Winner: University of Wolverhampton
Project: BME steps to leadership
There’s a lack of diversity across UK universities – especially at leadership level. The University of Wolverhampton set out to tackle this problem by creating a personal development programme for its black and minority ethnic (BME) staff. The course, which was targeted at people who were at grades just below senior manager level, aimed to raise participants’ confidence and help them to develop leadership skills.
The programme recognises diversity, ethnicity and race as assets and examines the contribution these elements make to a diverse learning environment.
To gain a place, participants needed to demonstrate their willingness to examine their own practice and develop new and existing skills, with a view to taking on leadership roles in the future. The two day course – with a three month gap between the first and second days – was delivered in partnership with the Black Leadership Initiative external consultants. As part of the programme, participants receive an assessment of their skills and attributes and a personal development action plan among other support. It is also followed by up to six individual mentoring or coaching sessions.
The first pilot of the scheme was a success – with 100% of participants reporting that the course was either good or excellent – the university is currently delivering training to a second cohort. The approach could easily be adopted by other universities and has been submitted as a best practice case to the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
Runner up: University of Essex
Project: Addressing the gender pay gap
In June 2016 the University of Essex chose to take decisive action to end the gender pay gap for female professors. It offered a one-off uplift to salaries from October 2016.
The University of Essex had identified the professorial pay gap at Essex was 5.49% and, although it had already implemented a number of measures to tackle the issue, it felt the pace of change was too slow. The causes of the gap had been carefully analysed by a member of the senior team, who, having applied statistical controls for research performance, research income record and service in university leadership roles, found the discrepancy could not be explained by performance of individuals or length of service. The one-off uplift cost just over £250,000.
Essex was the first university to give staff a pay uplift to end the gender gap, and following the announcement, other universities such as the London School of Economics took similar action. The decision was covered by all national newspapers and the BBC, and received endorsements from key campaigners on social media. Tweets relating to the news achieved a reach of more than 2.5m. Among those sharing the posts were Harriet Harman and women’s rights campaigning groups such as the Fawcett Society.
The university now has a tool in place to analyse the effect of every potential appointment, promotion and pay increase on the gender pay gap for professors so that it can respond quickly if there is a risk of a gap emerging in the future.
Runner up: University of Greenwich
Project: University of Greenwich’s LGBT+ staff network
When the University of Greenwich was ranked 182 in the LGBT audit carried out by the charity Stonewall, it decided action was needed. An LGBT+ staff network was established to help create a more welcoming and inclusive environment for staff and students. The network designed a workplace equality symposium which brought together staff from all directorates and faculties regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. All participants contributed to the development of a new action plan.
A befriending scheme was established, offering an informal setting for new staff to discuss LGBT+ related issues, a guide for managers was created, as was an allies programme, where colleagues show support for the network by attending its events. The network also advised on the development of a “transitioning at work” policy, and championed the introduction of new ID cards that dropped gender pronouns. The network has also organised training and seminars.
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