Learning and Organisational Development have arranged HAY Job Description training for members of staff who are involved in writing job descriptions.
Sessions are running on the 25th and 31st July.
If you would like to book a place, further details can be found on our activities calendar.
Please email us at Idev@kent.ac.uk if you would like any further information.
Learning and Organisational Development have a number of activities taking place in July and August which are now open for bookings on our webpage.
Leading and Managing Through Change is a pilot workshop open for any managers interested in understanding more about change, the effects it has on staff and who are looking for a better understanding of effectively leading, managing and embedding change within the organisation.
We are currently improving our RPD (appraisal) process and we are running a number of workshops to update you on the changes being made. We have briefing dates available for both staff being appraised and separate sessions for managers/those who are involved in appraising people so, if you want to learn more about these changes, please sign up to one of the briefings.
Unconscious bias has been a repeated request by areas of the University recently and we are pleased to be able to offer some workshops through the summer months. Open to any members of staff, these sessions will provide a general awareness of unconscious bias in the workplace, the impacts it may have on our behaviour and decision making and will help increase awareness of strategies to identify and manage our biases. Provided by Advance HE these sessions are likely to be popular, so please book your space soon.
All these activities can be booked via our calendar which can be accessed here.
Bag It want to hear from you!
Complete a short survey about your experience of Bag It (even if you have never been there) and you will be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 Amazon voucher.
This survey is open to staff, students, and sandwich connoisseurs alike.
The survey closes at 23:59 on Friday 3rd August 2018.
Complete it here.
Last year the University launched a new integrated HR and Payroll system – Staff Connect. This introduced a new HR and Payroll system, management reports and the foundations of employee self-service.
The next phase of work on Staff Connect is now getting underway. It will see the phased introduction over the next year or so of further functionality to the system, enabling an automated, streamlined, single point of entry for many of our HR functions.
The aim of the second phase of Staff Connect is to streamline our HR processes and provide employees and managers with a one-stop-shop for most of your HR-related activity.
By the end of the second phase of development to Staff Connect you will be able to view and book onto training courses provided by Learning & Organisational Development (L&OD) and request annual leave via the system.
If you line manage others, Staff Connect will be where you go to authorise training and leave requests, record some forms of absence and you will have the option to log Appraisals/RPDs. If you are a recruiting manager, Phase 2 will also see the replacement of the current i-grasp recruitment system.
The first of the new functionality to launch will be Training Administration – in September 2018. This new element to Staff Connect will replace the existing system used by L&OD for training course administration, registration and evaluation of courses managed and delivered centrally by them.
If you are a regular user of the courses run by L&OD, either as a manager or as a member of staff, or are just interested in seeing how the new Staff Connect solution will work, user testing/training sessions, of about two hours in length, are being organised for each day of the week commencing 13 August. To indicate that you would be interested in attending one of these sessions please contact Su Westerman (Staff Connect Communications and Engagement Manager).
If you have any questions or queries regarding any element of the project please also contact Su Westerman. Alternatively, you can find out more at the Staff Connect Information website.
Congratulations to Alison Mansell, Student Conduct and Complaints Manager, and James Redmond, School and Business Manager, SSPSSR, who have both been made Fellows of the Association of University Administrators.
They join a growing list of AUA Fellows at Kent, which also includes: Wayne Campbell, Director of Student Services; Chloé Gallien, Master of Keynes College; Melissa Mulhall, Head of Administration, Social Sciences; Linda Lough, Head of Administration, Sciences; and Helena Torres, Centre Administration Manager, Brussels.
The AUA is the professional association for University professional services staff, with over 4,000 members drawn from all levels of University administration and management. AUA Fellowships are awarded based on criteria including continuing professional development, professional knowledge and capability.
Kent has 65 AUA members drawn from schools, faculties, Student Services, Information Services and Academic Division. Kent is joint 6th nationally in terms of its membership numbers. Earlier this summer, Kent Business School hosted the second AUA South Regional Symposium attended by 57 AUA members and non-members representing 13 Universities.
Our VC and President, Professor Karen Cox addressing the AUA South Regional Symposium
A re-launch of the AUA@Kent network is planned for the autumn term as part of our aspirations to develop a wider range of local activities and events and raise the profile of the AUA across the University
Watch this space for more details!
The Festival of Dangerous Ideas launched at our all-staff BBQ’s on the Medway and Canterbury campuses.
Over the next few months, we want your ideas on how to make Kent into the best workplace it can be. No idea is too risky or too radical- and every submission counts. At the festival next year, the best ideas will be judged by the Executive Group and will be put into action.
It’s time to speak up. We want your most dangerous ideas.
You can view some of the ideas your colleagues have submitted, and submit your own online.
Alternatively, boxes and submission cards are available. Please email dangerousideas@kent.ac.uk if you would like one for your office!
Follow the Festival and see what your colleagues would like to change on Twitter: @UniKentFODI and Instagram: /unikentfodi
The latest episode of podcast series on ‘Nostalgia’, hosted by Dr Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, has just released.
In this week’s interview, Chris interviews Dr Laura Bailey, Lecturer in the Department of English Language & Linguistics, who talks about growing up in Newcastle and how the university culture has changed over the decades.
Laura places her earliest memory from when she was two and a half years old and she talks about her penchant for undertaking creative activities as a child, how she especially enjoyed the process of writing itself and about the peer pressure at secondary school in terms of learning about the latest songs. Laura reveals where she stands on the ‘Do you prefer Blur or Oasis?’ question before discussing her experience of watching The Princess Bride when growing up.
Laura went to university as a mature student and she ruminates on the role that fate and luck played in whether or not she was able to carry out a PhD. She recalls the role her inspirational teachers played in her life (and what happened when two of them, coincidentally, appeared at the till in Waterstones where she was working at the same time). An instructive conversation then unfolds regarding why several female academics added ‘Dr’ to their Twitter account name a few years ago, and the interview concludes with Laura talking about whether she has fulfilled the dreams she had when she was young and which decisions she wishes she had made.
The podcast is available here:
Over the summer there will be changes to the Giles Lane car parks. This includes essential maintenance for health and safety reasons.
The Giles Lane car park will be closed from Monday 9 July 2018 with the aim of reopening by September 2018. This work has been scheduled over the summer vacation to cause minimal disruption.
When the car park reopens it will become a pink zone car park which means that blue zone permit holders will no longer be able to park in this car park.
Blue zone parking will still be available in the Sports Centre blue zone, Park Wood Courts, Pavilion and Oaks car parks. View map of car parks on campus.
Since the last review of blue and pink permit parking zones, there has been an increase in the number of staff and this change is necessary to meet the resulting demand. From checks carried out by the Transport Team, around 75% of the blue zone Giles Lane car park is being used by staff permit holders, less than 15% being used by student permit holders and 10% by people without a permit.
Do you need to travel by car?
If it is an option for you why not consider changing up your travel to campus by walking, cycling or taking the bus? The University encourages sustainable travel wherever possible through the University’s Travel Plans. The student summer Unirider bus ticket is only £75 and is valid until 15 September. The equivalent public price ticket would cost £267. Check out our travel discounts and planning your journey webpages.
How do I find out more information?
The Transport Team will be providing regular updates throughout the summer vacation period via their newsletter which will feed into the following Giles Lane changes webpage.
Please contact Estates Customer Services for enquiries relating to the project construction. For travel, traffic management and parking enquiries contact the Transport Team.
The latest issue, featuring a new-look design, has been posted to Kent alumni and will be distributed to graduates at the Congregations ceremonies this July.
Included in this edition:
Canterbury: You can currently pick up a copy from Rutherford Annexe (more locations coming soon)
Medway: Copies of the magazine can be found dotted around the receptions in Kent buildings
Alternatively, if you’d like to be sent a copy in the internal mail, please email your name and location to Chris Wenham: c.wenham-455@kent.ac.uk
Work has already started on the winter 2018 issue of the magazine, but if you’ve got ideas for it, please contact the Editorial Board via c.wenham-455@kent.ac.uk
Or join us at the official launch on Thursday 12 July in Darwin Conference Suite 3, 15.30-17.00: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-launch-kent-magazine-summer-2018-tickets-47670179791
Dr Simon Elliott, alumnus and Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies, has made a number of media appearances drawing upon his expertise from his recent book Septimius Severus in Scotland: The Northern Campaigns of the First Hammer of the Scots (Greenhill Books, 2018).
Simon features in the latest issue of Minerva: The International Review of Ancient Art and Archaeology, dated July/August 2018, contributing an article entitled ‘The First “Hammer of the Scots”. Minerva is a bi-monthly magazine with a broad focus on all aspects of the ancient world.
In the article, Simon asks ‘how did Severus come to be in this far-flung place at the north-west edge of the Roman Empire – and what happened after he arrived?’ The article describes how Septimius Severus set about the brutal annihilation of the Caledonian people with his 50,000 strong Roman Army.
The issue of Minerva is out now, and stocked in newsagents across the UK. It is also available via subscription here: http://minervamagazine.co.uk
Simon also featured in The Independent newspaper last week, interviewed about the discovery of a Roman ‘hand of God’ near Hadrian’s Wall.
The hand is made of bronze is associated with the God Jupiter, beloved by the Roman military, and is believe to have been deposited as part of a religious ritual to mark the completion of a military fort where a temple to Jupiter was built.
The decision to build a temple within a fort took place after the Severus campaign in Scotland. ‘It was almost certainly one of the most brutal military campaigns ever fought on British soil. It’s likely that future archaeological investigations over the coming years will reveal the full horror of this long-forgotten conflict,’ explains Simon in the article.
To read the full article, please see The Independent page here.