We are conducting two surveys on the following areas concerning Academic Related Professional Services (ARPS) staff in UCU:
- Better ways of working (BWOW)
- Financial Services Unit (FSU) restructure
Better ways of working :
This survey covers the latest development around hybrid working relating to academic related professional services staff only. UCU Cardiff exec are seeking to gain a deeper understanding around how BWOW is affecting our membership. All information will be held within data protection guidelines and anonymised.
Better Ways of Working aims to achieve more flexibility for all Professional Services staff in the way that we work and where work takes place, through a smart working approach that balances the needs of the University, teams and staff.
The programme aims to facilitate a safe and structured return to campus for Professional Services teams, taking into consideration government guidelines. It will also enable us to be more flexible about where we work, preserving the wellbeing and productivity benefits that off-campus working can bring, and that many staff have enjoyed over the last year.
Along with the other trade unions at Cardiff University, UCU have been attending meetings with the implementation team and are happy with the manner in which the consultation has been handled by management. However, as we near the time when the full effects of BWOW are felt we would like to survey our ARPS membership before the next union consultation meeting in order to feedback their views.
The link is here: https://cardiffucu.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/ucu-academic-related-professional-services-staff
Individual responses to this survey will not be shared, all data will be generalised to avoid individual identification.
FSU: for ARPS staff within Financial Services only.
Historically, operational finance services have been carried out across the University in a variety of ways with differing processes; team structures; systems and levels of complexity. This resulted in a challenging system landscape; with many ways of delivering a process with complex or multiple hand offs, duplication of work and for many staff and teams this presented challenges around resilience; professional training, support, and career development. It was recognised that there were areas of best practice across the University, but these were difficult to identify; maximise and replicate across the finance division.
Against the above backdrop, an informed case for change was clearly articulated by both customers and stakeholders of Finance. Reviews of the service offering concluded that the overall transactional service operates in a complex landscape which led to inefficiencies, with many ways of delivering a single task. This was further magnified by aged processes and systems that were inflexible and suboptimal in meeting the needs of the university. As such finance was seen as a burden with a compliance focus rather than a service delivery and enablement focus underpinned by a strong financial understanding and control framework.
During the past 12 months Financial Services have undergone a consultation and restructuring project to bring together individuals from across the University who undertook operational finance activities independently, this process is near to concluding.
UCU alongside the other Cardiff University unions have attended a series of meetings with the implementation team, therefore, we would like to consult our members who are directly affected by these changes on how these have affected you. Please state the positive as well as any not so positive impacts and concerns you have as a result of any of the changes.
Unless requested within the survey, we will put comments, views and any concerns forward to the implementation team in an anonymised format.
The link is here: https://cardiffucu.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/ucu-fsu