01 November 2017 
Helen Scott, Executive Director
The UHR Chair writes......Look for the Bright Spots  I recently attended the CUPA HR conference in San Diego. CUPA HR is the US equivalent of UHR. For me, the highlight of the conference was a keynote from Chip Heath, author and professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Chip spoke about, ‘focusing on your bright spots,’ in relation to planning for change. He told the story of Jerry Sternin, who was tasked by Save the Children to solve child malnutrition in a very poor part of Vietnam and was given only a few months to do it. These were children of very poor rice farmers and, on the face of it, solving their malnutrition appeared impossible. Not daunted, Jerry recruited women from one particular village and asked them to measure the size and weight of each of their children. Analysing this data, he saw that there were a few, ‘bright spots’ – children who had grown taller and weighed more than others in the village. He investigated why and found that these bigger children had something in common; rather than two bowls of pure rice a day, they were eating four smaller meals, with their mothers adding sweet potato grains and shrimps found in the fields to their rice. The mothers of the less developed children had rejected adding the grains and shrimps because they believed it better to give their children only pure rice. Learning from the bright spots, Sternin set out to replicate the diets of the ‘larger’ children, ultimately reducing malnutrition for thousands of youngsters in this part of the world. This man, rather than focusing on why there was a problem and what that problem was, looked for ‘the bright spots’ and replicated them. As we face problems and challenges on a daily basis, some of which look like impossible tasks, perhaps we should remember this example and, ‘look for the bright spots’ and how we might replicate them rather than spending our time investigating and dealing with what’s not working.If you want to find out more about HR in the US, I would commend the work of Sophie Harris, Deputy Director of HR at SOAS and winner of the UHR - CUPA bursary prize. Sophie attended the CUPA conference with me and has written four fantastic blogs on female academic progression in the US. I wish you well for the rest of the calendar year. For those who haven’t already secured their place, bookings are open for the 2018 UHR conference to be held at the historic Mercure Grand Hotel in the heart of Bristol. Now to go and find those bright spots... Sandra Heidinger, UHR Chair & Director of Human Resources, University of Strathclyde | |
UHR Conference 2018, Bristol, | |
Enter the UHR Awards 2018Entries for the UHR Awards for Excellence 2018 will be opening in early December, until 19 March. The UHR Awards recognise outstanding and innovative projects, teams and individuals that have led transformational change in their organisations.
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UHR CUPA Bursary | |
New UHR Website Coming SoonWe have recently been working on a new website for UHR which is due to go live in mid December. The new website is part of a range of improvements and developments that are being made following our incorporation with Professional Higher Education Services (PHES) earlier this year. | |
UHR Blogs - Call for ContributorsSince we launched the UHR blog in January this year, we’ve now published around 25 blogs posts from UHR members across the UK with various viewpoints on current issues, best practice, and policy issues impacting HR professionals. We are always looking for contributors, so if you have an idea for a blog post, please contact Helen in the first instance helen@uhr.ac.uk who will put you in touch with one of our blog champions. | |
Showcasing Good Practice, 7 February 2018Our popular, free event is back on 7 February where winners of the 2017 UHR Awards for Excellence will be talking more about their award-winning projects. You can find out more here. | |
CPD UpdateDelivering HR Service Excellence Free event – Exeter, 8 December Aimed at HR Administrators, this workshop focuses on the essence of customer service to both internal and external stakeholders and gives delegates a framework for evaluating and improving service delivery within their function. Consulting Skills for HR Professionals £170 – Lancaster, 26 January Learn a range of internal consultancy tools and techniques to enhance your professional impact in supporting your operational areas and achieve a balance between strategic and operational delivery in your role as Business Partner. Showcasing Good Practice Free event – London, 7 February This is an ideal opportunity to hear from HEIs about how HR teams have improved practice, contributed to business efficiency and enhanced organisational effectiveness and staff engagement. An event to inspire your own thinking. Organisational Development - An Overview A UHR-CIPD workshop - £170 – London, 20 February This workshop will be of interest to HR professionals who wish to explore the fundamentals of OD and its relevance to HR, including working with models and frameworks; diagnosing organisational health and planning interventions. Building High Performance HR Teams £170 – Glasgow 22 February This workshop will enable HR professionals leading HR teams to apply a range of approaches for enhancing the success of their teams and will include a focus on situational leadership, building shared purpose and team identity, as well as effective communications. Coming Soon…
Podcasts from the CIPD HR’s professional body has a wide range of podcasts available to its members, including Gender Pay Gap reporting; What’s new in Performance Management, and Analytics: How HR can influence strategy through data. The speakers are leaders in their field and can stimulate fresh thinking about a topic you may be addressing, so worth a listen: www.cipd.co.uk/podcasts Lesley Broughton CPD Co-ordinator cpd@uhr.ac.uk | |
Regional Group Update | |
Increasing Harassment Complaints in The HE Sector: Are You Ready?At Pinsent Masons we have observed a "spike" in the number of complaints of harassment being raised with Higher Education sector clients. | |
Starters and LeaversWe are pleased to welcome and congratulate colleagues taking on lead HR roles, including Umar Zamman, (Bishop Grosseteste), Laura Marks (acting at Canterbury Christchurch after Pauline Farrell’s departure), Magi Hoppitt (acting since Sarah Eglin left Coventry), Sonya Clarkson, (Edge Hill, currently Deputy HR Director at Lancaster and an alumna of our UHR Aspiring HR leaders programme), Kessar Kalim at LSHTM (replacing Peter Mitchell), Sian Cushion (Swansea), Claire Buchanan (Bristol, following Guy Gregory’s retirement), and Frances Hewison, moving to Manchester Metropolitan from Greenwich in December. And it was good to see Phill Dixon, former UHR NE Chair, recently appointed as Chief Operating Officer at Leeds Trinity; he’s replaced in the interim as HR Director at Sheffield Hallam, by Sally Jackson. | |
Other HE updates & eventsEngaging HR Departments with Sustainability Workshop Virtually, via Zoom 13 December 2017 14:30 - 16:00 Join us for this UK-wide webinar exploring the successes of and potential for further collaboration between HR and Sustainability teams in FHE. Be prepared to share your aspirations for the future, and learn what your colleagues from across the UK are doing in this area. The 2017 UAG Conference Wellcome Trust, London 14 December 2017 10.00 - 15.30 The 2017 Universities Advertising Group Conference will offer a time relevant experience, exploring a number of challenging topics that will undoubtedly impact upon the University Sector. Keynote delivery from Lord Danny Finkelstein and Martine Wright. | |
Ambitious Futures: |
 We all know that Universities are people organisations: the calibre, expertise, experience and skills of our staff are crucial to the success of our Universities.Equally, as HR professionals, you will be well aware of the challenges of talent management and succession planning. Ambitious Futures is a graduate leadership scheme that exists to help secure the talent pipeline for the future, by recruiting, developing and retaining exceptional graduates for our Professional Services. The scheme, was set up by the AHUA (the Association of Heads of University Administration) some five years ago in response to growing concern that, with increasing competition for graduate talent, the sector was at risk of losing out. In addition, the proliferation of niche and specialist roles in our ever more complex institutions  The Ambitious Futures scheme is run in close partnership with participating Universities. Trainees, who undergo a rigorous three-stage selection process, have the opportunity to work on three different six-month placements, in two different Universities across the country. In this way they experience not just different functional areas, but also two different institutional cultures and environments. In parallel with their placements the trainees follow a bespoke management development programme, called the Emerging Leaders and Managers Program (eLAMP) developed as an online learning package by the University of Melbourne. To help develop the trainees’ leadership and management capabilities and their wider understanding of the sector, trainees are given a comprehensive induction, attend regular workshops and coaching sessions, and are provided with a mentor.Proof of the value of the scheme lies in the roles the trainees secure at the end of the programme, as well as the direct value they deliver for their host institution through the placements they undertake. Employing one or more Ambitious Futures trainee can have a catalytic effect, galvanising change and improvements in processes and services. In Universities much of our energy is focused on producing graduate talent – the Ambitious Futures scheme helps us to retain some of that talent for the benefit of our own sector, for now and for the future. Christine Abbott, CEO Ambitious Futures Christine.Abbott@nottingham.ac.uk Back to top  |
The NEUPC have launched the new Training Services Provider Framework and will be hosting a webinar on Monday 4 December to introduce the framework. You can book your place online to find out about the scope and benefits of using the agreement. 
Would you like to contribute to a new study and shape future developments in this area?
What are you doing to support staff in dealing with the challenges and making the most of the opportunities offered by technologies? Are you confident about your own digital capabilities to support staff in your institution?
The Jisc Building Digital Capability project is working to ensure staff in universities and colleges are equipped for a changing digital environment. We have produced guidance, tools and resources to help institutions improve digital capability for individuals and across their organisations.
Jisc has just started a short study into the way Human Resources departments in educational institutions support staff to develop digital capabilities. We are keen to find out from HR staff how their activities link to institutional strategies and activities around digital capabilities.
How can Jisc help you in this role? By participating in the study you will have the chance to inform future developments and to highlight the good practice you are already doing.
We have produced a short (5 minute) online survey to help us create a snapshot of current practice in the UK and to find out about your own levels of confidence around digital capability.
We know that you are asked to complete many surveys and appreciate the time this takes. We really want to include your voice in this study and hope you will see the value of participating. Please click on the link below to complete the survey.
Chair
Sandra Heidinger, University of Strathclyde
Vice Chairs
Paul Boustead, Lancaster University
Dean Morley, Royal College of Art
Treasurer
Alex Killick, Glasgow Caledonian University
Secretary
Margaret Ayers, Queen Mary, University of London
Executive Director
Helen Scott, UHR
CPD Co-ordinator
Lesley Broughton
Administrative, event bookings, finance and mailbase
admin@uhr.ac.uk
Web services
web@uhr.ac.uk
A full list of Executive committee members and of activities and projects in which UHR is involved is available on the UHR website.
The UHR North East Group meets three or four times a year and hosts a speaker linked to our key strategic areas defined at the start of the academic year. This year we’ve had an employment law update by Di Gilhooley at Eversheds and a talk on wellbeing by Louise Huscroft, Occupational Health Manager at Durham University, both sharing useful insights from their areas of expertise.
