Durham University
Operational Review People Strategic Risk SR3, SR6, SR7
Goal
enhances the health and wellbeing of our community and enables people to be productive and happy at work and study, making them more likely to achieve their full potential. The Strategy was finalised during the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to an additional focus on wellbeing, working differently and mental health support. Also included is support for staff experiencing symptoms of the menopause, in recognition that this affects a significant proportion of our workforce. An online Health and Wellbeing Hub has been established for staff and students to access support, information, guidance and news on a wide range of health and wellbeing subjects.
To have across all of our departments, Research Institutes/ Centres and Colleges faculty members of great distinction who will inspire students, contribute to the public good through their world-leading research and public engagement, and firmly position us as a world-class centre of academic excellence.
What has been achieved Our staff are our most important asset and undertake a wide range of roles across the University to collectively enable delivery of our world-class research, education and wider student experience. Our staff are essential to the establishment of a supportive community to deliver our values and create a positive working environment and excellent opportunities for colleagues as well as for students.
In March 2021, we saw an overall reduction in our gender pay gap from 25.35% in 2017 to 23.50% in 2020. We recognise that the gender pay gap is a serious issue for us, as it is for the Higher Education sector and society as a whole. We are addressing this through a comprehensive action plan, approved and reviewed annually and engagement with our staff networks and Trade Unions. The 2019/20 Academic Recruitment Campaign appointed more women than men into roles for the first time. As part of our commitment to address gender inequalities, we ran a Gender Equality Staff Survey during 2021. The findings will inform a mid-process review of our Gender Equality Action Plan to ensure we are making an impact in areas that are meaningful for our community. The University holds a bronze Athena SWAN award, which recognises commitment to advancing womens’ careers in science. 21 departments currently hold either a Bronze or Silver SWAN award.
We recognise that to recruit and retain some of the best staff from around the world, we need to invest in high quality facilities, support, training and development. Our national and international reputation is important to attract candidates, in a competitive market, to come to the North East of England. We provide a competitive and well-rounded reward package including a staff benefits platform with corporate discounts, travel schemes, health insurance, a generous holiday entitlement, family-friendly working, research leave policies, and an on-site nursery. We offer merit rewards and discretionary payments for specific achievements and award pay scale increments for outstanding and sustained contributions.
We committed to the Race Equality Charter (REC) in 2019 as an important reflection of our desire to address racial inequalities as part of our wide-ranging commitments to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and to help identify what we can do to support the representation and achievement of our minority ethnic staff and students. We are currently engaging with key stakeholders across the University to develop a three-year institutional action plan to apply for a Bronze REC award in 2022.
We run a comprehensive range of leadership development and operational management programmes and sessions. The quality of our development opportunities has been externally recognised, for example by gaining the Princess Anne Training Award 2020, Association of University Administrators Mark of Excellence for the fourth year, Staff Development Forum Best Practice Award and being nominated for a Universities Human Resources Award. We have been asked to present at international, national and regional conferences in recognition of our innovative work in this area.
We have made significant progress against the 20 recommendations from our Respect Commission, including commissioning an employee survey with a specific focus on trust, engagement and culture. The Commission arose from a recognition that sometimes, some people treat others with derision and that, as in many other organisations and universities, we have sometimes allowed disrespectful behaviour to go unchallenged. As stated in the Respect
We have developed a Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2020/21 to 2026/27 in partnership with key stakeholders and staff and student networks. The Strategy sets out our vision to create a learning environment and an organisational culture that
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