Sussex 2025

Finding efficiencies

In October, all staff were invited to take part in a poll to vote on a series of potential cost savings and efficiency measures, as the University seeks to understand the views of its community to help inform some of the important decisions it will need to make around staff pay bill and some other costs.

The staff engagement poll asked 17 questions, originally put forward as ideas from employees during the staff engagement sessions held in August/September 2020.

Below are the full results of the poll. Staff were asked to indicate the extent to which they were in favour of the cost saving measure.

Results

Table 1, below, shows a summary of the responses. The questions where a clear majority have voted in favour or against a suggestion are highlighted.

Table 1: Summary of responses
QuestionStrongly in favourSlightly in favourNeutralSlightly againstStrongly against
Re-open VS Scheme 462 313 279 60 55
Reduction in working hours 20%  311  347 178  113  214
Reduction in working hours 10% 351 379 164 85 184
Consideration of accepting reduction in working hours* 549     606
Sabbaticals/Career Break  439  342  190  82  99
Introduce Annual Leave Purchase Scheme  461  332  226  60  71
Reduced year contracts (e.g. term time only)  264  287  221  129  249
Voluntary Pay Cuts £50K+  260  250  219  125  279
Voluntary Pay Cuts £70K+  513  266  134  57  163
Voluntary Pay Cuts £100K+  737  172  90  29  106
Voluntary Pay Cuts G7+  125  128  204  181  491
Voluntary Pay Cuts G8+  181  185  221  169  370
Voluntary Pay Cuts G9+  362  251  172  101  240
Voluntary Pay Cuts G10+  528  220  136  74  168
1 Year increment freeze  203  179  127  152  473
No academic promotions  257  208  244  141  282
No DPR  247  236  225  173  251
Reduce Under-Subscribed Modules  329  316  179  135 116 
Online Exams  352  260  268  115  87
Reduce duplication/ streamline admin processes  646  249  140  41  34
Efficient campus use  649  256  147  31  31
Centralise core activities & functions  445  263  196  107  89
Reduce variability of software & technology  278  284  165 197   188

*This was a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question

Table 2: Grade range of respondents
Grade rangeRespondents
Grade 1 - 3 47
Grade 4 - 6 335
Grade 7 - 9 583
Grade 10+ 128

 

Table 3: Staff categorisation by service area
Service areaNumber of respondents% of eligible respondents
Academic staff 453 12.15%
Professional Services staff 624 16.74%
Technical staff 33 0.89%
Other 16 0.5%
No response 196 5.25%
Total 1322 35.46%

 

Table 4: Percentage of staff group responses
Staff groupTotal staffResponders% of staff group responders
Academics 2330 453 19.5%
Professional Services 1266 624 49.3%
Technical staff 132 33 25.0%