Author: Shaun Williams, Executive Director of Engagement and Advancement
The main item at today’s busy UEB was an important discussion about the emerging themes from the conversations about the 2018 Staff Engagement Survey that have been taking place across Faculties and Professional Services.
Each Faculty and Professional Service Directorate has now produced a detailed action plan in direct response to the individual issues highlighted in their respective area. There are a number of themes common to all areas of the University that UEB needs both to understand, and show a commitment to addressing. UEB is also very mindful of the feedback from the staff survey around confidence in the University leadership, its communication and engagement, and how the University manages change.
A number of key issues that UEB will commit to directly championing, and be held accountable for delivering, were discussed. These included eradicating bullying and harassment; demonstrating how we value our staff and support them so they can be the best that they can be, including ensuring they have access to development in their roles; ensuring that leadership communication is timely, transparent and two-way; involving staff more fully in tackling the University’s challenges and explaining better the reasons behind decisions; as well as celebrating our successes more. UEB also agreed that staff engagement, and staff feedback, should be a fixed agenda item at every UEB meeting.
These ideas will be developed further and then discussed at the Senior Leaders’ Forum in early July, before being shared across our University.
Other issues on this week’s agenda included a number of Business Planning and Finance reports to consider. This included formal UEB approval of a number of reports to be considered by the July Council meeting, including the outcomes of Business Planning for 2019-20, which covers both financial and non-financial objectives, all aimed at delivering the University strategy; the proposed University budget for 2019-20, which generates only a small surplus; and the University’s unchanged Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), although there was a recognition that we are approaching a natural point to review our KPIs in the context of a more volatile external environment.
UEB was also briefed on the results of our annual credit rating with Moody’s, linked with our bond. We have maintained our Aa3 rating with outlook changed from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’. Our credit strengths were listed as: having a comprehensive strategy to reinforce an already strong market position, having a solid financial performance underpinned by strong financial management, and operating in a strong regulatory framework with oversight by the Office for Students (OfS).
UEB also reviewed the annual Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) return for 2017-18, which we are required to submit every year to the OfS. TRAC is the standard method in the sector to answer the question ‘how much does it cost’, so that a university can determine the full cost of each of its activities. In that period, we had an overall TRAC deficit of £41m, which was higher than peer group averages.
UEB was updated on the proposed iSolutions restructure and next steps; on the various strands of legal action the University has started, including a stay on any payment to be made pending further legal action, in respect of a recent employment tribunal hearing which attracted media coverage; on the QS rankings which saw Southampton retain its place in the world Top 100; and on Health & Safety incidents in May.
Finally, Anne-Marie Sitton, Executive Director of Human Resources, confirmed that the University’s Exceptions Recruitment Panel (ERP) will, with immediate effect, no longer require roles that are fully externally grant funded to be submitted to the panel for consideration, but they will still require scrutiny at a local level to ensure that they are fully-funded and within local approval procedures.