HR Staff Development Team: Service Level Agreement (March 2011)

Transcription

1 HR Staff Development Team: Service Level Agreement (March 2011) Our commitment to you covering Staff Development Services: Office hours; Correspondence; Provision of Courses in SOAS, the Bloomsbury Colleges and Beyond; Course Administration; Health and Safety Issues; Monitoring of SOAS Schemes; New Staff Orientation; Leavers, Errors, Courtesy and Complaints. The Team and Responsibilities Staff Development Manager: Serena Yeo, , [Responsible for Programme and Policy development, oversight of SOAS schemes, training and development strategy] Staff Development Officer: Fon Browndy, , [Responsible for finance, orientation, health and safety, marketing, handbook for new staff] Staff Development Assistant: Shahara Begum, , [Responsible for course bookings, record keeping, office management, systems monitoring] All general enquiries should be addressed to Overall responsibility for the Staff Development function rest with the HR Director, Peter Mitchell, , Our Location The Staff Development Office is based in room 472 on the 4 th College Building. floor of the main Our Work The Staff Development Team provides comprehensive advice, guidance and development opportunities for all SOAS staff in order to support the organisation in the attainment of its objectives. We support the professional and personal development of all staff at SOAS, regardless of contract status. We are committed to promoting diversity, equality and opportunity and will endeavor to do everything reasonably possible to ensure our services become and remain available to all. We do this by: Providing a broad internal programme of courses relevant to the different staff groups. Providing a shared programme of courses with the Bloomsbury Colleges to cost effectively supplement the internal programme. 1

2 Providing suitable information for new staff through the New Staff Orientation Programme and the New Staff Handbook. Allocating funding for attendance at external seminars, workshops, courses, briefings and conferences. Maintaining accurate training records of centrally organised events for all staff members. Administering and monitoring various SOAS development schemes e.g. Staff Development and Review (SDR), Peer Observation of Teaching (POT), mentoring for academic staff and responding to identified training needs. Providing advice to individuals and teams on personal and professional development. The development and maintenance of Health and Safety networks, web site and training to support the Health and Safety Office. Non-course based development such as mentoring, coaching, facilitating Away Days and job shadowing. Evaluating individual courses, programmes and the Staff Development function. Office hours The Staff Development Team welcome personal visits and there will usually be someone in the office from the hours of 9:00am 5:00pm Monday to Friday except for School closures. However, sometimes our work takes us out of the office. Therefore if you wish to discuss a particular issue in detail or in private with the Staff Development Manager or a member of the team, we suggest that you arrange an appointment in advance so the issue can be given due care, attention and privacy. What you can expect when you contact us We will deal with your enquiries promptly, efficiently and courteously and with the appropriate level of confidentiality. The best way to contact us is by ing staffdevelopment@soas.ac.uk which is accessed every day by members of the team, therefore you are likely to get a faster response time. All general enquiries addressed to staffdevelopment@soas.ac.uk will be dealt with promptly and be replied to within 3 working days. When an issue requires consultation or research of any kind we will send a courtesy to let our staff members know that someone is looking into the matter in more detail before responding in full. s requesting a place on an internal course will be prioritised according to when the course takes place. Requests for courses taking place in less than 3 days time will be responded to the same day; courses the same term will be processed within 5 working days and courses for future terms will be responded to within 10 working days. s requesting a place on a Bloomsbury course will be responded to within 10 working days, during which time a place on the course will be sought if appropriate. 2

3 Telephone Most telephone calls are answered straight away as there is usually at least one member of staff present in the office during our working hours. If necessary this person will take a message and ensure the relevant member of staff returns the call or makes contact by the end of their next working day. Personal Callers We are happy to receive personal visits from colleagues for general enquiries, to drop off forms, and to borrow books from the Staff Development Library etc. This should be within office hours unless otherwise agreed. Hard copy correspondence arriving into the Staff Development Team All internal and Bloomsbury course applications, applications for funding for external events and invoices sent to the Staff Development Office will be processed and / or responded to within 5 working days. Training and development needs identified via SDR and POT forms will followed up via within 10 working days. Staff will be informed of when courses are available, that they have been added to a waiting list or advised how they can take forward their identified training needs. Hard copy correspondence leaving the Staff Development Team All correspondence will convey accurate and relevant information about the details of courses on the Staff Development Programme, information about Orientation for new staff members, processed invoices signed by the relevant authorised signatory. Marketing All marketing materials produced by the Staff Development Office will be distributed to Directorates, IFCELS and Faculty Offices with the appropriate consideration of accessibility, School style codes and accurate information. Meetings Any meetings arranged with a member of the Staff Development Team will be treated as confidential. Feedback The Staff Development Office values feedback from the users of its services, and has various mechanisms for collecting this. Information gathered will be used to develop the Staff Development programme and individual events. Feedback will be collected by: Annual staff development survey (or relevant section on the SOAS Staff survey). 3

4 Course evaluation forms these will be read by at least one member of the Staff Development Team and all positive and negative comments will be used to enhance, modify and improve future courses. External course evaluation those attending external events will be asked to assess the event and whether it would be useful for other SOAS staff. Interviews, informal discussions & targeted surveys feedback may be collated through discussions or surveys with targeted individuals or groups of staff. feedback can be sent to the generic staff development account or to the Staff Development Manager Specific feedback on the Staff Development Team SLA We would appreciate feedback on the level of service you have received from us. If you wish to comment on our service to you, please us at: For routine day-to-day HR issues where you may have a concern, please contact your appropriate HR Manager in the first instance by either telephone or . Errors or Oversights We endeavour to minimise errors and will rectify them as soon as they are brought to our attention. Courtesy We ask you to treat Staff Development staff with respect and courtesy and in a fair and constructive manner and we will treat you the same. What we ask of you as individuals To take responsibility for identifying and suggesting learning opportunities to your manager based on your current job description and career aspirations. To submit fully completed application forms with supporting documentation where appropriate, signed as necessary. To complete SOAS schemes and return necessary documentation to this office within 10 working days of the published deadlines. To register early on events and give maximum notice of withdrawal from events. NB: Departments may be charged for late cancellations or no shows. To provide suggestions for staff development and training interventions. To submit claim forms with relevant receipts within 20 days of completion of the event. To provide feedback on individual events or courses; and on the Staff Development function within the annual survey. What we ask of you as Line Managers To ensure that they and their staff complete relevant SOAS schemes and return the paperwork to the Staff Development Office. To consider the staff development needs of their team. 4

5 To ensure that new staff members have a local induction and attend the centrally organised orientation programme for new staff. To ensure that all staff attend training that is mandatory for their role. To detail the rationale for their team member s attendance at external events. To ensure that staff members discuss and / or disseminate learning from events to individuals or the team. What we ask of you as internal trainers To provide an outline of the course including date, time and objectives for the web site. To provide any documents for photo-copying at least 5 working days in advance of the session. Where possible, to provide electronic presentations in advance of the session so that they can be loaded prior to the start of the session. To arrive in good time for the start of the session, particularly where electronic presentations have not been provided in advance. Complaints Staff Development offers all course participants the chance to raise any mild complaints or suggestions for improvement via our course evaluation / feedback form. If you have a serious complaint about a course that you have attended you should contact the Staff Development Manager as soon as possible. If you have a complaint regarding the outcome of an application for funding, or if for some reason you have not be reimbursed, you should also contact the Staff Development Manager. We will endeavour to clarify the problem or sort out the issue within one working day. If your complaint is about the actions of the Staff Development Manager, please write to the HR Director (Peter Mitchell pm30@soas.ac.uk and mark your letter as Personal Addressee only. He will deal with the complaint as quickly as possible and let you have a response in writing normally within 5 working days (annual leave permitting). Future Reviews and Amendments This Service Level Agreement will be reviewed periodically and be based upon feedback from the SOAS Staff Survey or the Staff Development Survey. HR Directorate SOAS March