Enabling and Supporting Work Transitions
Reimagining work
I’m very excited that the Hybrid Working Framework is now available for all staff at the University. Over the last 10 months we have been working hard to bring together the Framework and latterly working with the first of our feasibility study groups, checking that the Framework made sense and the information was presented in a logical and coherent way.
With Scottish Government confirming the removal of most restrictions, we recognised that the Framework and its wealth of information and resources to support the decision-making process around the shift to hybrid working, should be available as a tool for all staff not just those in the Feasibility Study groups.
Over the past 15 months, we have all faced challenges with how and where we work. Looking forward, I’m beginning to feel hopeful that 2021 will end on an upbeat note with a transition to a more mobile work and social life. Like most managers across the University, I’ve been thinking about what the return to campus might look like for my teams.
Making decisions together
Some of my teams are already back, working on campus and doing a sterling job keeping our spaces safe and in particular supporting students through the provision of study centres. The rest of my teams have not yet been prioritised for return to campus, but we hope that we will be back during the last quarter of 2021. We have already started talking about what the transition back to campus might look like and the role of hybrid working. Our initial discussions have been focused on thinking about our services and how the team might deliver these. I’ll be encouraging all members of my teams to work their way through the information in the framework to ensure we are all well informed for the next round of team and individual conversations.
One of the big questions I get asked about being back on campus is how we are going to run hybrid meetings. I remember only too well straining my ears to try to hear what’s going on in a meeting when I’ve joined via a conference call. Back in the day, most of us joined meetings remotely via a phone call. Now we have Teams and I’m guessing most of us are pretty used to the online meeting. But a meeting with some attendees in a room together and others located off campus will be the next challenge for us.
Sharing practice
Whilst the Framework provides guidance for hybrid working, it is also a network for sharing good practice; highlighting the things that we are exploring and experimenting with; and sharing thoughts on why or how things we’ve tried worked, or didn’t work.
In my thinking, hybrid will help us transition back to campus and enable the exploration of adjusted ways of working. I’m looking forward to getting back to campus and exploring with my teams how we can deliver the best services possible combining all that we have learned over the last 15 months with the luxury of having the campus back in our repertoire
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