Broadcast: News items

PS Essentials: March 2023

Posted on behalf of: Internal Communications

Last updated: Thursday, 2 March 2023

PS Essentials highlights the key priorities for Professional Services colleagues and recent news and updates which you and your teams may find useful.

If there is information you would like included in future PS Essentials, please submit your request to the Internal Comms mailbox.

Quick links

About you

Achievement and Development Review workshops

In January, we launched the new Achievement and Development Review (ADR) process which aims to bring consistency and clarity to colleagues’ annual review and opportunities for personal development.

To help you during the transition to this new process, the Organisational Development (OD) team is running a series of online and on-campus workshops to help staff prepare for ADRs. The workshops have been tailored to meet the needs of specific audiences (including both Academic and Professional Services staff), and there are separate workshops for reviewers and reviewees. Further online workshop dates for the summer term will be available soon.

Financial wellbeing webinar replays available until tomorrow, Friday 3 March

As part of our cost of living support, we recently commissioned three one-hour financial awareness and education webinars for staff. Topics included the fundamentals of financial wellbeing, budgeting and keeping track, and credit, borrowing and debt. The webinar replays are available to view for a limited time due to licensing restrictions, so if you are interested in these please take the opportunity to watch them by tomorrow, Friday 3 March.

Lateral flow tests for University staff

With Covid-19 remaining widespread during spring, the University is supporting staff to protect themselves and others by helping with the costs of lateral flow tests (LFTs). If you’re not eligible for a free LFT, the University has agreed to pay for your tests. You are welcome to pay for your LFTs and then reclaim the cost from the University through expenses.

Find out more about ways to stay well and prevent the spread of infections such as colds, flu and Covid-19 on campus.

About Professional Services

The future of campus services: facilities management

In early November, Vice-Chancellor Sasha Roseneil wrote to tell you about our plans to re-procure some of our essential campus services. We are now moving to the next part of the programme, which is to recruit a partner to provide facilities management services.

Following our community-wide engagement and consultation work on the future of catering, we will again embark on a far-reaching consultation process to help shape our future plans. We will be inviting staff and students to tell us what you want and need from facilities management services on campus. Further information will be available soon, and you can email your questions and feedback to: bettercampus@sussex.ac.uk.

Colleagues are invited to read Senate papers

The next Senate meeting is Wednesday 8 March 2023, the second meeting of the academic year. The agenda, minutes and papers are available to view on Sussex Direct.

Senate is the highest academic committee in the University, overseeing quality assurance and the standards of the education we provide. The PS voice is an important part of the discussion and two elected senators, Gemma Harman and Kit Eves, represent your needs and interests as spokespeople for PS staff.

Please contact Gemma or Kit directly, or email PSsenators@sussex.ac.uk in confidence if there is a matter you would like them to raise at Senate. Information on past and future meetings is available to view on Sussex Direct. Following the upcoming meeting in March, the next meeting of Senate will be on 14 June 2023.

The Library publishes its first open access textbook

The Library is proud to announce the publication of a free, open access textbook for Psychology students. The new book is the result of a pilot project run by the Library in collaboration with authors from Sussex and other UK institutions. The textbook will be used as the primary reading for first and second year Psychology cohorts on relevant core modules and it is available for any institution or individual to read and use. Longer term, this approach to publishing will help to reduce our e-textbook licensing costs and will support investment in Sussex scholarship.

How to handle and classify information in the right way

The University is responsible for safeguarding its information and complying with data protection legislation. Following feedback from staff, the University’s Information Classification and Handling Policy has recently been simplified and updated, so that there is now only one classification, rather than four. The policy applies to all information handled by the University, both internally and externally, whether held electronically or physically. Read more about the right way to handle and classify University information.

If you have any queries about the Policy, or how it applies to the information you handle, then please contact the Information Management Team for guidance.

Coming up

PS Bigger Picture: 29 March

Join Tim Westlake, and members of the PS Leadership Team, for the next PS Bigger Picture on Wednesday 29 March at 1.30pm – 3pm. The event will be a chance to hear about what’s new in Professional Services. Reserve your space to join in person or via the livestream.

During the event, the OD team will be discussing the variety of professional development options available to you and sharing the OD Plan for 2023. There will also be an opportunity to meet Wendy Carey, the new Staff Wellbeing Manager.

A reminder

How to support the National Student Survey 2023

Thank you to everyone who is helping to promote the survey and contribute to the positive response rates across our Schools. Find out how you can support the National Student Survey (NSS) 2023. Please remind your academic colleagues to use this slide with a QR code and allow time for students to complete the NSS at the end of their lectures.

Stay up to date with the latest Organisational Development newsletter

The spring term edition of the OD Newsletter is now available to view. In this edition there are updates on success stories from last term, ongoing OD projects and upcoming workshops and events, including the Achievement and Development Review workshops. You can also find out more about the OD team and explore some of the wellbeing initiatives underway for staff.