UHR Universities Human Resources
Looking back to Paul Boustead's earlier editions of the UHR Chair's newsletter, Perspective, from the early months of the pandemic, one idea stands out clearly. This has been and remains a period of the most extraordinary uncertainty. Change is heaped upon change, against the most unbelievably uncertain background. We are so used to an annual university cycle that carries us more-or -less smoothly from A-level results day in August through to graduations the following summer, and onwards ever the same. There has been no equivalent level of whole system disruption since the Second World War. So many things remain the same as always of course -we still have to empty the washing machine, put food on the table or petrol in the car, and we still have to complete our everyday equivalent professional tasks. Stepping back every now and then to understand and evaluate the disruption can be jolting. How did we get here, from there? And where, in July 2021 is "here"? For most of us uncertainty remains, and many of us are wrangling with what the right thing to do even is in these endlessly changing circumstances. At Bradford we are keen to get staff back, and to recreate the vibrant learning community that we believe our students need. But it is far easier to imagine that than to carry all staff with us on this aim. We can't unlearn the
learnings of the last 18 months -about WFH and productivity, about the wellbeing impacts of the pandemic, about the need for a back-up plan to the back-up plan. As HR professionals we've been learning in live time just as our other colleagues have. Once the expectation of a five-day office-based week has been fractured, as it has, can there ever be a "mending back to normal"? Most of us then are spending our days working out versions of a more hybrid style of working - there are lots of pilots, lots of adaptations and plans. What will the working future look like? And will today's plans already look old hat in just 12 months' time? Many professional services departments want to retain the human benefits that many of us have experienced this year - less time spent commuting, more time spent with the kids. Our academic colleagues have often had this kind of flexibility in their working lives for years, and it isn't unreasonable for colleagues across the university community, having proven "hybrid" can work, to ask for more. How will we shape the balance? At Bradford we've had many elements of flexible working for years, with fewer long hour days and compressed hours, for instance, being enjoyed in many teams. But we're now required to think about these issues with new urgency and on a new scale. No-one wants ghost-town universities with