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.
Question | Strongly in favour | Slightly in favour | Neutral | Slightly against | Strongly 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
Grade range | Respondents |
---|---|
Grade 1 - 3 | 47 |
Grade 4 - 6 | 335 |
Grade 7 - 9 | 583 |
Grade 10+ | 128 |
Service area | Number 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% |
Staff group | Total staff | Responders | % of staff group responders |
---|---|---|---|
Academics | 2330 | 453 | 19.5% |
Professional Services | 1266 | 624 | 49.3% |
Technical staff | 132 | 33 | 25.0% |