Hello<\/p>\n
I hope that you have had a good week. I guess for most of us it has been our first full week back, and what a week it was: A Cabinet reshuffle; North Korea agreeing to send athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea; more pay news from the BBC, although the story was more about equal pay than gender pay gap, and the Golden Globes. According to the BBC, it was expected to be a \u201cpolitically charged\u201d awards ceremony, which didn\u2019t disappoint. A number of the winners and female presenters used their moment to pay tribute to the women who have spoken out against sexual harassment.<\/p>\n
It started me thinking about the effect that external factors could have on our planned equality and diversity priorities and objectives. Priorities that include enhancing mental health support for our students and staff. Priorities which are based on engagement with stakeholders; analysis of our data; environmental scanning and qualitative feedback from our students and staff. What happens when our priorities don\u2019t seem to align with high profile national, or international, issues?<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong, equal pay and the gender pay gap are both priorities for the University. Like every other public, voluntary and private sector employer with 250+ employees, we will be publishing our gender pay gap. Like many other employers, we have been undertaking regular equal pay reviews. Violence and harassment against women has also been on our radar since the establishment of the Universities UK Taskforce in September 2015. We\u2019ve been actively working with our Student Union to identify how much of an issue this is for us. A review of complaints, grievances, and anecdotal feedback from staff and students indicates that it is not. Given the prominence of the issue, we commissioned specific research. Initial findings support our existing evidence. The measures that we have put in place, and continue to implement and monitor, have been effective.<\/p>\n
Our position highlighted for me the importance of strategic planning and the tools that support this process, particularly the use of data. Data shapes the quality of our thinking, discussion and decision making. Data provides an evidence base, reducing the need for a reactionary response.<\/p>\n
There have certainly been times in my early career when I have allowed senior managers, influenced by high profile topics, to distract me from evidence based priorities. I guess those were the moments to be courageous. Each one of us needs to be confident in the evidence we have collated and analysed. This will enable us to retain a focus on our own issues and challenges, irrespective of headlines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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