Our brand new Staff Guide webpages are launched today (Wednesday 12 December).

The new Guide signposts you to essential staff information, in easy-to-search categories, such as:

• Getting Started
• Employment and Benefits
• Professional and Personal Development
• Day-to-Day Support
• Teaching and Research
• Safety and Wellbeing
• On Campus

You will also see an A-Z section that lists some of the things we find difficult to locate at times – including University policies and regulations, and forms, as well as a How do I? of common staff queries, from claiming expenses to booking a meeting.

The new Guide has been developed following a key recommendation from the Simplifying Kent Internal Project Phase One that we need to find a better way of signposting colleagues to key information.

A team, led by Wendy Raeside and Etienne Donzelot in Corporate Communications, have therefore spent much of the past year developing an alternative to our Campus Online webpages. They have been working closely with colleagues in other key Kent teams, such as WebDev in IS and HR, to ensure the new pages contain everything you need to know about working at Kent.

A major feature is the new Search function which, in the first instance, is limited to information contained with the Staff Guide pages, and should help you find the key information you’re looking for.

There are also prominent links to key services for staff, including Campus News (linking to news on the former Campus Online pages), Online Directory, Your Emails and Staff Connect.

Lower down the home page, you will see highlights of latest staff interest stories, again with links to latest News Centre/Campus News stories.

The Staff Guide is very much a work in progress and we will be continuing to make amends and updates on a regular basis

Please take a look and, if you find anything that isn’t clear or needs updating, let us know by emailing Communications@kent.ac.uk

We hope you enjoy using the new Staff Guide!

Etienne Donzelot and Wendy Raeside, Corporate Communications

2019 is Gulbenkan’s 50th Birthday! and all staff are invited to a very special open day on Fri 18 Jan.

Meet our team and see behind the scenes in our backstage tour (and be one of the first to sit in our brand new theatre seats)

• Find out what is coming up this year in theatre & cinema and the bOing! International Family Festival

• Learn about staff discounts

• Unleash your own creativity and join a creative workshop

• Try some new dishes from our kitchen, and coffee from Kent suppliers we have invited along

• Discover the brilliant, Arts Council funded work we do with children and young people across Kent

• Find out how you can hire our spaces, volunteer, or become more involved with your arts centre here on campus

It’s very informal and you can drop in anytime between 11am and 2pm. Please RSVP to boxoffice@kent.ac.uk so we have an idea of numbers.

Paul Allain, Professor of Theatre and Performance in the School of Arts and Dean of the Graduate School, has featured in the podcast Search: Stories from the Eastern West from the  Culture.pl website.

Culture.pl is produced by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, a national cultural institution promoting Poland and Polish culture worldwide.

Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999) was a Polish theatre director who developed a form of intensive training for actors to master the body, movement and voice.

In the podcast, Paul explains Grotowski’s life, work, and his important influence on the world of the performing arts. In particular, he describes the purpose of Grotowski’s training techniques to remove psychological and physical blocks: ‘Sometimes he’d use physical tests in the actor training – like jumps and leaps ­that were incredibly sophisticated and demanding physically – to get people over their fear of the challenges he was throwing at them.’

To listen to the full podcast, please see the page here.

Dr Oliver Double, Reader in Drama within the School of Arts and Head of the Performance and Theatre Research Cluster, has just released the latest episode of the podcast series ‘A History of Comedy in Several Objects’.

In the podcast series, Olly examines objects from Kent’s British Stand-Up Comedy Archive alongside Project Archivist Elspeth Millar.

In the latest instalment, the item from the archive is ‘Peter Grahame’s Diary’ from 1986. Peter founded the comedy club Downstairs at the King’s Head with Huw Thomas in 1981.

‘I think it has a good claim to be Britain’s oldest comedy club,’ explains Olly, ‘the Comedy Store opened in 1979 but that’s been in three different venues, but Downstairs at the King’s Head – as the name would suggest – has always been downstairs at the King’s Head.’

The diary contains details of the club’s bookings. In the course examining the object, Olly and Elspeth also discuss the wider context of the comedians and comedy scene of the 1980s, and interview Peter himself to hear about his unique outlook on the industry and how it is changing.

The podcast is free to download and is available here.

From 2 January 2019 you will be able to request annual leave and record sickness absence through Staff Connect.  For managers, there will be a new calendar view showing staff leave and attendance.

This is part of the roll out of further enhancements to Staff Connect. The aim of this system is to streamline our HR processes and extend employee and manager self-service, providing a one-stop-shop for as many HR activities as possible.

The HR and Payroll software functions introduced in 2017 gave you online access to your payslips and HR e-records.  The second phase of Staff Connect in 2018 has seen the introduction of further functionality, and you can now book online for training provided by the corporate Learning & Organisational Development Team as well as record your appraisal (RPD).

With the roll out of this new module, requests for annual leave will be automatically forwarded to line managers to authorise. If your line-manager does not usually authorise your annual leave, they can delegate this responsibility to another member of their team. User guides for both managers and staff regarding delegation set up and management are available on the Staff Connect Delegation page.

As well as booking annual leave, sickness absence will be reported and recorded via Staff Connect. You will be able to securely upload any doctors’ notes or medical certificates into the system which will reduce the amount of sensitive personal data that is currently recorded on paper and sent via internal mail.

For colleagues in European centres, local arrangements will continue as usual.

If you have any questions about Staff Connect and the launch of this new module, there is guidance, including a frequently asked questions section, on the Staff Connect website. Thanks go to all staff who have taken part in user testing sessions and given feedback which has informed the FAQs.

To find out more about using Staff Connect request annual leave or record sickness absence, please come to one of the demo and drop-in sessions available for all staff and line managers. Please go to the HR webpages to find out more. Online user guides and videos will also be available before January.

This is the latest update in the Staff Connect Phase 2 project. The new staff recruitment system, replacing i-Grasp, will go live in late January. If you have any questions about the project, please contact staffconnect@kent.ac.uk

We are recruiting participants aged 25-40 years old and 65-80 years old to take part in our Brain Training project!

We use questionnaires and computer tasks, plus eye-tracking and EEG (non-invasive brain recording), to find out whether cognitive and social abilities can be enhanced through training, and how these training effects might change at different ages.

As a thank-you for your time, you will receive £50 cash and reimbursement for reasonable travel expenses.

To find out more or sign up please email us at braintraining@kent.ac.uk or visit our website.

Last month, the College Master’s office at Medway asked students and staff to vote for a Medway College logo and colours.

We are pleased to announce that a logo and colour have now been chosen. Based on the Medway Building, the logo incorporates the facade of the building with gold being the colour preference.

Thank you to all of you who voted. We look forward to sharing the logo on merchandise and branding material in the new year.

All students currently registered at the University, many staff and alumni belong to a college; students and staff based at Medway are members of Medway College.

Until now, Medway was the only one of the seven University of Kent colleges not to have its own college logo, colours and flag.

You know Kent students better than anyone, if you think you know someone who’d make a great leader then we’d love to know. Many Officers are first recommended to us by staff and we’re asking for your help to identify potential candidates. At this stage we would contact the student for an informal chat, so no pressure or commitment.

Each year five students are elected by their peers to shape the shape their students’ union and represent the student voice to the University. If you think you know a student who has what it takes, recommend a leader using the form below and we’ll do the rest.

Follow this link to RECOMMEND A LEADER BOX.

For information on the five new Officer roles and how they work  for Kent Students, check out the Leadership Elections webpages.

The Historic Dockyard Chatham might have closed to general visitors, but you’ll be pleased to hear the Wagon Stop is staying open for your lunch time necessities!

Open Mon – Fri: 10.00 – 14.00. What’s “the Wag” has launched a delivery service…. place your orders before 11.30 and they’ll deliver to your door or desk!

Full details can be found here.

Please carry on enjoying hearty, warming lunches from the Wagon Stop and Happy Christmas from everyone on the team