The University is introducing PensionsPlus to help offset the cost of saving for your retirement.

PensionsPlus is a new way to make contributions to your pension scheme, which reduces your National Insurance deductions and means you take home more pay than you would outside of PensionsPlus.

The salary exchange scheme will cover two of the University pension schemes – SAUL and USS – and takes effect from February 2020.

How PensionsPlus works:

-You agree to exchange a portion of your salary equivalent to your member pension contribution, thereby reducing your gross basic salary

-The University pays the same amount on your behalf to the pension scheme

-Both you and the University pay less National Insurance on the reduced salary

-The amount going into your pension is the same, but your take-home pay is greater than it would be outside of PensionsPlus

-Tax relief on your pension contributions remains unchanged.

All eligible staff will be opted into PensionsPlus from 1 February 2020 unless they choose to opt out. Staff who may request a refund of pension contributions within the first two years of pension membership should note that PensionsPlus places a restriction on refunds.

Further information on the way PensionsPlus works, as well as details of briefings and drop-in sessions for staff during December and January, are available on the PensionsPlus webpages.

From Thursday 21 November, the iCASS online accident/incident reporting system will be unavailable in preparation for the launch of the new system, eSAFETY, on 4 December.

During this time, when an incident occurs, please complete and retain one copy of the Interim Report form for inputting into eSAFETY when it’s launched.  This form can be accessed via a button on the front page of the SHE Unit website.

Please send a copy of each completed form by email to Julie Martin AND Angela Hewlett-Day or via internal post to the SHE Unit at Keynes College. It’s important that they receive these as soon as possible after the incidents for monitoring purposes.

When eSAFETY is up and running please enter the details of each incident from the form into the new system, so that the appropriate notification emails can be sent.  This cannot be done by the SHE Unit as, in a similar way to iCASS, the notification emails are linked to the person entering the details.

Further information will be issued to confirm the eSAFETY launch.

In the latest episode of the Nostalgia podcast series, Chris Deacy, Head of the Department of Religious Studies, interviews Dr Patty Baker, Senior Lecturer in Classical & Archaeological Studies and School Equality, and Diversity and Inclusivity Representative.

Patty, who is originally from Pennsylvania, has been at Kent for 18 years. In this episode, the pair talk about Pennsylvania, the concept of ‘home’, running into people from your past, the different dreams that we chase, visiting exotic places, Patty’s love of the sea, sailing and flower arranging, gardens in the ancient world, the History teacher who made the subject come alive, voting in the UK and US, marching in Washington, why Patty likes reading obituaries, her dream trip to the South Pacific, what her 15-year-old self would think about what she is doing now, and why Patty is a looking forward type of person.

On Friday 22 November, Chris will be running ‘Nostalgia Night’. This will be a free evening of live music, readings, clips, interviews and interactions celebrating the pull of Nostalgia in shaping us as human beings – which will be taking place in the Colyer-Fergusson Hall at 19.30.

Learning and Organisational Development held an event to celebrate management and leadership development across the University on Wednesday 13 November.

The celebration, in the Darwin Conference suites, was opened by our Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Karen Cox, who congratulated everyone present.

Certificates were presented to members of staff who, during the past year, have taken part in various leadership and management programmes, including the Insights programme, Foundations of Management, Leadership for Areas of Significant Responsibility (LASR) and the Aurora programme.

Group photos took place after the celebration, followed by cakes and plenty of networking.

You can find out more about leadership and management development programmes available at the University on our HR webpages.

Picture shows: Graduates of our Insights and Aurora programmes (from left) – Silvia Maria Rasca, Rowena Paget, Yvonne Sherwood, Sarah Slowe, Justine Rush and Chloé Gallien.

Please note that the final date for receipt within the Payroll Office of timesheets, claims/extra payments and batch timesheets for upload is Friday 29 November 2019 in order to guarantee payment prior to Christmas.

Please be aware that claim forms will need to be submitted to schools/departments prior to this date, in order that they can be authorised in time to meet this deadline.

Hourly Paid Lecturers (HPLs) only: Although it remains the case that HPLs must be submitted to Payroll by 29 November 2019 in order to guarantee payment before Christmas, departments may, if they wish, allow HPLs to make an advance claim for the hours they are expected to work up until the normal cut-off date of 10 December.

Claims received after this date cannot be guaranteed payment before Christmas 2019.

New starters

For anyone starting work in December 2019 (this includes all salaried staff (inc direct hires and temp bank), hourly paid lecturers and timesheet paid staff), Human Resources will need to receive all their documentation by Friday 22 November 2019 in order to guarantee payment prior to Christmas.

Contract extensions/variations

Strategic Recruitment Review paperwork (for extensions/variations) needs to be received by Human Resources by Friday 15 November 2019

For all ll other out of scope DB501’s/RO/Flexible working and ERA requests etc, Human Resources OPS Team will need to receive all the documentation by Friday 22 November 2019 in order to guarantee correct payment prior to Christmas.

Any documentation received after these deadlines will be carried forward to the January 2020 payroll.

Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash

The work of our Estates Customer Services Centre has received national recognition.

The Centre, created in June 2018, has been awarded Customer Service Excellence accreditation on its first application.

The award comes just over a year since the Centre was created – in June 2018 – to raise awareness of the work of our Estates Department and act as a contact point for all enquiries.

The accreditation process included a day of pre-assessment in which Head of Customer Services & Engagement, Sarah Cooke and her four-strong team were measured across 57 different criteria.

The actual accreditation took place on 6 June 2019 and included an interview with Deputy Director of Estates Helen Ellis, customers across schools and departments and both internal and external partners.

Sarah Cooke said: ‘We’re really pleased we got the accreditation – and in some areas we were not just compliant but marked as “above and beyond”. We’re all really proud of the achievement – it’s recognition for how hard my team has worked and how good they are with the customers.’

The accreditation by M Assessment Services will last for three years and is monitored by a rolling programme of continuous improvement.

You can find out more about the work of Estates Customer Services Centre on the Estates webpages.

To contact the team, email estatescustomerservices@kent.ac.uk or telephone ext 16666/01227 816666.

Picture shows (from left): Angela Durling, Becky Medlock, Sarah Cooke, Helen Ellis, Emily Mashford and Beverley Braiden.

On Tuesday 5 November, the Kent branch of the University and College Union (UCU) announced its intention to take part in strike action over an eight-day period, from 25 November until 4 December, and action short of a strike (ASOS) to last beyond that date.

The planned action comes off the back of a national UCU ballot asking members to indicate whether they would be prepared to strike or take action short of strike (ASOS) on issues around pay and working conditions. Kent is one of 55 institutions where UCU secured a mandate for industrial action on the issue of pay and conditions.

The University’s Executive Group (EG) has recognised the strength of feeling expressed and the frustration that many staff feel on key issues around pay and conditions. EG is also aware that the potential for industrial action is unsettling for many of our staff and students.

This outcome is within a context of challenging circumstances at Kent and the sector as a whole. The higher education sector is facing unprecedented financial, regulatory and political challenges and the competitive recruitment environment has had a particular and unhelpful impact on Kent’s finances.

EG will continue to reflect on what all this means for Kent, and the options open to them. EG has also indicated to UCU that they are positive about an ongoing dialogue and hope that, through discussion with them and other stakeholders, a way forward may be found.

In the event that strike action goes ahead, EG will do all it can to minimise disruption and more information will be published to help staff navigate this difficult time and mitigate against the impact on students, whose experience remains the utmost priority.

Just to remind you the staff survey will remain open to all staff until 13 November. You can take part in the survey now via this link.

This is an excellent opportunity for you to provide confidential feedback on your perception of Kent as a place to work and help us understand some of the issues that affect your working life – what we do well and what we can do better. We want to know how we measure up against our values and Kent 2025 ambitions during this time of organisational change.

Unlike the previous survey, the main purpose is to gauge feelings across the University during this time of change, enabling us to benchmark engagement levels during and after the Organising for Success project. Obtaining a measure of how well (or not) the University is navigating through change will provide valuable feedback on how and where to act. The results will be used for high-level action planning which will feed into the strategy for effectively delivering Organising for Success.

The Staff Survey is just one method of obtaining staff feedback during this time of change. Organising for Success was developed following extensive feedback from staff, with a number of staff engagement sessions as the proposals were developed. The focus is now on implementing the agreed proposals to ensure we can deliver the project by the end of 2020.

Staff will continue to have a voice as the plans are implemented – each implementation strand for Organising for Success will form stakeholder groups as needed to implement part of the project, with Strand Leads responsible for ensuring appropriate levels of engagement with all stakeholders.

Additionally, as announced in a  recent VC blog, EG members and colleagues will be holding further Open Forums later in the year which will allow feedback on what is working, what is not working as well as we would like, and how we can do things differently. Please visit the dedicated Organising for Success webpage for more detail.

For more information on the survey, please see our Staff Survey webpages.  If your question has not been answered here, please speak to your line manager or email: staffsurvey@kent.ac.uk