both think about bullying and to raise awareness of it. Although aimed primarily at preventing bullying in schools and among young people, Anti-Bullying Week encourages everyone to work together to highlight the issue and generate ideas to stop it.

As you may know, we have just reviewed and updated our Dignity & Respect policy and procedures. These take effect from December 1^st and sets out the University’s position with regards to bullying and harassment and the practical steps we can take to resolve it both informally and through more formal methods.

In the final analysis one thing stands out for me. It is that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect at work, regardless of position or status. But it’s not just about the victim and perpetrator, it is also about doing the right thing if you witness such behaviour. Stonewall have a ‘No Bystanders’ campaign urging witnesses to homophobia and transphobia to call it out and report it. To my mind this applies to bullying and harassment every bit as much.

Leslie Platt, HR Adviser, Equality and Diversity

Addressing Transgender Inequalities

Posted on 8th June 2017 by Emily

How do we create and strengthen partnerships between public sector organisations to address Transgender inequalities?

We could start by attending a ground-breaking conference entitled ‘Changing Times, Challenging Times – Trans Lives Matter’ that took place last month. I say ground-breaking because not only was this event a first for Newcastle and the North-East it was also, according to the Head Of Trans Inclusion for Stonewall, the first of its type in the UK.

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Hosted by Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust at the RVI and attended by around 100 delegates, the University was one of the main partners in the event and I co-facilitated two Inclusive Workforce workshops, more of which later.

From my perspective a number of overall themes emerged:

Whilst access to services and the needs of Trans people is considerably better understood than even ten years ago, public sector organisations still have a lot to do to be fully trans-inclusive.
There is genuine commitment among organisations to get Trans inclusion right. This was heartening, as greater awareness in organisations means staff are likely to be better briefed on the issues facing Trans people in accessing things health services, higher education, banking services, housing and employment.
Lack of resources and funding should not be used as an excuse for failing to provide more inclusive workplaces

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The Inclusive Workforce workshop discussed what it’s like to be Trans at work. We looked at barriers facing Trans people, from ‘coming out’ and feeling fully supported to bullying, harassment and discrimination. We also considered four realistic workplace scenarios, reflecting on how managers might deal with a particular situation involving a Trans or transitioning employee. Some excellent ideas for improved inclusion came out of these sessions. One was that Trans and transitioning staff need be wholly involved in the inclusion and policy development process. Another was that managers need to have the knowledge and understanding to enable them to confidently lead on and deal with the many situations that Trans employees are likely to encounter whilst at work.

So a very important day for transgender inclusion in the North East. As Rebecca Stinson, Head of Trans Inclusion at Stonewall commented,

It cements the region’s growing reputation as England’s most pro-active region on LGBT issues and it’s satisfying that Newcastle University is now playing a full part in this.

Leslie Platt, HR Adviser (Equality & Diversity), June 2017

Why become a mentor?

Posted on 19th January 2017 by Emily

January sees the launch of NU Mentoring – a revised generic mentoring scheme for all staff. The scheme offers staff the opportunity to be matched with a mentor with whom they can explore their career options, discuss particular work-related challenges or simply have a sounding board outside of their line management structure. This is nothing new for the University – we’ve had successful mentoring schemes for many years but we want to make mentoring more widely available to staff at all levels.

For the scheme to be successful, we need to have a pool of good mentors, but we know how busy everyone is. Why should you give up your time to help someone else reach their potential? Being a mentor can be a very rewarding experience for a whole range of reasons:

Sharing your experiences and knowledge can confirm their value
You learn more from your own experiences by simplifying and distilling key lessons to others
You gain a sense of satisfaction from helping others achieve their potential
It provides an opportunity to challenge and be challenged in a positive way
It is an opportunity to ‘give something back’
Developing others is a useful skill and can help you in your own management development
You’ll learn something new with each new mentoring relationship – this might be a new skill or knowledge.

Becoming a mentor does require some energy and effort on your part. You will need to undertake training and take your responsibilities seriously. Most of the hard work, however, is undertaken by the mentee. Mentoring therefore is one of those situations where there is gain for both parties, it requires a small amount of time and effort on your behalf, but there can be real and tangible benefits for you and your mentee. Over time this will all add up to improved performance across the University, which is good for all of us.

Find out more about NU Mentoring at go.ncl.ac.uk/mentoring.

Julie Bullimore, Staff Development Adviser

Stonewall Global Diversity Champion

Posted on 9th November 2016 by Emily

Since I started at the University in June this year, I’ve been encouraged to see that a number of strong equality and diversity initiatives have been put in place or are being planned. One such initiative is the Stonewall Global Diversity Champion programme which we signed up to in August. I’m really pleased that we have become involved with this programme as it’s the globally recognised standard for international organisations that are committed to Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender (LGBT) equality across the world.

With the legal and social situation ever changing for LGBT individuals both in the UK and worldwide, membership of Stonewall gives a clear commitment to LGBT inclusion at the University. The Global Diversity Champions Programme provides a network and expertise to help us stay informed of these changes and the implications for staff wherever they are in the world.

From my equality and diversity practitioner’s viewpoint, it gives us access to specialist resources and expertise, improves our visibility as an employer of choice and will help us to improve our policies and practices.

I will be working with the Dean of Diversity, Professor Judith Rankin, and the Diversity Committee to support LGBT inclusion, to help ensure that people are able to bring their whole selves to work and feel more satisfied and motivated. This is important, as I firmly believe that this improves individual performance, which in turn enhances our reputation as an organisation where everyone can feel comfortable working – something which the University can only benefit from.

Leslie Platt, HR Adviser (Equality & Diversity)

Ambitious Futures: The Graduate Programme for University Leadership

Posted on 27th October 2016 by Emily

“Oh, aren’t you one of those ambitious wotsits?” is the question I am asked by another member of staff.

Yes, that’s me! I am actually one of two graduate trainees on the Ambitious Futures Graduate Programme for University Leadership at Newcastle. Despite the name of the graduate programme not quite catching on yet (it’s kind of a mouthful and also somewhat cringe-worthy), many of you will have heard of or met the two of us at some point in the past year.

For those of you who may not know, Ambitious Futures is a national graduate scheme focused on University management and leadership. Graduates complete three project-based placements, two of which take place at the ‘host’ University with the third being based at another University in the region. The opportunities available are wide-ranging and offer graduates challenging and stimulating projects to lead and manage.

I began Ambitious Futures at Teesside University and after a rather shaky start, moved to Newcastle in January to begin my second placement in Marketing and Publicity. Here I managed a review of Student Services’ communications with current students, which included mapping activity across the various communications channels, facilitating focus groups with UG and PGT students and consulting with other Russell Group institutions. Completing a final report and presenting my findings gave me a real sense of achievement and satisfaction.

I took up my third and final placement at the end of May, working both in the Faculty of Medical Sciences and in HR on a variety of projects linked to the University’s Equality and Diversity agenda. In contrast to the second placement, this project is less compact and includes working on different strands of activity, with a wide variety of people across the University. From coordinating a careers mentoring scheme and supporting the Director of Diversity in FMS, to relaunching the Just Ask Service and running the NU Parents’ Network, I’ve definitely got around the place a lot in this placement!

As the programme draws to an end, it’s time to start looking at my next steps. The programme has definitely given me a broad overview of what it’s like to work in Higher Education and I’ve polished my skills as a capable project manager. What is now clear is that for many jobs at Newcastle and other universities there is a depth of experience that is required that has been tricky to gain due to the short nature of Ambitious Futures. This, coupled with the lack of clarity surrounding many career paths of professional support services staff in Higher Education, means that securing a job in the sector after the programme is far from a foregone conclusion . Despite this, I’m optimistic. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time at Newcastle so far. I’ve been fortunate to work on some interesting projects with some inspiring members of staff and I look forward to what the future holds.

Laura Draper, Ambitious Futures Graduate Trainee

Thinking Diversity

Posted on 22nd September 2016 by Emily

Last week it was a great pleasure to attend the VC’s ‘think tank’ on equality and diversity. I was one of four opening speakers who had been invited to kick the event off with some personal reflections – my own talk was on disability and others spoke very eloquently on gender, race and LGBT issues.

“So what?” I hear you ask. “Will anything happen as a result?”. I hope so – there seemed to be a good deal of commitment in the room and a number of issues are being taken forward to Diversity Committee for consideration.

diversity-typography

The input from the speakers seemed to suggest that, in the main part, our differences don’t make much difference, which is great. However, we were also very aware that we weren’t representative and that people’s experiences vary a lot, so we can’t be complacent. And whether it’s improving the gender balance in sciences, reducing the gender pay gap or improving our ethnic diversity, we have some brilliant people working here – putting our collective minds to it should give us a great chance of success.

What was also clear to me was that it needs us all to act – we can’t just leave it to women to fight for better gender equality, or disabled people for better access and inclusion. We should all stand up for these values and contribute where we can.

One way to do this is to get involved. Speak with your faculty Director of Diversity, or feed in ideas through the Diversity Consultative Group. We need your ideas, your feedback and your support if we are to make real progress.

Richard Boggie, Acting Assistant Director (HR Strategy)

Coaching for Improved Leadership Performance

Posted on 9th September 2016 by Emily

Coaching has proven to be one of the most powerful ways we can develop our leaders. It is a completely personalised development activity which can deliver increased understanding, improved performance, greater insight and lasting change. It creates a supportive environment that can develop your critical thinking skills, new ideas and approaches and most frequently enhances behaviours.

So how does it work?

Coaching is done in real time, in a one-to-one context with a qualified coach that has been selected for you, the individual leader, taking into account your development needs and preferences for learning.

Chalkboard with coaching concept

Normally we agree a series of 6 one-hour sessions around a series of coaching objectives. Performance improvements are measured at the end of what is typically a 9-12 month coaching programme. It’s not easy. The focus is on you and you are challenged and required at times, to think about things from different perspectives and to try new approaches. It is all done in a confidential environment and leaders should feel safe to share their concerns, fears and of course try out new strategies and approaches.

Broadly we talk about two types of coaching:

Skills Coaching – to help you the leader, to develop a new functional competence e.g. making a presentation to a high profile audience, writing a faculty plan or reading a financial report for the first time.
Transformational Coaching – where the coach helps the individual to find a workable approach to a new challenge e.g. engaging staff to produce a vision for the academic unit, working better with challenging colleagues, pulling away from operational work , stepping into a more strategic arena etc.

0026 Coaching photo

Leaders find they often benefit from coaching when they are making a career transition from one key role to another. They appreciate the objective “sounding board” that coaching can offer.

Read more about leaders’ personal experiences of coaching at

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/staffdev/leadership/coaching/experiences.htm

Lynne Howlett, Assistant Director of HR (Leadership Talent)

Thinking outside the box.

Posted on 22nd August 2016 by Emily

In September I will be contributing to the Vice Chancellor’s think tank on equality and diversity and in particular, offering my views on what it is like to work here with a disability. I have ten minutes to make my case on a topic which I can chunter on about for hours. So I wonder what I should focus on?

I think there are two key points that the University needs to consider:

We have to stop thinking about disability as binary, i.e. being disabled or not disabled. Isn’t it the case that many of us are somewhere along a very long spectrum? A dodgy back, a grumbly knee, poor co-ordination, and so on. In our attempts to demonstrate compliance with the law, we in HR are guilty of labelling people as ‘disabled’ but I’m really not sure it is that helpful a box to put people in.
Nor is the degree of disability – our position on that spectrum – a constant. It varies massively depending sometimes on our impairment (many conditions fluctuate or are progressive in nature) and, more often, on our environment (where we are working, what equipment we have, how aware our colleagues are and so on). For me, all of these factors are at play and affect how ‘disabling’ my sight loss is.

traffic-lights-99907_1920 On a good day I am barely aware of having a disability – I have the right assistive technology to do my job, my colleagues remember to let me have those notes in advance so I can contribute effectively at our meeting, the bus driver is well trained in helping me get home, the pedestrian crossing works (find out about the secret button at pedestrian crossings) and I go to bed feeling accomplished, having contributed fully and not walked into any blunt objects.

In contrast, a bad day is always around the corner and it’s not normally because my sight is any worse – more likely it’s an encounter with someone who simply doesn’t think or has not been trained, or when my computer decides to stop talking to me, or when a website is poorly designed, or a document I need isn’t available in a format I can use. Many of these disabling factors can be reduced or eliminated by our collective efforts as managers and colleagues.

Oh dear, I’m probably already running over my ten minute allocation. To cut to the chase then. What I hope we can do as a responsible employer is to look at disability as a fluid, movable state that we can influence in the way we treat people. Perhaps we can set ourselves the challenge of creating an environment that keeps people as close to the ‘not disabled’ end of the scale as we possibly can.

Guidance is available on ‘Enable’ the University support for disabled staff web pages.

Richard Boggie, Acting Assistant Director (HR Strategy)

NCL Rewards …. has arrived!

Posted on 11th August 2016 by Emily

NCLRewards is a brand new discounts website exclusively for staff.

NCL Rewards Screen shot

With over 6,400 discounts at leading retailers, holiday discounts at leading tour operators of up to 10%, hot offers and weekly flash sales, my only problem was which offer to go for first!

A recent shopping trip found me calculating discounts in just about every shop I visited. (Well, asking my daughter to keep her mentally active during the school holidays!)

Piggy bank - Ncl Rewards illustration

From a 7% discount at M&S, 7.75% at New Look, 8% at Debenhams and 10% at Wallis and Boots this one trip soon adds up to a nice little savings pot for Christmas.With less than 140 days to Christmas how will you make your money go further?

Join today at www.ncl.ac.uk/hr/benefits/nu-options/ncl-rewards.php

With over 1500 staff already registered, there really is something for everyone! Even better join by 30 September and have a chance to win a £40 Love2Shop voucher.

Now where shall I go on holiday next year…?

Jane Elliot-Simm, HR Adviser (Policy & Projects)

Calling all newly appointed Heads of School, Institutes and Faculty Deans…

Posted on 4th August 2016 by Emily

If you haven’t done it already, this programme is for you.

The University’s Academic Leaders Programme is designed specifically for newly appointed Heads of School, Directors of Institutes and Deans* who are leading diverse groups of academic staff through complex change within an increasingly competitive environment. It runs jointly with Durham University and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

The programme aims to develop the strategic thinking skills of its participants and also focuses on the skills of negotiating and influencing. Participants look at challenges facing the sector both nationally and internationally and they work on change management, emotional awareness and people management.

0023 callng all newly appointed heads of school photo

New Heads attend a series of 4 interactive modules, either at Durham or Newcastle Universities. They do a 360-degree feedback exercise and are involved in small problem solving groups.

The programme is highly valued as a collaborative way of supporting our new leaders as they start new roles. Some tell us they couldn’t have done their jobs without it. To find out more about what previous participants have to say about the programme click here.

If you are interested to find out more about our Academic Leaders Programme please contact lynne.howlett@newcastle.ac.uk or follow this link to our webpage.

To watch Nigel Harkness, Head of School of Modern Languages talking about his experience of the Academic Leaders Programme click here.