Recent Events - a recap
All staff event - 30 April 2024
Transformation taking shape
It's great to see so many colleagues tuning into our regular All Staff calls to learn more about Warwick Transformation. For those who missed the latest update, let's fill you in!
The highlight was hearing from Registrar, Rachel Sandby-Thomas. She emphasised how it embodies our refreshed purpose and values - boldly tackling barriers head-on with ambition and talked about the many ways that Warwick Transformation perfectly encapsulates our purpose and values.
So, what's new across the different workstreams*?
The Finance & Procurement team is a step closer to implementation after plenty of research. Recommendations for six projects will now be taken forward. They're exploring ways to minimise their previous reliance on spreadsheets, like potentially using SAP for more streamlined processes. An ongoing ‘launch and learn’ across several departments is testing the impact of raising the procurement spend threshold from £35,000 to £100,000, which could result in the removal of an extra layer of approvals, saving time for colleagues.
In HR, the focus continues on identifying future way of working. Very soon we will be establishing Value Stream Working Groups.
The Education & Student Services stream isn't starting from scratch. They're building on recent teaching/learning reviews and student feedback. Four working groups are homing in on priorities like curriculum management, assessment methods, admissions and providing seamless support experiences.
Alongside gathering knowledge and input from the four working groupsLink opens in a new window, the Research workstream has been out capturing insights from academics through world cafes, (focus group-style events) and user engagement sessions. The world cafés in April were attended by over 50 academics. Based on this input, they're looking at ways to accelerate processes like procurement for new research projects.
As Transformation Lead, James Alexander, highlighted: “We couldn't do any of this without the huge numbers of you sharing your views and expertise through surveys, workshops and more. It's that voice helping guide our path.”
James added: “Hopefully, for colleagues who’ve been in these All Staff events, you’ll be able to see that we're starting to deliver things that will make a positive difference, so thanks to everyone for their support.”
There are plenty more opportunities to get involved over the coming months and future All Staff sessions will dive into areas that colleagues have said they want to know more about.
The Warwick Transformation programme is gathering serious momentum thanks to input from right across the University community. While change can feel unsettling, this is about becoming an even more progressive, innovative institution that lives up to our boldest ambitions for the future.
*IDG was covered in the March All Staff event
All staff event - 25 March 2024
Warwick Transformation is about taking the University into the future - for all of us. Keeping everyone up to date on what’s happening and hearing people’s views is therefore crucial.
That’s why it was so great that over a hundred colleagues from across the University attended the all staff event on Monday 25 March. Attendees heard about the work currently underway in Finance & Procurement, HR, IDG, Research & Education and Student Services, and learned about some of the exciting changes that have been implemented in IDG.
If you missed it this time, let’s get you caught up…
Design Updates
James Alexander, Transformation Director, opened the event with updates on progress and next steps.
- IDG is the furthest along in its transformation journey and fast approaching the second phase of implementation. This will commence from July and will involve moving to agile ways of working and making changes to the training offer, among other things.
- Both the Finance and Procurement teams are each at the final stages of design. The Design Board is refining the recommendations and proposed changes ahead of sharing this information with the Design Authority for consideration.
- Human Resources is at the stage of identifying some key focus areas ahead of building their delivery plan.
- Research, Education and Student Services are all in the first few weeks of the design phase. Design working groups are meeting regularly to build a picture of current processes and wider academic and student input is being sought through interviews and workshops.
Bitesize Implementation Examples from IDG
We then heard from Kim Dalziel, Director of Portfolio Delivery in IDG. Kim shared more information on what moving to a ‘product and agile approach’ meant for team structures and ways of working. They have been undertaking work to ensure that it’s aligned to key service areas, for example, the student lifecycle and digital communications channels, so that the products and projects delivered give new capability to those who use them. Alongside, IDG is making sure that people have the right tools and skills in place to support new processes and tools.
Simon Stearn, Chief Data Officer, then discussed some of the exciting work underway with Warwick Data Labs. One of the focus areas is to improve Warwick’s HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) reporting. Providing this information annually is a regulatory obligation, so finding ways to improve the process will be a measurable benefit. Simon explained that automatically tracking errors as they enter the system will have a positive impact on data quality and resourcing.
Thank you to all those on the call who shared their views and comments on what they would like to hear more about Warwick Transformation. We use this feedback to guide the content for future events.
Our next all staff event will take place at 10:00 on 30 April. Registration for all future events can be found on the Events page.
All staff event - 22 January 2024
On 22 January, 145 staff joined the monthly online call to hear updates from IDG, Library, Finance & Procurement, and HR. While there was diverse representation from across the University’s academic and professional services teams, not everyone could make time for the live call. For those who couldn’t be there, a summary of the event can be found on the Key Updates page and you can click on the image below to view the slides shared at the event.
