Department of Surgery and Cancer Departmental Meeting

1. Department of Surgery and Cancer Departmental Meeting To discuss our 2014 Staff Survey and Athena SWAN Bronze application

2. Bronze Athena SWAN awarded September 2014 - Well done! ASPIRATIONS We now need to identify and achieve your aspirations to take this forward to Silver – and ultimately Gold..

3. Thoughts on the Staff Survey 2014 • The College conducted a survey of all staff in February this year • Overall response rate was 60% • FoM’swas 49% • WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? • Surgery and Cancer has reviewed all areas, particularly where it is performing ‘below’ the College average…. • An Action Plan – available on the website - is being developed to address these areas in line with the key areas identified by the Provost’s Board

4. Recruitment and Selection • The percentage of staff who think the College procedures are NOT fair has risen from 13% to 16% since 2011 • We will: • Review and encourage staff to undertake recruitment training to ensure all are aware of current requirements to enable a fair selection process • Your success is that of the Departments and that of the University

5. Managing Pressure • You suggest that the causes are: • High volume of work – 59% • Conflicting priorities – 23% • Lack of decision making authority – 22% • Not being consulted on changes that affect jobs – 20% • Lack of support from the organisation – 19% • In S&C: • 45% academic staff • 30% of research staff • 43% of professional • services staff • indicate they experience pressure “some of the time”

6. Managing Pressure • We will: • Ask Divisional Heads to review workloads and ensure that they and line managers in their Divisions are able to recognise stress • Ask line managers to discuss pressure points with you at your PRDP and identify ways to support you • Provide links to information about training on our web page, enabling you to learn more about coping mechanisms and available support

7. Recognition • We will: • Arrange for HoD/Divisional Head to meet all new staff within first month • Send letters of congratulation to all successful PhD candidates • Recognise Grant awards with letters of congratulation • Welcome your views on establishing local recognition schemes – eg. Employee of the month • Continue to capture and promote all formal and informal achievements on the new Departmental blog • We have requested an HoD discretionary fund to reward specific pieces of work • Welcome your suggestions 52% of you feel satisfied with the recognition you receive for your contributions to the Department and the wider College This compares with 56% for FoM and 58% for College We’re aware of the challenges of multi-site working but have various proposals

8. PRDP • We do better than average in that 85% of staff have an annual appraisal but only 50% of you consider it veryuseful. • We would like to hear how you would like to improve the experience. • We will: • Seek ways to explain the value of a good PRDP: • Your opportunity to discuss your aspirations, concerns and plan for promotion one on one • Joint responsibility of you and your line manager to ensure that you prepare effectively by setting aside sufficient time (1 uninterrupted hour – minimum) to maximise the opportunity • Encourage appraisors and appraisees to attend training • Encourage appraisorsand appraisees to cover all aspects of work – i.e. not just grants and publications – but contributions to management, measures of esteem and to review and plan for promotion • See how we can learn from effective processes already in place within the NHS

9. Promotions Confidence in promotion schemes across the College is 48%... 46% in S&C –concerns were highlighted in the Athena SWAN process • We will: • Clarify Academic Promotions paperwork as part of our Athena SWAN action plan • Invite female academic staff from other Departments / Faculties to join our Academic Promotion Panels to ensure greater parity between male and female membership • We would be happy to hear your thoughts on this and other promotion schemes

10. Confidence in Expressing Views • 25% of you have indicated that you are not confident in expressing your views without some form of negative consequence. • This is of great concern to us and we welcome discussion as to how we can change this situation – our proposals: • Granularity and Distribution Issues? • We will: • Make a concerted effort to change the perception that people are not able to question senior staff • Work together to enhance the PRDP system which should build confidence • Consider the most effective package of courses to support these endeavours • Encourage managers to attend training to provide them with the tools to support a more open culture

11. Discrimination, Harassmentand Bullying We are just below the College average in each of the above categories with between 13% and 19% of staff saying they have experienced some form of discrimination, harassment or bullying Obviously this is not acceptable We are concerned that such behaviour (more?) is coming from colleagues as well as line managers

12. Imperial Expectations • Imperial Expectations provides a framework to ensure that there is appropriate respect for everyone’s views and encouragement for high quality leadership, management and supervision • We will ensure that Imperial Expectations are well advertised throughout the Department: • Website • Postcards • Posters • Inclusion in PRDPs

13. End Discrimination, Harassmentand Bullying We will not tolerate discrimination, harassment or bullying and will treat all complaints seriously and investigate Where an investigation finds the complaint to be founded – then the College’s processes for dealing with such issues will be put into operation immediately We understand that in some circumstances you may not wish to approach your line manager – we believe that introduction of a neutral route should be considered at College level and will be proposing this • The College provides support through its policies and through the harassment support contacts (links will be provided to you) • We will encourage all staff to ensure they take the appropriate training • We will explore how other organisations address these problems to learn best practice

14. Your Working Environment • This was highlighted as the main thing people would change about working at the College…. • We are: • Refurbishing the 3rd floor of SAFB to provide enhanced laboratory facilities • Working with Faculty to improve the office/desk provision in SAF • Re-organising use of space at C&W which will relieve pressure in Surgery at St Mary’s • Planning to enhance ECMC space in Cancer • Imperial West and the Future?