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The Development, Alumni & Supporter Engagement team has implemented team behaviours into their everyday working lives, encouraging a collective team culture.

Their efforts have been recognised in the global Circle of Excellence Awards 2024, from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) – with the team picking up a Best of Europe award in the ‘Leadership/Talent Management’ category.

Andrea Crowley, Deputy Director of Development (Alumni and Supporter Engagement), shared how they’ve achieved this.

Andrea, congratulations on the CASE award for the team behaviours you’ve introduced, can you tell us how you’ve done this?

We wanted to introduce behaviours into the team by getting everyone involved in the process, from team meetings to recruitment. We researched further about how we could embed this into our working practices.

How have your team meetings changed since the introduction of these behaviours?

In team meetings we share examples of how we’ve learnt from mistakes and we also celebrate the team’s achievements. Similar to the Wonders and Wows recognition scheme, we’ve introduced departmental behaviour awards where the team get the chance to nominate their colleagues who display our behaviours through their work.

That sounds really positive. Can you tell me about other areas where you’ve embedded the behaviours?

We’ve also added behaviours to the PDR process with a section on where individuals have demonstrated behaviours through their work. Looking forward to their future development, we have discussions about which behaviours they could focus on.

Can you see a benefit to getting everyone involved with the process?

Yes, especially our recruitment process which we’ve added to and now includes staff of all grades getting involved.

We’ve enhanced the process by including a behaviour-based interview as well as the traditional competency-based one. Team members, of all grades, can join in and interview candidates using behaviour-based questions.

Does the team require specialist training for this?

Yes and we've arranged for training to interested team members so that as well as learning new skills, the team can meet potential candidates and assess how the individuals respond to a particular situation. The results of these interviews then support the competency-based interview.

The CASE Circle of Excellence Awards highlight creativity and innovation within the Advancement sector, recognising initiatives and ideas that inspire others. Warwick was one of only two winners in this category – the other being the University of Cambridge.

You can find out more about what it’s like to work in the Development and Alumni Engagement team, along with current opportunities, via their recruitment pages