Event Details

A year on how has WFH affected team spirit and team performance?

How to ensure an efficient service when cost cuttings and restructuring are the norm

Post REF, post Brexit and post pandemic, have cost cutting and heavy restructuring across HEI affected team working and productivity?

The learning: what does the future look like in terms of working models and team activity?

Motivating people to give their best during a deadly world pandemic that has heavily affected the finances of every HEI has added a lot of strain and stress on managers. For over a year work life and work interaction for most of the research support teams across the UK has changed radically. Many say that workload is higher and that WFH has enabled them to deliver enhanced support to researchers. In the short term individual productivity seems to have increased, however, this has not been the same with regard to individual wellbeing, team productivity, inter-team working, development of new processes and systems which seem to have been detrimentally affected.

For team managers, the increased admin load and time committed to personal support/cover for team members is being felt across the sector and it’s taking the focus from the strategic and business focus. All this comes at a time when the number of applications to research funders grows, bureaucracy is at its highest, assurance mechanisms have increased, external reporting demands are not proportional with HEI benefits and success rates nose dive.

Regardless of whether you’re in a university, research institute, or a research funder, line management presents us with an array of current and future challenges not only to keep people motivated but to ensure that targets are met when our research sector needs external funding more than ever to survive. Balancing the demands of enthusiastic team members and academics in the face of cost cuts and lack of staff incentives and the need to ensure high quality support and balanced workforce is very complex.

This workshop on Team Management gives you the opportunity to hear from 4 speakers in different UK universities (Bristol, Coventry, Kent and Wolverhampton), as they discuss and share their approaches on: maintaining efficient team working; what strategies they use to ensure efficient successful service; keep the team culture and spirits high during organisations change as well as the challenges and approaches to preparing for the next change post lockdown. Discussion will also focus on ensuring Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

We expect the event to run for 1.5 hours including a 5 min break. Following presentations from the speakers there will be a chaired Q&A where attendees will be able to put their queries to the panel.

AUDIENCE:

All research management professionals who are managing teams or aim to manage teams are welcome to this event. We look forward to seeing you there!