Strategic Plan

People and Culture

Our Strategic Themes

Fundamental to the achievement of our strategic ambition are our people.

We collaborate

We work together with colleagues, students, and other partners to contribute to our success as One Community. We value individual and collective contribution, encouraging an inclusive and transparent environment to learn, develop, and work.

We challenge

We encourage innovative thinking and activities, and expect to challenge each other in support of positive change and transformation, harnessing ideas and the creativity of our colleagues, students, and through our partnerships, both internal and external to the organisation.

We transform

The University cannot stand still, and to continue to thrive as a community we must seek opportunities and challenges to nurture talent and ideas. By supporting this inclusive culture, we will enable our people to develop their skills and experience, to provide transformative support to our students, our business, and the wider community to achieve our strategic ambitions.

Our Strategic Aims

We will support colleagues to be an engaged and inclusive community with our students; achieving the aims of the University through how we collaborate, challenge and transform as an organisation.

We have three main aims:

- To build a diverse and inclusive culture

- To create a high performing culture

- To promote and support the health and well-being of our people

Building a Diverse and Inclusive Culture

A diverse and inclusive culture unleashes the talent and potential of our colleagues.

We will ensure our people feel valued, have a sense of belonging, and feel personally connected to, and supported by the University.

We will create a workplace where we celebrate difference and build a global mindset.

We will ensure that our environment allows for constructive, challenging, and stimulating debate, where we listen and value the views of others.

We will enable collaboration across our diverse community by fostering an openness to others’ approaches and perspectives.

A group of students loooking at books in the library

We will achieve this through:

Regularly reviewing themes related to diversity and inclusion identified through our staff surveys and encourage localised departmental discussions on the themes to create action plans to address required change.

Two students sitting on the lawn and chatting

We will achieve this through:

Continuing to create safe spaces for discussion, where all voices are heard and lived experiences inform our actions, and developing clear and transparent inclusive practice and processes, supported and measured through our Equality Charter Action Plans.

Tow students sitting chatting in front of a campus building

We will achieve this through:

Promoting events and opportunities to learn and celebrate a diverse and inclusive One Community culture.

Creating a High Performing Culture

We want our people to feel engaged, empowered, enabled, and supported to contribute to the success of the University.

We want colleagues to be able to identify and articulate the impact of their work and interactions.

We will work collaboratively to set priorities and stretching personal and team objectives within the context of efficiency and performance.

We will enable our people to identify and follow career pathways, thus developing, retaining, and maximising the potential of all colleagues across the organisation.

We will invest in our colleagues and those in leadership roles to develop and foster well-managed, diverse, and inclusive teams.

We will encourage channels of communication between managers and their teams to enable maximum engagement and highlight barriers to efficiencies and performance.

A member of staff working on the support centre reception

We will achieve this through:

Further developing our appraisal conversations to empower, support and enable our people to be ambitious and successful through clear objective setting and career planning.

A lecturer presenting to students in a large lecture theatre

We will achieve this through:

Demonstrating clear mechanisms for reward and recognition in all roles within the University and widening our leadership and management development to support effective working relationships and outcomes in all areas of the University.

A student sitting in front of two computer screens displaying financial information

We will achieve this through:

Developing our ethos of entrepreneurship through our ways of working and embracing of new technologies.

Promote and Support the Health and Wellbeing of Staff

We will grow an inclusive culture which supports wellbeing and good mental health, recognising the role everyone can play to support and develop our community of staff and students.

We will support an environment of building personal and professional resilience, where purposeful conversations include wellbeing as an integral element that makes our university a community where everyone can thrive by making a positive difference.

Two medical students talking to a member of staff

We will achieve this through:

Regularly reviewing themes identified through our staff surveys and encourage localised departmental discussions and actions to support the health and wellbeing of our staff community.