Our people

Bangor University’s People and Talent strategy developed in 2021–2022 was designed to create an environment that enables staff to thrive and to achieve their potential. Our vision is for the University to create a culture in which we can talk openly about health and wellbeing, commit to supporting our staff and students to maintain a healthy lifestyle with a firm focus on prevention and reducing ill–health, and drive societal change by testing and disseminating research–based interventions for the good of our broader global community.

One method to ensure the strategy remains on target is to carry out staff surveys which provide the means to collect feedback about what is good about working at the University and what may need to be improved. The 2022 staff survey gave the University an overview of staff experiences. While Covid–19 accelerated changes in ways of working and enabled the development of different ways of thinking, staff were already pushing for new ways of working. The challenge now is how to communicate and build a culture that is reflective of how and what we want to develop and enhance as well as supporting the needs of our staff.

Our staff survey explored a wide range of themes, such as leadership, equality and diversity, job satisfaction, working environment, teamwork, pay and benefits, communication, wellbeing and perspectives about what the University does well along with what improvements should be made. The results, published in April 2022, showed that 88% of staff feel trusted to do their job and that flexibility and autonomy are things that are emphasised as being good about working at our University. With the new concept of dynamic working introduced colleagues can retain a sense of autonomy by continuing to have flexibility during the working week. The University intends to focus on staff engagement that will help managers and leaders look at enhancements through the lens of the employee rather than only the employer.

Paramount to this work and the health and wellbeing of staff, during 2021–22 the University’s new Health and Wellbeing Strategy was published.

Following consultation with over 50 staff members across six focus groups areas were identified that would benefit from additional support. Further, i–act training – evidence–based and accredited by the Royal College of Psychiatrists – was made available to staff. 123 staff, including the Executive Board, participated in this training which provides practical guidance in understanding and managing workplace mental health and wellbeing.

Dedicated health and wellbeing staff were also appointed to support the further implementation of the strategy for staff and students which included establishing staff wellbeing champions in each department and School, and training in–house i–act instructors to continue the rollout of managing Wellbeing in the Workplace workshops.

In 2021–22 all first–year students at Bangor were offered bystander training to support an inclusive community. A module to help students develop resilience was successfully piloted in the School of Human and Behavioural Sciences and the University plans to make this more widely available in the future.