| Develop case studies describing lived-experiences of those with care needs | These case studies reflect the community of the University including those who undertake job-shares, part-time work, career-breaks, those with protected characteristics, staff of all ages and a cross section of job families and staff to break gender stereotypes | Statistics showed that applications from women or those from minority ethnic groups was less than target, so this initiative was put in place to show potential applicants the variety in forms of working available |
| Consult and pilot anonymous recruitment for Academic roles and fellowships to remove barriers/mitigate for career-breaks/parental leave | Following a roll out of anonymous/criteria-based recruitment for P&S roles, this initiative sought to pilot anonymous recruitment for academic roles. Pilots for anonymised shortlisting were carried out across the university and were developed in conjunction with Diversity-by-Design for recruitment for academic roles | Anonymisation of applications aims to ensure there is less bias within the hiring process. This assists those with caring responsibilities as it helps mitigate hiring barriers for those returning from leave |
| Induction material includes links to values, Report and Support, Dignity network, informal and formal staff networks, and wellbeing resources | These resources were seen as important to be included at Induction, including information around reasonable work-based adjustments e.g. around IT, office equipment, timetabling, caring commitments- including for children and adults and flexible-working options | Introducing staff networks at induction aims to increase sense of belonging from the start as well as a community of sources of information |
| Provide prompts and opportunity for Re-induction/refresher training and ensuring access for those who wish to use refresher-training to build confidence and re-learn skills | As line-management responsibilities evolve, and as staff return from a period of leave, it was identified that opportunities for training needed to be repeatedly offered. This initiative aims to ensure all staff are up to date with training and requirements. This activity also ensures staff who have been on leave receive training and coaching on return. They also aim to increase visibility of a range of people who have taken leave, illustrated by case studies and links with the Parents Network, parents in Science and other appropriate groups | Staff returning from leave will need to refresh their knowledge and be supported to do this. Survey responses demonstrated increase in major challenges when returning to the University, which has increased for women and reduced for men. This was particularly noted regarding workload faced by women returning to role after maternity leave |
| Create opportunity for discussion around career-progression, including internal recruitment, secondment and re-grading and regarding workload | Regarding professional services staff, it was noted that opportunities for discussions surrounding career progression and workload needed to be increased | P&S staff did not have a formal workload model or allocation and survey responses indicated an increase in workload among staff with low recognition/ reward, and lack of clarity on roles, with part-time women in particular reporting working beyond contracted hours |
| Ensure opportunity for conversations with line-manager regarding requests for teaching-free days/late starts for caring-responsibilities, term-time load | This initiative ensures staff have the opportunity to discuss caring-related needs—such as teaching-free days, late starts, or adjusted term-time workloads—with their line manager. It promotes open dialogue and flexible scheduling to help staff balance professional responsibilities with caregiving duties | To ensure all staff are aware of their options in regards to flexible and part time working |
| Ensure awareness and utilisation of flexible-working contracts | This initiative aims to ensure all staff understand agile/hybrid/flexible, informal and formal working.This initiative provides training for managers around flexible-working, and what discretion and flexibility line-managers can give if asked about flexible-working arrangements in post/at recruitment. They also developed case studies of staff with flexible-working patterns | Not all staff were aware of the flexible-working options and some staff, especially women, reported that they felt pressure to work full-time, especially for promotion |
| Develop a pool of mentors to provide ‘Return to work' support or mentorship | This mentorship scheme aims to support those returning from leave. In particular, this would include support from older women with children, and/or sponsorship | Ensure return to work is as smooth as possible |
| Create a programme run collaboratively with other Nottingham organisations to support women looking to return to the workforce | This programme aims to support those returning to work after a career-break, looking at: CV and application writing, confidence building and empowerment, group coaching/career advice, Identifying flexible-working options | Supporting those returning to work |
| Strengthen current provisions for cover and handover for parental leave | This initiative aims to ensure maternity cover includes a period of overlap at both ends of the leave period for all parental leavers and communicate these provisions to all schools | Survey responses demonstrated an increase in major challenges when returning to the University, which has increased for women and reduced for men. Qualitative responses indicated lack of effective management of maternity cover and handover |
| Succession planning for internal leadership roles | This initiative ensures succession planning is factored into the term of roles, to ensure overlap between incoming/interim and outgoing role holders, and between interim and external appointees, maintaining (not losing) institutional memory, and ensuring continuity | For those returning post maternity leave, survey responses from women indicated a lack of effective management of maternity cover and handover |
| Revised recruitment procedures and postdoctoral career support | Recruitment procedures were revised to highlight positions as collegial and advertise vacancies in groups of at least two lectureships to allow couples to apply. Postdoctoral researchers were encouraged to continue their careers in academia through the establishment of a Postdoctoral Forum, which held grant writing and fellowship meetings | Initiatives to address the low representation of female staff at lecturer level |
| Encourage REF applications from those at an early career stage or who have been on career breaks. | Require that the number of REF-returnable publications should be in line with the career stage of the applicant | The requirement of four REF-returnable publications for research and academic positions might discourage women, who are under-represented at the postdoctoral level and thus more likely to have fewer publications, from applying |
| Academic staff with caring responsibilities - Teaching Availability Request Policy | Promote Teaching Availability Request Policy which provides the opportunity to academic staff who teach to submit annually their preferred teaching times (including for those academic staff with caring responsibilities | To increase awareness of the policy |
| Scheme for increased opportunities for female staff to work across or within job families (which define groupings of jobs) on a temporary basis | Create a scheme to allow for increased opportunities for female staff to work across or within job families (which define groupings of jobs) on a temporary basis | To increase opportunities for female staff |
| Develop resources to support/assist female academics | Help female academics undertake PI role with projects seeking external funding | To increase opportunities for female staff |
| Create a Code of practice and induction programme for PIs to raise awareness of the role of PIs as people managers | Code of practice with specific attention to recruitment and support of women postdocs/research fellows, and issues including bullying and harassment, flexible working, family leave, career development | To meet funder and Research Concordat requirements for Research Fellow development and support for under - represented groups (including women) |
| Parental Portal offers parents and managers access to tailored, self-directed learning to manage the parental transition | Portal includes discussion forums, goal-setting progress trackers, interactive exercises, videos, checklists and case studies; Managers have access to their own portal, which focuses on concise, just-in-time support for those who need a refresher on how to best support a team member through their journey to parenthood and their return to work. This includes guidance on how to best communicate and support staff before, during and after leave, and how to support career integration on return | Designed to support employees and their managers throughout the transition to parenthood |
| Develop a fair, transparent, and enhanced approach to facilitating flexible and hybrid working patterns | Learning from the benefits identified during adaptation to the COVID - 19 pandemic to create a Work Location Framework , setting out different types of staff working patterns, including minimum percentage of time staff required to be a College location; will embrace commitments to diversity and inclusion , and be respectful of individual circumstances; Implementation will be supported by investment in technology for hybrid working (building on ICT ’s ‘Model Office’ project ) and provision of shared offices/work areas | Surveys of staff showed appreciated flexible working during the pandemic (e.g. , enabling of better balancing of family care and work responsibilities) |
| College - wide review of workload to identify actions that ensure women are not overloaded with service work | College - wide review of workload to identify immediate, short , and long - term actions. This will address options to reduce workloads (e.g. by removing inefficient processes, low - priority tasks ; ensuring women are not overloaded with service work) and to improve support for staff in managing their workloads ( e.g. by offering coaching to line managers on providing appropriate support to staff feeling the strain , including those balancing work/family commitments, which is likely to particularly benefit women) | Universities operate in a highly competitive environment which places significant pressures on staff. 2022 Staff Survey, 50% of female and 45% of male respondents agreed with ‘I can meet the requirements of my job without regularly working excessive hours’ |
| Financial support to concentrate fully on research | Enables the Department, Division, School or Institute to relieve the academic of teaching or administrative duties in order | Allows academic staff to concentrate fully on research work upon returning from maternity, adoption, surrogacy and/or shared parental leave |
| Support and advice (including links to external organisations and a staff wellbeing services/employee assistance) | Links to employee assistance provider, HR and other wellbeing portals and services | Ongoing support for staff wellbeing |
| Address the potential for unconscious bias within the advertising, shortlisting and interview processes | Evaluate whether anonymised shortlisting is appropriate for Cranfield; Managers to challenge shortlists and where appropriate reject shortlists and ask headhunters to justify lack of diversity; moving beyond raising awareness to taking positive action | To ensure that female applicants continue to successfully progress through the recruitment process, particularly when applying to areas where a high proportion of senior roles are held by men |
| Remove barriers to entry for underrepresented groups | Ensure levels for roles are appropriate and flexible wherever possible. Process to ensure adverts are run through gender decoder software to ensure gender neutral | To address the lower success rate for women applying for posts in our technical schools |
| Communicate processes and address lack of clarity on how staff can be considered for promotion | Run focus groups for female academics to understand barriers to career progression | Address lack of clarity on the career pathways available to academic, research and professional services and processes to support promotion |
| Continue to provide a supportive and inclusive environment where women can flourish | Step-up network to continue supporting women's development; Review and enhance the university mentoring scheme to support women's career aspirations | To improve female representation at senior levels |
| University committees awareness of and addressing gender balance | Mandatory annual review of members and diversity of representation for all University committees. Produce a consistent terms of reference of all committees that specifically address gender/diversity and have a mandatory review period. Invite new members to redress imbalance | Increase diverse representation on University committees and transparency on how members are recruited |
| Continue to publish diverse role models on Cranfield website, from all areas of the University | Publish case studies on staff intranet and external website to support recruitment | To showcase Cranfield as a diverse employer/university |
| Review of workload allocation models to allow for improved transparency and eliminate the potential for bias | Systematic monitoring of workload allocation by gender and contract and a review of workload allowances supporting return from maternity leave | To ensure workload allocation model is free from bias and uncover any issues which may affect career progression |
| Monitor and evaluate the impact of an updated Work Allocation Model on gender equality | Revised model developed and equality impact assessed; managers trained in revised model
Implementation and evaluation of revised model; monitored for gender equality | The current Workload Allocation Model is under review. This is to address the applicability of current tariff arrangements and inconsistencies in implementation.
The aim is to develop a revised model based on best practice across the sector that is more transparent, applicable and consistently implemented across GCU |
| Support managers knowledge of and confidence in applying a full range of flexible working options | Promote awareness and understanding of the benefits of flexible working to individuals and the University, to managers via roadshows and support with training | Feedback from staff indicates that flexible working options could be made more visible, and line managers should be supported to consider different options as a norm, rather than view arrangements such as job share and condensed hours as ‘lesser’ or more difficult options |
| Improve Academic Returners Research Support Scheme information | Academic Returners Research Support Scheme - improve information; collate case studies to promote the benefits from the staff who have received the fund and to provide detail on how they used the funding (available to support resumption of their research during first year of return. Funding can support teaching buyout, research assistance, laboratory equipment, conference attendance etc) | Qualitative comments suggested easier access to information about the scheme and examples of how it could be used would have simplified their experience of the scheme |
| Exceptional/personal circumstances provision for promotion | Application for promotion includes a section taking personal or exceptional circumstances into account and can be used to incorporate periods of part-time working, parental or other forms of leave | Increase promotion applications and greater fairness |
| Celebrating Excellence Profiles - part-time success stories | Curated case studies highlighting part-timers who have successfully applied for promotion as part of Celebrating Excellence Profiles | To educate staff on possibilities for promotion and career progression |
| Guidance on returning to (full-time) work following a career break or period of part- time working | Develop guidance on returning to work, including update on Flexible Working Guidance provided alongside the new Flexible Working Policy; case studies of successful flexible working | Identified need to raise awareness of provision for family life and parenthood |
| Investigate issues relating to returning to full-time work and develop guidance for line managers | This initiative included collecting data on part-time returners, reviewing and amending Flexible Working policy and developing guidance for line managers | To ensure that moving to part-time after maternity leave (or other reasons) does not have long-term impact on career progression |
| Monitor Workload Planning (WLP) allocations by gender to ensure there is no bias; and consider introducing specific allocations for staff returning from maternity/adoption leave | This activity aims to analyse data on WLP allocations by gender and consider the value of introducing WLP allocation for maternity/adoption leave returners | To ensure equitable allocation of workload and assist those returning from maternity/adoption leave to resume career progression |
| Explore return to work support following family or other long-term leave | This initiative aims to provide an equitable approach for all staff groups, whilst recognising that different measures may be needed in order to be genuinely useful for staff involved. The university explored whether an optional teaching free period for research active staff or reduced teaching/teaching familiar modules for teaching staff would support returning staff. The university explored what a similar period might/could look like for clinical or staff with other work commitments outside of the University, as well as the possibility of creating a ‘Flexible First 6 Months’ position. Use of case studies to illustrate different approaches that can be taken for all staff groups and all types of parents shared through HR communication routes and on the Researcher Hub | This initiative aims to offer tailored support for all staff, recognizing that different roles require different measures. It explores options like teaching-free periods for research staff, reduced teaching loads, and flexible arrangements for clinical or externally committed staff. Case studies highlighting these approaches will be shared to guide and support staff returning to work |
| Actively promote flexible working/job shares | This initiative ensures that best practice is the default position across the University and recruiters are actively reminded about their responsibilities towards diversity in the workplace | This initiative ensures that best practices in diversity are consistently applied across the University, with recruiters actively reminded of their responsibilities to promote a diverse and inclusive workplace |
| Introduce an ‘update’ opportunity for colleagues returning from career breaks, and for those that have been in-service for several years to coincide with significant work anniversary celebrations | This initiative provides an opportunity for colleagues returning from career breaks, as well as those who have been in service for several years, to receive an update on key developments within the University. These sessions will coincide with significant work anniversaries, ensuring staff stay informed and engaged with the latest changes, opportunities, and support available | To ensure all staff are up to date with training and are aware of their requirements |
| Improve Flexible Working arrangements for Professional and Support Service Staff, and Academic Staff | This initiative aims to collect data on current practices , produce case studies highlighting best practices, continue to support, receive input and take forward recommendations from the staff Flexible Working Group, review the Teaching Constraints Policy to offer staff maximum flexibility whilst balancing the needs of students, and bring forward the publication date for teaching timetables to allow better planning | In the Staff Culture Survey, many staff reported that they felt ill supported by the Flexible working policy and did not have the opportunity to work flexibly |
| Improve access to flexible working opportunities for applicants and new starters | This initiative aims to improve access to flexible working opportunities for applicants and new starters, ensuring they are aware of and can easily request flexible work arrangements from the outset of their employment | This action is to support activities to diversify recruitment by better attracting and engaging with applicants who need flexible working patterns, therefore creating more opportunities for the recruitment of female academics |
| Promote a diverse range of examples of staff (including senior staff) working flexibly and part time via flexible working profiles of staff in staff communications | This initiative promotes a diverse range of staff, including senior staff, working flexibly and part-time by showcasing flexible working profiles in staff communications. It aims to highlight various examples of flexible work arrangements to inspire and encourage others to consider similar options | This action is to challenge preconceptions about who can work part-time/flexibly and promote the acceptability of diverse working patterns for all genders and at all grades |
| Adopt and promote a culture which accepts and values part time working, secondments and career breaks | The initiative rolls out good practice in the use of family friendly wording in adverts in relation to part time and flexible working to appeal to a wider diversity of applicants. Investigate and identify good sector practice in relation to part-time staff and develop and implement a best practice resource for modelling part-time academic working that supports the 3-legged academic model (teaching, research and administration) This message will be reinforced in promotions workshops | To ensure all staff are aware of their options in regards to alternative models of working |
| Monitor staff turnover by gender | This initiative monitors staff turnover for PS, academic, research staff to determine whether turnover is proportional to gender by grade. Reasons for this are then raised with Strategy Group if needed. Exit interviews were not consistently monitored nor documented, i.e., potential gender issues cannot be addressed, and therefore the university created a questionnaire to collect information directly from the leaver (split by gender/grade) | To explore reasons for staff leaving. |
| Explain EDI-related information at induction | The university includes an explanation of EDI at Department and Faculty levels (flexible working, disability support, etc.), continue signposting to Faculty and University networks and groups (e.g., LGBTQ+, BAME network), to the Trade Unions, and to the University mentoring scheme. The induction process was then tested as fit for purpose through a yearly questionnaire for all new starters (split by gender) | To ensure all new staff are aware of provisions in place at the university. |
| Consistently monitor promotion applications and outcomes split by gender and grade locally within the School | This initiative involves consistently monitoring promotion applications and outcomes by gender and grade within the School to ensure transparency, identify trends, and support equal opportunities in the promotion process | To pick up and reflect on any gender inequality issues in relation to promotion |
| Include part time staff and those working flexibly in influential committees and roles | This initiative aims to communicate to staff and Line Managers that part time and flexible contracts do not preclude staff on such contracts from influential committees and roles. There will be a targeted reminder to Line Managers and reviewers | Few staff working part time staff and flexibly surveyed felt they were offered the same career development opportunities with those working standard hours |
| Offer refresher training to Line Managers in relation to Parental/ Adoption Leave |
This initiative ensures managers know what is available for staff members and includes clear guidance and signposting within the Handbook to HR resources. Explicit references to be made to KIT/SPLIT days | There is a variation of staff experiences for those who have undertaken parental leave and many have felt that expectations upon their return were unrealistic, including their experience in relation to the use of the KIT days |
| Consolidate, and signpost in the Staff Handbook information on funding and support networks and buddy schemes available to parents and carers | Providing access to information for support during employment | The initiative ensures information is easy to access and opportunities for funding and establishing networks are signposted |
| Establish an optional Returning to work Buddy Scheme, available to all staff returning from prolonged periods of absence | This initiative establishes an optional Buddy Scheme for all staff returning from prolonged periods of absence. The scheme pairs returning employees with a supportive colleague to help ease their transition back into the workplace | Returning to work after a long period can be difficult (new staff, new processes in place). A buddy can help returners to transition in smoothly |
| Create and circulate clear and transparent information on flexible working arrangements, which will be included in the Staff Handbook with signposting to the HR policy, and will be shared with all Line Managers | This initiative aims to create and circulate clear, transparent information on flexible working arrangements. The information will be included in the Staff Handbook, with signposting to the HR policy, and will be shared with all Line Managers to ensure consistency and awareness across the University | While staff are fairly happy with flexible working, the survey showed that some staff disagree that their Line Manager is supportive of such arrangements. It is perceived that those on such contracts (mostly women) do not have the same development opportunities). The practice for moving to such contracts is inconsistent |
| Update Staff Handbook regarding procedures for transitioning from condensed/reduced hours to full time, including preparation of the business case with the Line Manager, and links to HR guidance | This initiative aims to ensure all staff are aware of the opportunities they have to reduce their working hours, and line managers are trained in how to implement these changes | Improve consistency in how staff transition from full time to part time hours |
| Assess the impact of flexible and hybrid working arrangements | Gathering data on whether flexible and hybrid working is improving the work/life balance of staff | Survey results suggested varying responses and consistency in how working practice policies are being applied at departmental level. This disproportionately affected females who were more likely to disagree or strongly disagree that flexible working is supported |
| Review and evaluate Workload Allocation and Management Model data to support academic staff | Ensuring that there is a balance in workload for individuals, and that there is an appropriate gender split in tasks | Women were identified as over-represented in areas of student support and good citizenship. These roles can go under-rewarded when comparing to other Department roles in applying for academic promotion. The need to ensure these roles are fairly distributed and are representative of department gender profile |
| Promoting and monitoring hybrid working | Promote the benefits of hybrid working, focusing on communication, planning, health and safety, and wellbeing, while ensuring all hybrid workers complete a Remote Working Assessment. The University conducts an annual review of hybrid working take-up to assess space utilization, energy consumption, and IT needs. Staff surveys gather feedback on hybrid working’s benefits and lessons learned. Insights from the 2023 Hybrid Working Pilot Workshops and leadership diagnostics inform policy and practice. A system will be developed to annually assess hybrid working’s effectiveness, challenges, opportunities, and overall satisfaction | Staff can enjoy better work-life balance, including those with parental/caring responsibilities. Annual review of hybrid working guidelines, take up, and productivity.
Remote Working Assessments are continuously reviewed and recommendations/remedial actions made.
The University to monitor and review the impact of hybrid working on its carbon footprint with a view to maximising resources.
The University to assess how hybrid working acts as a positive catalyst to deliver its overarching strategy, ‘Excellence with Purpose’.
Staff surveys contain questions about hybrid working |
| Academic Returners Fellowship | When staff take periods of leave for maternity, extended paternity, long term parental leave, they find it challenging to focus on their research when they return to work. Since research is valued in terms of promotion and academic career progression, sometimes taking time off can delay individuals in their career development | The Warwick Academic Returners Fellowship provides a period of additional ‘study leave’ for academics who are returning to work from long term leave, such as: maternity/adoption leave, extended paternity leave, and long-term parental leave. Similar to a sabbatical, this allows academics to focus exclusively on research for the awarded duration (the duration being equal to the duration of long term leave, up to a limit of 12 months) |
| Promoting flexible working practices | The University already has a policy that all advertised roles are open to part-time, job share or other flexibilities (where the business case permits). More staff become aware of these opportunities with (potentially) greater take-up year on year.
By the end of 2024/25, case studies are devised and publicised to promote the benefits of flexible working | Develop case studies for staff engaged in Job Shares and other Flexible Working practices to raise awareness of the university policy on flexible working. Establish baseline data on flexible working practices to inform HR policy development and social inclusion strategy |
| Increase job opportunities for part-time work amongst PST staff | The proportion of PT PST staff has decreased from 16% to 15%.However, this may be because the University introduced its Dynamic Working Policy in response to the Covid Pandemic, encouraging staff to work flexibly. Our proportion of part time P&S staff is below the benchmark. We need to increase opportunities for staff. All new roles are now advertised with the following statement: ‘We recognise the value of flexible working and will offer this where feasible. Please contact the recruiting manager to discuss what flexible working options are available for particular roles’ | Actively promote opportunities for part-time work and advertise as many roles as possible as potentially part-time.75% of PST jobs to be advertised with a part-time option |
| Carers in the workplace- lived experience videos | Lived experience videos have been developed to discuss challenges that carers face while working in academia. A range of different caring responsibilities are mentioned including caring for parents, partners, neurodivergent children and disabled children | These videos aim to provide a betetr understanding and raise awareness of the caring responsibilities and challenges that academics fae |
| Advice and support through subscription to external care portal | The University subscribes to My Family Care, a staff benefit supporting those with caring responsibilities, whether for children or dependent adults. Through this portal the Work +Family Space is also provided (until end of October 2024)as a university benefit for all employees that offers access to emergency back-up childcare and adultcare, a 'speak to an expert' phone line, and a wide range of guides and webinars. Access to the services, phone lines and web guidance is free for University employees, but staff will need to meet the costs of any care that they book | Provide additional advice and support for staff with caring responsibilities, access specialised services via a subscription to an external portal |
| Returning Carers Fund | The University’s Returning Carers’ Fund supports academic and research staff returning to research after breaks for caring responsibilities, including maternity, shared parental, and carers’ leave. Staff can apply for up to £6,000 (or £12,000 in exceptional cases) for flexible support such as teaching buy-out, training, conference attendance, or research assistance. Open to eligible staff who’ve taken a qualifying break within the last two to five years, the fund helps re-establish research careers. Applications must be agreed with a supervisor or Head of Department | Support those who have taken a break for caring responsibilities to re-establish their research careers.
Increase the visibility of the necessity to provide support for parents and carers, with a view to changing gendered perceptions of balancing a research or academic career with caring responsibilities |
| Promote flexible working policy | Promote flexible working policy, including positive action statements on School recruitment material | Clear information on flexible working and job share policies are accessible on the School’s intranet and WIBS. Assess success via staff survey. Include details of flexible working options in the induction pack for new staff to ensure that new joiners are aware of the School’s flexible working policy at the start of their employment.Increase the number of female job applications at all grades |
| Access to external mentoring and networking for female researchers | Encourage female researchers to join the GetSET database so that they can access national mentoring schemes and network with others. Continue to monitor attrition rates and measure the impact of current initiatives | Reduce female attrition rates at each level |
| Improve induction information and update staff handbook | Improve the information provided at induction so that new staff are signposted to the University’s family friendly policies including the revision of staff handbook and induction pack to include information on WIBS(Women in Biological Sciences), WISN and the Parent’s Support Network | Improve support and raise awareness for new staff on support in relation to parenthood |
| Monitoring of fixed term contracts by gender | Monitor gender representation of fixed-term contracts to ensure that women are not being disproportionately disadvantaged | Monitor gender balance of fixed term contracts |
| Monitoring scheduling of regular meetings | Monitor timing and days of regular meetings to ensure that staff with caring responsibilities and those working part-time or flexibly are not disadvantaged | Ensure timing of School meetings are inclusive |
| Monitoring Returning Parent Career Development Fund scheme | Continue to measure the uptake of the Returning Parent Career Development Fund scheme. It was recognised by the University that it is often harder for working parents and carers to attend conferences and networking events, which fall outside of their normal working pattern, due to incurring additional costs. Whilst it is recognised that caring costs are only one factor that could affect attendance at these events, to help relieve the pressure in some part, a Career Development Fund for Carers is available for all staff to help with the additional caring costs incurred. Applicants can make one claim per year of up to £150 to help with additional caring costs incurred as a result of attending conferences, training or networking events. Funds will be allocated on a first come, first served basis | Support parents with attending professional development and networking events providing financial support for additional caring costs |
Promote enhanced family friendly and flexible
working policies | The number of female applications for E&R,
E&S and Research- only posts are lower
than for males, and below the benchmark
figures for those job families. Similarly, the proportion of male applicants for many PS posts is disproportionately lower than female. This leads to a gender imbalance in both pipelines | Increase the proportion of male and
female applications for academic and PS services |
| Run biennial focus groups with staff to explore experiences | There appears to be a drop off in part-time
working at >Grade F and female staff
remain overrepresented in part- time roles. So the action is about holding biennial part-time and job share staff focus groups using EES
results to explore experiences of workload/promotion/progression/training and perceptions of transition between part- time to full-time. Identify actions to enhance staff experience and best practice in managing workload and role coordination to promote to
managers | Increase in the proportion of part-time staff. Grade F and male staff working part-time |
| Support career development for those on flexible working | Amend policy to state that all seminars, workshops, staff and committee meetings will take place within a restricted set of hours (10:00 -15:00 where possible). Staff meetings and Committee meeting minutes made available within 3 weeks, workshops and seminars recorded and made available online. Research Groups will negotiate the timing of their meetings (minutes, recordings available based on membership) | Few part time staff and those working flexibly feel they are offered the same career development opportunities with those working standard hours. This action improves access to important events and development opportunities, by making them accessible. Staff with e.g., caring responsibilities will not be missing out |
