Listening to the team – PSR feedback session

You have said that not everyone understands why we need to change?

We are really proud of our services’ success and reputation and we intend to continue to be an organisation known for excellent services

Over the past years, we at Exeter have transformed ourselves to rise to the top levels of academic and professional service performance and we now are widely recognised as a leading University in the sector both nationally and internationally.

We have grown very fast and many of you want the opportunity to strengthen what we do: for example we have grown incrementally, our processes and systems are not as good as we would like them to be and we ourselves have stretched ourselves to achieve exceptional results.

To continue to succeed, we must work differently in the future.

The environment in which the University operates is changing , some of which we understand and some we are yet to understand fully. Hence, we need to be collaborative, proactive and wise in how we evolve the Exeter experience for students and academic colleagues so that both have a world class service experience.

Our future successes are likely to be found by ensuring we provide the right activities, in the right place and at the right time.

We pride ourselves in being quick and ready to rise to a challenge or seize an new initiative – and rightly so. This review provides a chance to work together on providing the best possible core services – and getting the these fit-for-the-future will benefit us all.

Why have a PSR?

You said “the direction of travel was not clear - what’s the vision?”

What are we trying to achieve?We will have a unified professional service that adds value to the University and Colleges and continues to play a significant role in the delivery of the University’s goals. Together we will:

•Have a shared vision and a plan to deliver it

•Have common professional values that we all believe in and enact

•Organise our services and activities so that we partner effectively to deliver the colleges’ and Student Guild’s ambitions – thus helping the University rise further in the league tables

•Do the things that matter and deliver the biggest benefit for all of us – stop/start/do more of what we do

• Together, provide services and activities in the right way in the right place

• Invest in ourselves so that we have the right tools and skills

What will we do to get there?The PSR will help us to work together to :• build a vision of the future professional services that we all understand and share•design and deliver a prioritised plan in support of the vision•provide a clear way of measuring how far we have got.

Initially the PSR will involve asking very open questions and then gradually focusing on the activities that need our attention first.

You said “how will we get there?”

How will we do this?In doing this we will :

•Take our time to understand where we are, what needs to be changed and plan carefully to change over time•Do it together - Use the collective talents and experiences of professional services, its partners and

customers in shaping its future•Focus - Recognise our strengths and focus on where we need to improve

How will we know that we have been successful?To be able to celebrate our success and continue to move forward, we need to be able to measure where we are

and where we want to get to. At this stage in the project it is not possible to provide exact details regarding the measures that we will use but we recognise this is an area that we need to evolve as we go along.

Our direction of travel

Listening to the team – “what is this all about?”

What matters for the future...

-“let’s build the case for development”-“where do we focus?”

Prepare for 14-15 – scope and prepare to start projects

June

Preparing for the future

- tools and skills to implement make us successful

Engagement

- Keeping everyone informed of what is going on

Does this sound right? – check our direction fits with bigger University picture

Sep

Feb/April

April/Aug

We are here

- Consulting the right people to ensure we get the complete picture

• The PSR will not result in a significant “big bang” change across the University. Instead we will spend time together identifying what needs to be improved within PS and create a series of carefully considered projects to address these areas we decide need to be focused on.

Listening to the team:

• This is where we are now and we’ve been working with you to understand what things matter to you and your staff and where the opportunities are. There is a lot of expertise and experience and we have been using it to get the right direction for the programme.

Then we have 3 streams of work:

1) What matters for the future:

• This phase is about identifying where our opportunities for change are and really understanding what should be done. It will involve a lot of gathering evidence by:

• Reviewing information we already have

• Talking to all levels of Professional Services and customers to understand views

• Then, once we know what the issues are, deciding how to address them and in what priority order

2) Preparing for the future:

• We need to start thinking about the things that need to be in place to make this programme successful:

• How does PSMG lead this?

• How do we support staff through the change?

• How do we create the capacity to change?

3) Communications:

• Throughout all of this communication with everyone will be key and we must be creative in the way we ensure everyone is kept informed.

Does this sound right?

• Once we know what we want to change we need to pause and check with key stakeholders that we are right and OK to go forward. So there will be discussions at VCEG, SMG & Council.

• We will validate our recommendations for improvements with you

• We will ensure that any projects will be resourced within the Professional Services plan

Prepare for 14-15

• Work to scope the first phase of improvement projects ready for launch

Programme plan – Key Messages